Everything We Never Said by Sloan Harlow tells a poignant story about domestic violence and the impacts of unmanaged anger. Harlow’s novel features Ella Graham, a senior at North Davis High School in Georgia. She is a living ghost girl after losing her best friend, Hayley Miller, in a car accident. Because Ella had been driving and had consumed a single beer, she blames herself for the accident and the loss of her friend.
As Ella struggles to go on with her life, she finds solace in Hayley’s former boyfriend, Sawyer Hawkins, who is similarly suffering. Having also loved Hayley, Sawyer knows Ella’s pain. As Ella and Sawyer gradually grow closer, guilt sets in—the pair feel like they are breaking a friendship code. “First and foremost, Ella is Hayley’s best friend. Which is why I’m going to scoop all these thoughts I just had, put them in a box, stuff them in the back corner of my mind, and never, ever open them again,” Sawyer vows.
Even though Ella can’t remember the day of the accident, she does remember something being off about Hayley prior to that fateful day—something wasn’t right. So, in order to find answers, Ella not only seeks help from the school counsellor, Sam Wilkens, but also begins to read Hayley’s diary—another violation. After all, Ella knows that Hayley’s diary was a sacred text: “I need just one place, one place I can dump everything. Everything. Even my darkest, most vile confessions, without thinking someone might judge me” (47). Hoping to reconnect with her lost friend, Ella believes reading the diary will approximate a resurrection. However, what she discovers shocks her. Hayley had been keeping secrets from Ella for quite some time. Suddenly something feels off about Sawyer.
With the help of the diary and after various flashbacks, Ella begins to recover some of her lost memories and to put together the missing pieces. The unsettling truth will leave readers questioning how well we can ever really know a person. Another powerful message the novel imparts is that sometimes change can give us good things.
Plot twists and high stakes make this dark romance an intriguing and fast-paced read.
- Donna