The Truth Is

Some of the best books I have read have made me feel very, very uncomfortable. The Things They Carried. The Bell Jar. In Cold Blood. Room. The Narrow Road to the Deep North. These books are very good. These books are very, very jarring.

The Truth Is should go on this list. The Truth Is tells the story of Verdad de la Reyna, a fifteen-year-old with a full plate of troubles—Verdad has a moms that pushes her and pushes her and pushes her to excel, to achieve, to fill her future college applications with triumphs...Verdad's dad left her and her moms years ago and has started over with a new family...Verdad has met Danny, a new person at school, and she is trying to figure out her confusing feelings for a person who identifies as trans.

The truth is that The Truth is very, very good. And, for me, very, very jarring.

I've never been a part of Verdad's world; I've never even visited until now. Verdad's world is the world of high school, full of the same sorts of cruelties that I experienced forty-five years ago, yet somehow wildly amplified. Verdad lives in a world where nothing is certain—even solid figures like parents can walk out or toss you out and cut you out of their lives...friends as close as family can be shot and killed and lost to you forever...to get a place to live and food on the table, adults have to work night and day...school is no safe haven but, instead, a hive of viciousness and vindictiveness. Verdad's world is unimaginably horrific. And, to add to the horror, Verdad's world feels deeply true.

Would I have ever ventured into Verdad's world on my own? It's unlikely. I tend to squirm away from reading about worlds that appall me, though it's easier to read about worlds on the other side of the globe than to read about what is probably going on two blocks away at our local high school.

Am I glad I read this book? I wouldn't use the word “glad.” It was a horribly uncomfortable read. The graphic language. The homeless young teens. The people who abusively shun those who are different. Violence. Cruelty. No, I wouldn't say I was glad to read this book.

But reading this book is something people should do, especially people like me, people who have never been in a world quite like this. The author NoNieqa Ramos vividly depicts this world for me; the language, the actions of the characters...I would swear it's an alternative universe did I not know enough about the wider world to know that it's what is going on as typical daily life for many. It's an opportunity for me and others to see what life is like there, to develop empathy for the struggles of lives being lived so far outside from my life and yet, in many ways, so close.