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Judith, to me, is self-existent, and her voice is distinctly her own. I couldn’t believe the treasure I’d stumbled upon when she visited my impromptu writing exercise.

Judith appeared and took over, conjuring a scene that revealed to me her longing, her isolation, her pattern of skirting notice and flouting her mother’s rules to snatch glimpses of the thing she desperately wanted, but couldn’t have: Lucas. “You didn’t come,” the first line, is all I had to go on when I started typing. I flipped open my laptop, had a bit of a think and began to write. I simply asked myself, one day, if I could write a second-person novel, or even part of one. I never had the idea to write about a character like Judith, or one with her problems. Where did her voice come from, and why did you decide to structure the narration this way?Īll the Truth That’s in Me began as a writing exercise. She tells her story in second person, which is hard to do convincingly. There are so many remarkable qualities that make All the Truth That’s in Me unique, and the force that pulls it altogether is Judith’s voice, raw and uncensored. Julie Berry answered some questions for BookPage about the origins of Judith’s character and how Berry herself became a writer. It’s a story that will stay with readers long past the final page. The bleak setting only emphasizes the purity of Judith’s love. Berry creates a nearly primitive village, ruled by religious fervor and violence, yet Judith’s voice is lovely as she reveals her story, addressing the boy she has loved her entire life. The story of Judith, a teen girl tormented by memories of a murder and a silence she cannot break, is difficult to read at times. So it should be no surprise that her new novel for teen readers, All the Truth That’s in Me, surpasses the highest expectations. Julie Berry has entranced middle grade readers with her romantic fantasies, The Amaranth Enchantment and Secondhand Charm, and thrilled them with the hilarious adventures in her Slurch Academy for Disruptive Boys series.