{"id":43381,"date":"2025-08-06T22:41:53","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T02:41:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=43381"},"modified":"2025-08-06T22:41:53","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T02:41:53","slug":"review-of-ever-since-by-alena-bruzas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=43381","title":{"rendered":"Review of Ever Since, by Alena Bruzas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Ever Since<\/em><\/p>\n

by Alena Bruzas<\/p>\n

Rocky Pond Books (Penguin Random House), 2023. 277 pages.
\nReview written July 13, 2023, from a book sent to me by the publisher.
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

This book isn\u2019t exactly pleasant reading, but it is powerful, and it made me care deeply about characters I didn\u2019t even like at first.<\/p>\n

The book has a short Content Note at the front: \u201cPlease be advised that this book contains depictions of sexual assault, CSA, and suicidal ideation.\u201d So that gives you an idea of what you\u2019re in for. <\/p>\n

But the book begins with five teenage girls, all good friends, who are happily looking forward to the summer. I like the first paragraph:<\/p>\n

Once there were five princesses. No, I mean five witches. Actually, they were goddesses. Anyway, whatever they were, they were friends.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This opening foreshadows the senior project Virginia\u2019s going to start thinking about this summer, looking into the story of Medea. Which echoes her own story.<\/p>\n

The book begins with a road trip out to the coast. Virginia is our viewpoint character. Poppy and Thalia and Paz and Ro are the friends along with her, and there are plenty to meet them at the coast, including Thalia\u2019s boyfriend Edison and Poppy\u2019s boyfriend Rumi.<\/p>\n

But something\u2019s up with Virginia and Edison\u2026. She thinks Thalia doesn\u2019t know yet and maybe she can stop, but Edison calls her over away from the crowd\u2026.<\/p>\n

And then the next day Poppy disappears. She doesn\u2019t turn up for her job coaching soccer. She doesn\u2019t answer calls or texts. Poppy\u2019s house was the only place where Virginia felt safe at night. And then she starts getting close to Rumi. But she can\u2019t betray Poppy, too. But it feels like Rumi actually sees her.<\/p>\n

So by this time, I wasn\u2019t crazy about Virginia. But as we see her go through the summer, we get strong hints that there\u2019s something going on under the surface. And we begin to care deeply. And things build up and something with Rumi\u2019s little sister triggers a whole lot of trauma \u2013 and I don\u2019t want to say any more, because the author does a great job of weaving this story together so that the revelations aren\u2019t exactly a surprise for what they are \u2013 but they\u2019re definitely a surprise about who is involved. And it\u2019s told in such a way that you come to better understand Virginia\u2019s behavior all along \u2013 that since she was deprived of consent as a young child, she no longer really understands that she\u2019s allowed to withhold consent. (And that\u2019s a much more simplistic way of putting it than the book gives.)<\/p>\n

Like I said, it\u2019s not a pleasant book. But it has a wonderful, I-wish-it-weren\u2019t-necessary message. And makes you care about this girl you might have condemned. So wow. Just read it already.<\/p>\n

alenabruzas.com<\/a>
\nPenguinTeen.com<\/a> <\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Teens\/ever_since.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever Since by Alena Bruzas Rocky Pond Books (Penguin Random House), 2023. 277 pages. Review written July 13, 2023, from a book sent to me by the publisher. Starred Review This book isn\u2019t exactly pleasant reading, but it is powerful, and it made me care deeply about characters I didn\u2019t even like at first. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,42,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contemporary","category-starred-review","category-teen-fiction-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43381"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45595,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43381\/revisions\/45595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}