Book Review: Testify by Valerie Sherrard

Testify by Valerie Sherrard is a very fast-paced story, with twists and turns around every corner. Shana is a good girl, good grades, a nice household. However, her whole life goes into turmoil when she agrees to help her friend Carrie, by LYING on the trial stand. Carrie "says" that her stepfather has done horrible things, however, she only says this because she doesn't like him, so she tells Shana to stand up for her by saying that she has also seen the event happen. After the trial, Shana notices that someone is their close-knit group of friends is stealing. However, it's not who Carrie has lead the group to believe. As Shana discovers the truth along with another friend Hannah, she finds that her best friend, Carrie is actually a monster, capable of twisting the truth, theft, and possibly murder, if she finds that her lies are threatened. When Shana finally finds what Carrie has been doing, Carrie sets the house on fire, to prevent the truth coming out. Thankfully, a recording of what has happened makes it's way into the police's hands. Carrie is arrested, and all of the people that Carrie has affected are free once again.

This book was an amazing book overall, with a great plot, and amazing secrets in every crevice. It's written very realistically, and shows that not everything is as it seems. However, I felt the end was a bit iffy. After the amazing detail throughput the whole book, I feel the author could have added more detail at the end. There was no real explanation on the arrest of Carrie, or anything about what happened to everyone after the arrest. By adding a very short epilogue, the author really took away from the quality of the story. Reading the end to me was literally like the book just came to a stop.

This book just furthers the fact that nothing is as it seems. By showing all the troubles that Shana had to go through just because she trusted the wrong people, it shows that if she had just gone with her gut feeling, none of this would have happened. It reminds me of the everyday news. So many reporters twist the story around, just so they can relieve the "it" story. By changing the story, they are essentially telling the audience lies. So overall, this book was a pretty good book, I just feel that the story would have been greatly improved by lengthening the end, so that readers have a greater grasp of what is happening.