Review by Jasmine Sov, 15
The Truth Project By Dante Medema
Cordelia Koenig isn’t worried about the senior project everyone else is stressing out about—she’s already got a master plan. She’s going to take a DNA test, and then write poetry based on her results. With that under control, she’ll even have time to get to know her former best friend and longtime crush, Kodiak, better. The fact that he’s been assigned as her partner for the senior project makes things all the easier. But then, her results come back with one hard, unyielding fact: that the father she’s known her entire life is not her biological father. Just like that, everything in Cordelia’s life collapses—her perception of her mother, her relationships with her friends and family, and her sense of identity in the world. Can Cordelia ever find the truth behind the biggest lie in her life?
The Truth Project is a book told in poems and emails, appropriate for a protagonist and love interest whose main interests are writing poetry. The free format of the poems allows for more variety when it comes to conveying emotion. However, something about the verse made it so that I couldn’t quite feel the passion—my guess is that it leaned a bit too much towards a prose-like style. I also loved how realistic Cordelia’s response to her realization was, especially when it came to her relationships with her family. Rather than her older sister Beatrice and younger sister Iris getting pushed to the sidelines as minor characters, the book mentions them worrying about Cordelia’s mental state and develops their characters beyond just “Cordelia’s two sisters.” In addition, Cordelia’s father (non-biological) is portrayed as a supportive and loving literature teacher dad, a character type not often seen in YA. Though slightly flat in feeling, The Truth Project still tells a sincere, impactful story about the meaning of family.
3.5 stars.
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Catalog Number: YA FIC MEDEMA,D
387 pages