More Than We Can Tell

This is a story about learning to be fearless and set your secrets free. An intense and gripping novel that will speak to fans of John Green and Jennifer Niven.

Rev works hard to keep the demons of the time before his adoption at bay ... until a letter from his father after his 18th birthday brings the trauma of his childhood hurtling back.

Emma escapes real life by perfecting the online game she built from scratch. Coding is way easier than facing her parents' nasty relationship or the growing distance with her best friend ... But when an online troll's harassment starts to escalate, she fears for her safety.

When Rev and Emma meet, they're buckling under the weight of their secrets. Though both of them find it hard to put their problems into words, they connect instantly and deeply. Rev and Emma's problems might be worlds apart, but they promise to help each other no matter what.

But promises are made to be tested and some things hurt more than we can tell.

Review by Sarah McDuling

Letters to the Lost was one of my favourite contemporary YA reads of 2017. I was delighted when I heard that Brigid Kemmerer was writing a sequel and downright ecstatic when I realised the sequel would be about Rev – my favourite supporting character from Letters to the Lost.

For anyone who hasn’t yet read Letters to the Lost, it’s not totally necessary to read it before More Than We Can Tell. It is, however, totally necessary to read it at some point in your life! These two books each serve well as standalone novels and you could easily read them out of order. I just highly recommend that you read them both because they are amazing.

More Than We Can Tell is the story of Rev, who some readers may remember as Declan’s mysterious best friend in Letters to the Lost. As an outcast who insists on wearing long sleeved hoodies – even in the dead of summer – Rev is an enigma wrapped in a mystery. He hates to have his photograph taken, he’s into MMA, looks like the poster child for juvenile delinquency, and yet possesses an almost zen-like sense of calm. He is devoted to his adopted parents, but struggles sometimes to communicate with the people closest to him. When his biological father tracks him down at the same time as his parents decide to foster a troubled young boy – Rev’s calm control is shattered and he finds himself plunged back into the trauma of his childhood.

This is also the story of Emma, a girl with her own set of problems. Emma’s life seems pretty charmed from the outside. Her parents are wealthy and she is a talented coder who has built her own multiplayer online role-playing game. Beneath the surface, however, Emma is spiralling into crisis. Emma’s parents fight constantly. She clashes with her mother who doesn’t understand why Emma spends so much time online and refuses to take her interests seriously. Emma has always been able to escape the pressures of her homelife via the online world she created, but when that world is invaded by a troll whose constant harassment and threats become increasingly disturbing, she feels she has no-one to turn to.

This is the story of two young people grappling with issues of family and identity. It’s a powerful book that dives headfirst into issues of child abuse, foster care, adoption, divorce, harassment, and online predators. It is also a deeply touching story of first love and the bonds of friendship and family. It made me cry more than a few times, but it also made my heart sing.

Highly recommended for fans of Sarah Dessen, Emma Mills and Stephanie Perkins.

About the Author

Brigid Kemmerer is the author of Letters to the Lost and the Elementals series. She was born in Omaha, Nebraska, though her parents quickly moved her all over the United States, from the desert in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to the lakeside in Cleveland, Ohio, and several stops in between, eventually settling near Annapolis, Maryland.