The You I've Never Known

The You I'veNever Known by Ellen Hopkins, 590 pages

This young adult novel in verse tells the story of Ariel who's been moving around with her dad for as long as she can remember.  Her mom ran out when she was little and she and her dad have always traveled to new places. Ariel longs for some stability and is thrilled when she and her dad finally stay in the same town for her junior year of high school.  Ariel hopes that she can graduate from here also, especially since she's made some really good friends.  There's even one very good, maybe more than a friend, that she can't tell her dad about because the friend is also a girl.  Another, coinciding story, is about Maya, who wants to get away from her controlling mother.  Maya and Ariel's stories come together in a way that I found predictable, but the story was still good.  Hopkins is pretty decent about telling stories in verse.  Sometimes I'm able to forget that I'm reading poetry and just read the story.  Maya's sections are told in prose which helped me enjoy this book more.  Realistic fiction fans will want to read this.