The Everything I Have Lost focuses on Julia and her life as she is growing up. She writes about her friends, drama, school and anything else a young girl might write about, but there are also signs of something more going on.

Starting at age 12, this book goes from there until Julia is 15, so there is quite a difference between ages and what is going on which really leaves this novel in a big limbo of not being middle-grade, but not quite being young adult which did pull me out of the book from time to time. I knew that coming in, but I think I’m realizing diary entries may not be something I like.

The diary entries while giving us a deeper look into Julia, but that also means readers are really diving into her mindset. Readers see how naive she is. They see her focus on growing up and the drama with her friends. A lot of it reminded me of The Princess Diaries in the sense of Julia being very focused on herself and so eager to grow up and everything is the end of the world. I get that at this age there are a lot of emotions and no one understands them, just as an older reader it’s frustrating to read.

There were a number of heavier topics that I do feel like are good introductions for younger readers, but at the same time they are glossed over due to the narration of the story.

I was excited to read this book as it was own voices and seemed like it was going to talk about a number of topics that I feel like should be talked about; however, I do feel like this book just missed the mark for me.

I’m hoping that the younger audience this is meant for finds more meaning in it than I did.