Review: This Is What I Want to Tell You

by Heather Duffy Stone
Young Adult, 240 pages. Flux (2009)
ISBN: 978-0738714509

Senior year ushers in brand new complications for twins Nadio and Noelle and their friend Keeley. Noelle is struggling to find love as Keeley and Nadio discover their feelings for each other.

Nadio, meanwhile, revels in his newfound girlfriend but is crushed by the guilt of keeping secrets from, quite literally, his other half. He wrestles with his feelings for Keeley, who has her own complicated past, as well as his relationship with an estranged father he never knew. As Noelle contemplates how to keep her grip on reality from slipping, Nadio tries to decide what it means to be a man and how to keep his fractured family together.

Achingly real, full of love, tenderness, heartbreak, disappointment and hope, THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO TELL YOU’s characters are thrown into a wicked triangle of emotion. Keeley doesn’t want to keep any more secrets, she also doesn’t want to move too fast after an experience she had over the summer. Nadio is stuck between the two most important people in his life as he battles the idea of his father for his identity. Noelle gasps and sputters her way into a half-hearted love affair, where her expectations of the man, Parker, are much more than he can ever realize.

Heather Duffy-Stone writes in a lyrical, sparse style. Some of her descriptions of this small college town and adjoining big city are lush but the dialogue is short, sinewy and power-charged with subtext and emotion. She is also unafraid to tackle the issue of jealousy between best friends in a way that seems very truthful. Whether Noelle covets Keeley’s romantic life, Keeley’s time spent with Nadio or the advantages of Keeley’s family wealth, the emotion is deeply founded and unflinchingly honest, even at its ugliest. That’s admirable.

Overall, a quick, engrossing read of expectations, revelations, love and family. One of my favorites so far this year.

Get your own copy of This Is What I Want to Tell You today! Heather Duffy Stone’s debut is also our Kidlit Book Club selection for the month of April. If you’ve read it, head over to the Book Club page to join the discussion!

For Readers: This book will appeal to literary readers as well as those who like the more commercial stuff. There’s lots of drama here, but it is real, based in truth and experience. You won’t find the petty high school politics, nor will you get RoboParents and their endless lecturing, like in some less imaginative fare. More serious, word-geek readers will appreciate the writing style and some of the dark subjects discussed. Do be warned, though, that some situations and themes in this book are serious in nature and would resonate best with more mature readers.

For Writers: The characters here are so fully fleshed out and mutli-faceted that I wanted to listen to them think for much, much longer. In this short book, however, Heather Duffy Stone has managed to pack in quite a lot of development. Writers will love reading the two POVs, especially Nadio. I can’t remember the last time a male POV written by a woman has caught this much of my attention and refused to let go. Writers would also do well to study the powerful triangle connection between the protagonist. A pair of characters in opposition can be very effective. Put a third character in there and make them bounce off each other? You’ve got fireworks. If this isn’t in your TBR pile yet, what are you doing reading this review? Go get it!