The Truth Project

By: Dante Medema

Narrated by: Jesse Vilinsky

“A heart-wrenching quest for identity every YA reader will relate to, and a deep dive into the meaning of family." (Ellen Hopkins, number-one New York Times best-selling author)

Debut author Dante Medema explores the emotional fallout after a teenage girl discovers she is the product of an affair. Told through a series of poems, text messages, and emails, this contemporary YA is perfect for fans of Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin.

Seventeen-year-old Cordelia Koenig intended to breeze through her senior project. While her peers stressed, Cordelia planned to use the same trace-your-roots genealogy idea her older sister used years prior. And getting partnered with her longtime crush, Kodiak Jones, is icing on the cake. All she needs to do is mail in her DNA sample, write about her ancestry results, and get that easy A.

But when Cordelia’s GeneQuest results reveal that her father is not the person she thought he was, but a stranger who lives thousands of miles away, her entire world shatters. Now she isn’t sure of anything - not the mother who lied, the man she calls Dad, or the girl staring back at her in the mirror.

If your life began with a lie, how can you ever be sure of what's true?

©2020 Dante Medema (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

It was okay.

In my opinion The narrator was too slow in her words. It just seemed like the book could have been read faster. In my defense i do read more of fast paced books. The book itself was amazing just had a hard time listening due to the slowness.

The girls' friendship, although I only made it through a few chapters because of the narrator.

The narrator. Her reading style is very annoying... pauses in between words within sentences. Couldn't finish the book.

Good, more for younger people but really good

great story... I related to mom ... funny times.... I love teens... sooo dramatic but good and mature.

Such an emotive read!

This book paints a vivid picture of the wide range of emotions young adults cope with on thier journey of self-discovery and emergence into the adult world. Beautifully crafted with authentic images of life in Alaska and very well narrated verse.

Ancestry will unravel the truth!!!

WOW did that hit home, met my dad at 18 then learned at 56 that he is NOT my biological father. And I’ll probably never know who he is cause both mom n dad have passed away :-(

Written and performed in verse

The way the narrator performs the verse writing gives you the feel of how Dante intended it to be read. Beautifully written and the emotions are so so real. 10/10 recommend

Too easy an ending

2.5 STARS

Cordelia takes a DNA test and discovers her biological father isn’t the man who raised her. She’s the product of an affair between her mom and Jack, a musician in Alaska. Complicating the situation, her mom asks Cordelia to keep the secret, claiming Jack isn’t a good guy. A school trip to Seattle, Jack’s home, gives Cordelia an opportunity to meet the man who shares half her DNA.

Dante Medema’s debut is a showcase in writing a novel in verse. Her flawless word-building includes free verse, emails and texts telling the story of a young woman who’s always felt like the black sheep in her family, to learn her father is different from her sisters’.

Cordelia is a complex character with a tenuous relationship with the truth, nor unlike her mother and biological father. She makes stereotypical poor choices, getting drunk when upset, breaking rules as rebellion, throwing herself at guys, lying to her parents.

Medema made other “easy” plot choice, which prevented me from rating THE TRUTH PROJECT higher. Making Jack a “loser” felt like the easy way out of the story, so Cordelia never has to envision an alternative positive life with a nurturing, present biological father. He went away, on her mom’s request, and never looked back, much easier to forgive that a mother who repeatedly kept a loci her biological father from his daughter.

THE TRUTH PROJECT is a very good story. A quick read, I finished it in one sitting. I loved that many important topics were seamlessly woven into the story without being Important Topics because these are issues teen confront all the time.

I look forward to see what Medema writes next.