This is a powerful story about resilience, friendship, and finding your voice.
My Name is Jodie Jones is an emotional and inspiring story about a fifteen year old girl who sees the world in her own unique way. While most people around her care about grades or fitting in, Jodie is obsessed with words. She loves how they sound, how they flow, and the rhythm they make. For her, language is like music, and that makes her different.
At home, though, being different is not celebrated. Jodie’s mom is harsh and obsessed with looking perfect. If anything goes wrong, Jodie gets the blame for “making her look stupid.” What I found really heartbreaking is how much Jodie just wants to be herself but keeps being pushed down instead of lifted up.
What I liked most about this book was the way it showed the difference between Jodie’s home and her best friend’s. Her best friend’s family is caring, warm, and full of love. It made me think about how unfair it is that Jodie doesn’t get that kind of support, but also how important it is to have people in your life who believe in you.
Jodie’s obsession with words actually makes you feel the rhythm and flow of the sentences, almost like you’re inside Jodie’s head. Even when things are tough, her love of language shines through, and that makes the book really special.
In the end, Jodie Jones isn’t just a story about a difficult home life. It’s about resilience, the power of friendship, and how important it is to find your voice even when others try to silence it. This book really stuck with me because it shows how words can hurt but also how they can heal, inspire, and remind us of who we really are.
An enthralling novel about an inquisitive teen who hides a painful secret but powers through and emerges victorious! You will fall in love with Jodie Jones just like I did!
This is definitely one of my best reads this year! Emma Shevah is a brilliant author who weaves her tales with wordy skill and creates enthralling characters including the incredibly intelligent and perceptive Jodie Jones. As someone who find beauty in poetry and books, Jodie... sorry! I mean Jodie Jones, felt like a character I could relate to. Disguising her passion as a theraphy needing, word-obsessed syndrome, Jodie Jones weaves her way around a dangerous figure close to home in order to save her family from abuse and neglect in an ingeniously brave and admirable manner that can only be described as pure brilliance and wit. Her compelling thought process will fascinate the reader and make them rethink literature and poetry with a new vision. Whilst battling the struggles of every normal teenager from school stress, to first loves, Jodie Jones hides her traumatising past; the incident that haunts her every waking moment and the perpetrator who carries on with the abuse. This book is an astoundingly riveting and thought-provoking piece of art that covers important topics in today's world such as family pressure, child-neglect, trauma and PTSD in a way that will leave the reader feeling enlightened, empowered and very much in love. Jodie Jones is offically my new favourite, relatable book character!
My Name Is Jodie Jones needs the recognition for displaying neurodivergency that it deserves! The words dance on the page, and ignite emotion! A riveting, provoking read. I almost cried.
My Name Is Jodie Jones is an exceptionally enjoyable book. It is extremely well-written and accurately portrays autism and neurodivergence. As an avid logophile myself, I admire Jodie's sentence collecting, and her passion for her friends, Moses and Becca. My main issue is with Jodie Jones' mother, who, it is eventually revealed, is a narcissist. This was obvious, throughout the book, that the mother is dysfunctional, and my question is how people didn't notice it. I understand that the mother puts on a front in the presence of strangers and friends, but surely, they would notice how she never had anything good to say about Jodie or Champ/Charlie? Regarding Charlie, I think more could be said about his homosexuality, and his coming out to Moses, his closest friend? I didn’t see Tavish as an important character until then, and I feel it would have been more impactful if he had more information about his friendship with Charlie, and how close they were, I felt it was quite unexpected, though this may have been the intention.
Secondly, I think that more light could be shed on the fact that the bridge scene -which was mentioned on the blurb- wasn't mentioned properly for a good few chapters, in fact, I forgot about it. Displaying her trauma and abandonment issues were particularly good though, and I think that was portrayed excellently. I think's Jodie's behaviour was quite erratic though. In conclusion, My Name Is Jodie Jones, is most certainly worth reading, especially the way the characters have depth and are believable.