Blog Tour: Everything I Thought I Knew

Hey friends! I have another fun blog tour post for y’all, so keep reading to learn about this unique book, and how to win a copy!

About the Book:

A teenage girl wonders if she’s inherited more than just a heart from her donor in this compulsively readable debut.

Seventeen-year-old Chloe had a plan: work hard, get good grades, and attend a top-tier college. But after she collapses during cross-country practice and is told that she needs a new heart, all her careful preparations are laid to waste.

Eight months after her transplant, everything is different. Stuck in summer school with the underachievers, all she wants to do now is grab her surfboard and hit the waves—which is strange, because she wasn’t interested in surfing before her transplant. (It doesn’t hurt that her instructor, Kai, is seriously good-looking.)

And that’s not all that’s strange. There’s also the vivid recurring nightmare about crashing a motorcycle in a tunnel and memories of people and places she doesn’t recognize.

Is there something wrong with her head now, too, or is there another explanation for what she’s experiencing?

As she searches for answers, and as her attraction to Kai intensifies, what she learns will lead her to question everything she thought she knew—about life, death, love, identity, and the true nature of reality.  

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | BOOK DEPOSITORY

About the Author:

Shannon Takaoka is a young adult fiction author who wrote her first book at age 12, when she blatantly ripped off C.S. Lewis with an epic fantasy inspired by THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE. (Well, maybe it wasn’t that epic — do 10 pages count?) Madeline L’Engle, Charlotte Brontë, Neil Gaiman and a host of other authors inspired her lifelong love of reading, and she’s especially into all things gothic, weird and nerdy. If a story involves time travel, strange science-y stuff or alternate realities, she’s in.

Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Shannon now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, two children and one very needy dog, who is probably leaning on her right now as she’s pecking away on her keyboard. Her debut novel, EVERYTHING I THOUGHT I KNEW, about a 17-year-old girl questioning everything about who she is and who she wants to be following a heart transplant, will be published by Candlewick Press on 10/13/2020 and Walker UK in 2021. She promises that it’s a little weird — but in a good way.  

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My Review:

I have so many intense emotions after reading this book. It’s been a week since I’ve read it and I am still reeling from its emotional after effects.  In the aftermath of her heart transplant, Chloe finds herself seeing the world from a new perspective, leading her to question everything that she once thought she knew. The depths of the conversations of reality and how we perceive it really surprised me in the best way, and I am so glad I picked this book up when I’m also completing my college applications (since that’s a big part of the story). This book deeply connects you with Chloe and her life before and after her transplant, and the last 25% of this book had my mind blown-like all the other reviews mention.

The first 3/4 of this book, I was really into how it handled grief and moving on while incorporating a mysterious element of Chloe’s visions. I was invested in the story the way I usually am for any other book: I cared for Chloe and genuinely wanted her to be happy or as happy as she could get and find love, and her journey tugged at all my heart strings. But then that infamous plot twist happened and I was left with my jaw on the floor. I still don’t know if I loved the direction the story went in, but it definitely shocked the living crap out of me.

Overall this was a really solid read, and it’s certainly memorable. I have a feeling I’ll be thinking about the ending for weeks.

Giveaway:

• Giveaway is open to International. | Must be 13+ to Enter
• 10 Winners will receive a Copy of EVERYTHING I THOUGHT I KNEW by Shannon Takaoka
• 1 Winner will receive EVERYTHING I THOUGHT I KNEW Storytellers BOX

Click the link here or the image above to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway!