REVIEW: The Words That Fly Between Us by Sarah Carroll

Pages: 208
Format: ARC Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's
Release Date: 2nd May 2019
Genre: Contemporary
Source: Gifted from publisher
Buy The Book: Book Depository - A Great Read

Lucy’s father is a successful lawyer making a killing on the property market. She and her mother want for nothing. Nothing, that is, that can be bought.

But money cannot buy Lucy the words she needs. The words to stand up to her bully of a father. The words to inspire her mother to do something about the family life that is suffocating them both. The words to become the person she wants to be.

Then Lucy finds something else: An escape route...
Soon she discovers that every building on her row is connected, through the attic, to the next. As she explores the inner lives of those who live on her street, Lucy realises that she is not the only one to suffer in silence. She also sees ways she can help some, and ways to punish those that deserve it.

But as the mighty fall, Lucy is forced to realise that while she can affect the lives of others from the safety of the attic, she will need to climb down to face her own fears.

We join Lucy during her final summer before starting a new school. Her life is seemingly the one that girls her age would dream of having. But inside, her world is crumbling. Her father is mixed up in things he shouldn’t be after biting off more than he can chew in his work, her mother is unhappy with their homelife, and Lucy is left confused and scared about what their future might hold. All she wants is for things to go back to how they were a few years previously.

The one place Lucy has to herself, to collect her thoughts, is the attic that no one else uses. The attic above her house is connected to all the houses on the street. Over the course of the story, Lucy begins to collect secrets from those who live around her.

Lucy is one of those characters who you can’t help but root for. Even when she was making decisions that weren’t quite right, she always questioned whether she should be doing it. Her learning curve is an important one. Though she ends up in situations that invade other characters’ privacy, she works through her emotions to do what’s best.

There are plenty of interesting characters who we meet during Lucy’s journey, even if it’s briefly or from afar. Getting to see the variety of people around her shows us exactly how complex people can be. Nothing is ever what it seems from the outside, and that’s something that Lucy begins to understand by the end of the story.

• Her friendship with Megan. They’re tested throughout the book and faced with difficult situations together.

• The dark side of Lucy’s father. He’s the type of character who always gets his way and I loved how the story shows that winning doesn’t always mean being the best person.

• Lucy’s art. Despite being talented, she’s constantly told by her father that her artistic abilities aren’t a real talent. Her learning to accept that she’s good and that she wants art to be her future is such an inspiring part of the story.

• Lucy and her mother. I adored their relationship. Though the household can turn toxic because of the situations that Lucy’s father brings home, Lucy and her mother are a solid team.

This book is the perfect mixture of relatable, in-depth characters, and a plot with slightly dark and sinister tones. There are mysteries to be figured out and Lucy’s adventures through the attic are as thrilling as they are nerve-wracking. I read this is one sitting, which says a lot about how addictive the story is, given the fact that I’ve been in a huge reading slump for months! Lucy is one of those characters who will stay with me for a while.

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