EVERY WORD YOU NEVER SAID authentically captures the high stakes of queer first love. Its courageous leads and delightful supporting characters left me full of hope. This story arrives at the perfect time." Jacob’s character development focuses on his overcoming his biases and becoming an advocate (sometimes awkwardly). In the beginning, Jacob sees a separation between Skylar and the British-accented voice on his phone: “I find myself wishing I could hear his voice, like his actual voice, not his phone. As cute as he is, I bet it would be amazing.” We see the change slowly in Jacob as he realizes that Skylar’s AAC isn’t a burden or separate from him, the same way many abled people will say “I’m sorry” when someone uses a wheelchair, but other disabled people will see it as the freedom to move around painlessly. Most importantly, when Jacob and Skylar’s relationship experiences some turbulence, Jacob never stops advocating for Skylar’s causes and continues working with the local Pride Center to challenge the dress code that prevents Skylar from wearing skirts and dresses when he feels like it. Even Jacob’s friends at first are surprised to find out that he’s still making calls and participating when the issue doesn’t affect him directly, but then join him when they see it’s a cause he cares about. Indeed, Skylar’s tendency to wear skirts gets him detention, and gets Jacob’s father involved: a school board member wants to institute a gender-restrictive dress code. The friends and family who rally around Skylar help him to see that he is valued, even in a society that largely devalues the worth of disabled people. This realization is the story’s turning point, helping to bring the narrative to a satisfying conclusion.

Indeed, even after giving this five stars, I feel like that's not quite what I meant. Reviewing poetry also feels equally as such, but this moved me in a way I felt compelled to share. In the moving young adult romance Every Word You Never Said, two gay teenagers find each other and fight bigotry. Now, it’s been said the stories in the Noahverse can be read as standalones, and they most certainly can because I just proved it, but I also feel like I would have greatly benefited from having read at least book one ( A Mark on My Soul), because, although the themes and outcome of that book scare me, I feel it would have added a better layer of understanding and appreciation towards what these kids were experiencing in this deeply religious community. I have no doubt, having now briefly met some of the previous MCs, that I will be taking the time to course-correct my series reading here in the near future.Okay, there's a lot that goes on in this book that I thought was okay, but there's even more that was NOT okay. In 2009, for his work as the author of the art/photography project “I Wrote This For You”, he was voted one of the top 5 finalists in the world in the “Best Blogger To Follow” category on mashable.com under his online pseudonym, pleasefindthis. This book had a lot more homophobia / ableism / bullying than I expected. Not necessarily a bad thing – it’s probably realistic, unfortunately – I just wasn’t expecting it.

The characters where flat and vastly underdeveloped. The one person of color was almost exclusively described as "sassy" and the f-slur was extremely overused.

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And while you're waiting, if you haven't read A Mark on My Soul or Watching for Comets, you have plenty of time. All three of these books are in the Noahverse, but they're easily read as standalones too. You just might get a few neat little extra things out of it if you read the first two books before Every Word You Never Said comes out. I know who I am. i am the one that looks for me. And every single day, I find me again. I find myself in the things I do and the things I notice. I find myself in crowds and in solitude. I find myself in quiet moments and at the top of tall mountains. I find myself in the tips of waves, in forests, and in the books I read. I find myself in leaves and rain and old photos. Every single day, I find me again." How does this e-boy know about Vic Fuentes and a bunch of emo bands but has never even heard of My Chemical Romance??? Bullshit. Poetry is such a personal experience on what will impact us when we read the words and what won't. We all view things differently and this is one reason I love to read poetry. I enjoy seeing how others piece together what they are experiencing and how it brings some insight into my own life. Some words hit harder than others, some collections work and some don't. For me, Every Word You Cannot Say completely worked and there were a few times tears stung my eyes. Why the focus on sex??? Like, these people have known each other for 2 weeks and are already trying to guess who’s a “top” and a “bottom”????? 🥴 Idk, maybe I’m just wired differently, but that whole thing was weird lmao

Every Word You Never Said" is quite easily Jordon Greene's tour de force! Serving as his 3rd YA LGBTQ+ novel and set within the familiar region of Kannapolis, NC, I found myself absolutely enthralled by this story! Poetry is a very individual experience-- Every single person has a unique experience to the way it is written. No two interpretations of any one poem are the same. When a poet writes a poem, they are, in essence, writing to themselves. Poems are personal. There is a piece of the author within every word. Poetry tells many a story, and it tells them through a unique medium of thought, emotion, and word choice. Skylar and Jacob communicate through text messages and social media as well as in person; transcripts of their text messages, complete with emojis, help to tell the story. Visual and sensory descriptions abound as the boys grow and develop, finding their voices and values, even when facing judgment from school boards and a pastor, all of whom insist that they are living sinful lives. into the book they were crushing on each other because the other was cute, and by the end of the book they’re supposedly in love because….. the other is cute, I guess??? There was no development, no reason for them to be together, no chemistry, their “banter” wasn’t even funny… Everything felt forced. What a shame. 🙁🙁🙁 Every Word You Never Said is a Queer YA romance between two boys navigating high school, their feelings and first relationship while dealing with negativity from small-minded people. Filled with loving parents, supportive friends, bookshop hangouts, corn maze kisses and figuring out life one step at a time.

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Jacob Walters′s dad has worked to make his son′s life a living hell. But when the cute new transfer student suffers his father′s wrath, Jacob must make the hardest decisions of his life. This was a bit of a slice of life plot, with the “clothes are for everyone” and religion theme as the main focus. It’s a very slow burn romance, which I liked a lot, because these two were inexperienced and firstly even needed to find a way to communicate with each other. But it somehow made this book drag a little from time to time and for me it could have been shorter or more action filled. Besides the great secondary cast and the sweet “first-love” romance, I also appreciated all the representation explored in this book. From the way Sky’s non-verbalism was depicted, to how his gender non-conformity was explored, to the way friend Imani’s pansexuality and wiccan beliefs were portrayed… I appreciated it all, and more. There were numerous examples of sentences that felt like they should be dialogue but were actually just narration, like: “You didn’t take me as a reader? All right now. Just because I’m in a band doesn’t mean I don’t read.”. This example wasn’t something the character said out loud, or even a thought in italics or anything. It was just regular narration. And there were so many examples of this. Perhaps it doesn’t make sense without reading it in context, but I definitely noticed this weird thing happening a lot. Love at 1st sight is bad enough as it is (I despise it!!!). But this book was worse, because not only did they immediately start liking each other, but also, as the story progressed, there were no other reasons for them to be together! I read the whole book and the only reason I can find for them to “like” each other is: they find the other hot.