Book Review: Three Things I Know Are True by Betty Culley

Title: Three Things I Know Are True

Author: Betty Culley

Genre: YA Realistic Fiction/Books in Verse

Number of Pages: 480

Rating: C+

Recommended?: No

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This is definitely an ‘issue’ book. It focuses on the social problem it presents and lacks things like character development and an interesting story. Liv is a teenage girl in a horrifying situation; her brother Jonah was playing with a gun in their next door neighbor’s attic and accidently shot himself in the head. He’s left with severe brain injuries and is completely reliant on around-the-clock care. Liv’s mom tries to sue the owner of the gun, while Liv finds solace in the friendship of her brother’s friend Clay.

As I said, this book revolves around the issue of gun control but the story and characters were quite boring. If it wasn’t such a quick read I might have decided not to finish it. Jonah’s one character trait pre-brain injury is that he’s reckless, and his backstory was flimsy enough that I didn’t get emotional over what happened to him, even though it was horrible. The whole thing just didn’t get much of a emotional reaction from me and I didn’t care about any of the characters. It was an okay read but not something I’d recommend to others.