Review: Now is Everything by Amy Giles

Now Is Everything by Amy Giles
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

All seventeen-year-old Hadley wants is to protect her sister from the monster. The monster her mother won’t go against. The brut that pushes her at the gym, and laughs at any pain she suffers, and like a drill sergeant, has her up at the crack of dawn to run every day despite her injuries. The monster is her father.

Hadley can take it. She can take just about anything he dishes out. So long as he stays away from Lila, her 10-year-old, spirited and carefree sister, who’s innocent of his torments, for the most part. Hadley wants to keep it that way and plans to enroll at a local college, instead of Cornell, her father’s alma mater. The college he’s forcing her to attend.

Hadley doesn’t confide in anyone at school, she doesn’t tell her friends what’s happening at home. Hadley suffers alone.
Until she meets Charlie.

All the girls swoon over Charlie, kind, humble, and contentious. Hadley can’t understand why he likes her. They fall hard for each other. But her father’s on to him, becoming suspicious and even more controlling of Hadley until suddenly he’s not. The monster has found Hadley’s weakness and sets his sights. Then the next tragedy strikes; a tragedy that changes everything.

Told in two timelines: then and now. Beautifully written, its subject difficult to read at times. There were many triggers for me, personally. Hadley’s emotional journey of being trapped in an abusive family was written with sensitivity and understanding—and suspense! It was also difficult to put down.



November 2017 Debut Author.  HaperTeen.

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