A dark tale about Ella finding out as a teenager she was adopted as a child and her birth mother’s history is not as she would like.

Another enthralling (if slightly obvious at times) thriller from Barr with an unusual heroine at the heart of the drama, a vivid sense of place & a satisfying ending. Most enjoyable.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. Must be honest did not finish this book, could not get in to it at all.

I really struggled to get into this book, i managed to get through it, but in the end, it just really wasn't for me. No matter how hard i tried, i couldn't get myself to enjoy it, which is a shame because the plot sounded to interesting
You can't like them all i suppose

I'm not sure what I expected before I picked up this book but whatever I thought I was going to get, this wasn't it. From the beginning of the book I felt like I was wrong-footed and that feeling didn't really go away until I read the last page.

The Truth and Lies of Ella Black follows a teenage girl with a dark secret as her parents one day whisk her away on a supposed holiday of a lifetime in an attempt to keep their own dark secret hidden. It's actually very hard to discuss the plot of this book without spoilers as so much of the story revolved around the unknown, with secrets slowly being revealed to the reader as the plot progresses.

What I will say is I found something lacking with this book. On the surface the plot is gripping but the reading experience didn't quite match up to the expectation I had for this book. I badly wanted the pace to pick up but I found myself almost becoming bored in between sections where secrets were being revealed and action was happening. None of the characters were likeable, which I feel could have been purposeful, but more than that they often didn't seem like realistic people. Their speech and behaviour wasn't fully fleshed out and I didn't feel any kind of strong connection to them at all which always lessens my enjoyment of a book. If I'm not going to like a character, I at least want to dislike them. Feeling nothing about them leaves me disinterested.

My biggest issue with the book is Ella's love interest plot. It seemed so unbelievable that she would meet her dream boy in the way she did and have him fall head over heels in love with her without so much as a word being uttered that I kept expecting him to be part of the bigger storyline. I was hoping he would turn out to not be as he seemed and have more sinister intentions. In the end, I felt his inclusion in the story just served to pad out the plot and lengthen the book unnecessarily.

Although my review may seem largely negative I have to say that I did read this book very quickly and found that I didn't want to put it down. I did want to get to the climax and find out what was going to happen and overall I was satisfied with the ending. I do think it would have benefitted from developing the characters somewhat more, and focusing less on describing Ella running around Rio and hiding from everyone and more on her discovering the details of her parent's secret as that was the part of the plot that was really gripping.

I think I would recommend this book to friends in the future, for the fact that the unfolding mystery is so original and it is a compelling depiction of mental health problems but my recommendation would come with caveats.

Quite a dark book with some interesting characters.

YA is not necessarily my favourite genre so maybe I’m missing a nuance or too but I just can’t help feeling that this book is so full of teen cliches that it’s hard to wade in further to find the author’s actual meaning.

The story is about the ‘dark side’ of a teenager who finds her life boring and wants to escape while not letting that dark side out.

I’m a bit spoilt having read Patrick Ness who manages to find the human condition beyond ‘teenage-ness’ but still speaks true to the younger experience of looking for purpose and meaning.

The character thinks in an immature tone even for someone meant to be young and immature.

“Flying to Brazil, for the three of us, can’t be cheap. Is it from my parents’ savings? Is it embezzled? Stolen? Laundered? I can’t imagine any of those things. It can only be money they had in the bank.”

The constant references to her parents as ‘boring’ and ‘annoying’ aren’t particularly endearing even as they play to type. Adults do think that teenagers consider them boring but the boring part is the lack of interest in the other person’s priorities. It’s the lack of understanding that is the main issue and that holds true across all ages. The thought of ‘boring’, however limits any interest. It’s a cliche.

The storyline is limited. There is a traumatic event that is discovered. I think that’s about it. The dramatic event in the past and the uncontrollable rage of the teenager lead to a dramatic change in a way of life. It could have been interesting if Ella wasn’t written as ‘teenage-y’ and ‘angsty’ as she was.

This was not a book I enjoyed and it might be because it was just too caught up in all the drama of every single thing that happened even when what happened was trivial. It’s a simple story that becomes overdramatic but not interesting.

The perfect rapport and complex plot for the needy teens in us all.. Remarkable.

I found this book hard to get into as it's mostly written in the first person and felt like a continuous stream of thought from the main character, Ella Black. Seventeen year old Ella is a nice person but every now and then something upsets her and she feels Bella, aka Bad Ella, coming on which makes her behave very badly and totally unlike her normal self. Bella kills a bird with a hammer at the very beginning of the book which demonstrates how violent and evil Bella can be. I found the first section quite hard going as it just seemed to be about a young girl with mental health issues. About a third of the way through the story did pick up as Ella discovered a secret about her identity that her parents had been keeping from her. The plot thickened considerably further when Ella found out the whole truth from the Internet.

I don't want to give away too much of the plot in this review but I do think this book would be good for a book review group as it raises a lot of life issues. Particularly issues of mental health and nature versus nurture issues.

It's a good plot and well-written but I did have to suspend belief at some points. It did have a decent ending though. With thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I simply adored The One Memory of Flora Banks, so squealed with delight at being able to get hold of The Truth and Lies of Ella Black early! One thing I commented on loving in particular with Flora Banks was Emily Barr's writing style and I'm glad to say that her next YA offering is another well written story with a fascinating character.

The book starts with us meeting Ella Black and quickly introduces us to her darker side Bella. Having not read much about this book, I did think that there would be more focus on Bella and the mental health side as it started off that way, but quickly we are taken on a journey literally far away from that idea! There is a bad case of instalove which I know lots of people won't like, but personally and luckily for my rating of this book I don't mind as it just added that little bit of fluffiness to a pretty heavy topic that this book covers.

Overall I did enjoy The Truth and Lies of Ella Black once I'd got into it - there are twists and turns that you won't see coming. I do think that I expected slightly more from it because of Flora Banks being a 5* book for me, which probably isn't fair, but it did let me down a bit with it being so slow to get into. Nevertheless, it's definitely worth a read as something a bit different and one that does keep you hooked once you're stuck in.

Ella lives in London with her parents Graham and Fiona and their cat. It feels like an unremarkable life. She loves art and literature and these are the subjects she is studying for her A Levels. Ella has a secret that she hasn’t even shared with her best friend Lily or her “boy” friend Jack. There is a darkness inside her that drives her to do mean and terrible things. This darkness feels like a separate entity inside her and she has given it a name – Bella. Bad Ella.

After a class where Bella came to fore and abused a teacher because she was protecting Lily, Ella is asked to go to the head teachers office. Convinced that she has been “found out” and that she will have to pay for Bella’s crimes Ella is expecting to be reprimanded. Instead her mother is waiting there for her to take her out of school. Pretty soon she is being whisked to Heathrow by her parents where she is about to undertake the journey of a lifetime.

The Truth and Lies of Ella Black is a great coming of age story. If you are looking for an engaging YA story that will keep you entertained you have come to the right place. This is a tale of Ella realising the life she had been leading and the previous 18 years had all been a form of deceit. Discovering the truth sets her on a dangerous and rocky path that could be self-destructive.

100% adored Emily Barr's previous book,'The One Memory of Flora Banks' so.I was very excited to see where she went next.
Well,it was absolutely brilliant,made me cry (again!) and is bound to be a huge hit. It's hard to describe without giving lots away,all I will say is 'READ IT!'

Readable but not taxing, intriguing but a little frustrating at times, at other times Emily Barr at her best - I expect her fans will love it.

I had previously read and loved (or rather had my heart ripped, put back together again and ugly cried) The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr, so when I saw this book I jumped at the chance to read it. I suppose in some ways its similar to Floras story in the sense that both girls have this journey of self discovery, where they learn to take care of themselves, but that's where the similarities end.

It's true that Ella's parents are hiding something from her, but Ella is hiding something from them too. Its clear from the blurb that Ella's parents aren't her real parents, and when Ella finds out she is devastated, not just because they aren't her real parents but the truth about her birth parents is devastating. Meanwhile Ella is battling her own own demons, or rather a Demon Bella, her "evil" alter ego. Bella has a habit of coming out when someone or something happens to upset Ella, and she ekes out her own punishments as Ella tries to keep her at bay.

The descriptions of the places Ella visits are so clear you can almost imagine yourself there with her.
This was an easy and comfortable read and it kept me interested from start to finish. I may not have sobbed my eyes out whilst reading Ella's story but once I hit the final few chapters I was unable to put it down long enough to make my kids their dinner

My only real issue with this book was the repetitiveness. Some lines were repeated over and over. And I know some of that was for emphasis, but there were other lines that just seemed to be repeated unnecessarily.

Wow what a powerful and at times emotional novel not my normal Kind of book but really enjoyed it getting into Ella's journey from page one and read it in two days quite dark in places but worked well with the story line of a very troubled young lady who has lots of answers to find about her past until she can think about her future and that ending it came full circle and brought the whole novel together excellent thoroughly recommend it

I got about 11 or so pages into this book before putting it down. I am not a person who can justify animal abuse in any form and taking a hammer to a bird was unnecessary and disgusting. I could not bring myself to read any more.

This book is classed as YA fiction but I don't care I love the stories Emiy Barr tells.
I would imagine that the moral of this story (if there is one) is ...If your parents decide there are some things you are best not knowing then please believe them because things could be much worse if you find out.

When we meet Ella we realize that something is not quite right. Ella is trying to suppress a voice from inside her that wants her to do bad things. She doesn't want this to happen but sometimes she can't help it. One day Ella is taken out of school by her parents and taken straight to the airport. Her phone is taken from her and soon all three of them are on a flight to Rio,no explanation given. Once there Ella needs to take matters into her own hands and find out why her usually dull,quiet and over protective parents have moved her to a foreign country and are acting very strange.

Wow! What a roller coaster ride this story is. I was so afraid for Ella when she found out what she wasn't supposed to know. I was also surprised at how resourceful she became especially when she had the stress of keeping the other voice inside her satisfied.

I can't say much more without giving the plot away. This book is not just for the YA market it is for anyone and it kept me turning the pages. Once again Emily Barr has came up with a cracking good story.

Star rating 3.5

Ella Black has a secret dark side to her life. She thinks its Bella, her dark twisted other personality who wants to harm. But soon she comes to realise that's not the only secret being hidden.

Not long before her eighteenth birthday, Ella is suddenly taken out of school by her mum & dad and whisked off to Brazil. The explanation given by them is not forthcoming, though they don't want her found as they take her mobile phone away from her so she cannot contact her friends back home. During her stay, she falls in love with an American boy called Christian she met at their hotel.

Determined to find out why she is here, she breaks into the safe and discovers her parents are adoptive parents and her real parents did an awful deed many years ago that were worthy enough of newspaper coverage. Her real mum wants to find her, her adoptive parents have lied to her, so she runs away after attacking her adoptive mum, first to a neighbouring island, then to the favelas of Rio where she thinks no-one can find her. But her family and Christain is so desperate to find her, when she is discovered its not the reunion she hoped for.


It took me a while to get going in this book as the chapters in the beginning seemed far too long and perhaps apart from the odd bit or two which becomes apparent at the end they could be dropped altogether.

Ella was a strange character, lots of internal dialogue with her internal dark Bella, not sure as it was an ARC if the some of the sentances were supposed to be split down the paragraphs.

Overall, once she got to the island then moved onto the favelas, I found I enjoyed the story more, though at times, her having so much luck in finding somewhere to stay each time was unbelievable along with the meeting she had towards the end. Surely she wouldn't get that far being that notorious.

The little flashback at the end was interesting, is it nature or nurture that shapes us?

I received this copy from Netgalley in return for a honest review.

What an interesting read. A young girl whisked away from her home by her parents to stop her uncovering a secret, which she finds out anyway. They take her to Brazil where she runs away from them and hides in a favela. As the plot developed, it became slightly far fetched, but the detail surrounding life in Brazil, and her struggle to find her self was well written

Ella Black has a doting family and a comfortable life but she is hiding a secret from everyone she knows. She has a second side to her that she can't control. She calls her second half Bella, short for bad Ella. She can't control Bella and does everything she can to keep her at bay. But when she doesn't manage this, Bella is evil.

One day Ella is suddenly taken out of school and travels to Rio. She has no idea why her parents are taking her there and why it is so sudden. When she gets there her whole world falls apart and she relies on her other side, Bella, to survive.

A well paced story that touches on dark difficult subjects in a compassionate way. An addictive read that I finished in one sitting,