Everything I Say Is True/Allt jag säger är sant

“I am Alicia. Sixteen, almost seventeen, with funky hair and carbonation in my veins. And, no, I’m probably not quite fluorescent. But it’s fucking close.”

After a moment of insight in a cramped toilet stall at school Alicia makes a decision. This sitting around in her desk at school wasting time and talent is just really not working for her any more. She was meant for something greater. The following day she slams her locker shut for the last time, leaves high school behind and steps out into the world. Ready to go out and do great deeds, just like that. “I mean… how hard can it possibly be?”

As soon as Alicia begins telling those around her that she has dropped out of school the shit hits the fan. Her best friend Fanny glares at her as if she’s an idiot. The school threatens to get the county involved. Alicia’s parents sputter furiously about “the importance of a good education,” and “should think about your future.” And Grandma – who can always, always be counted on to be on Alicia’s side – just sighs tiredly. What is this? Whatever happened to the fact that most things in life usually tend to turn out exactly the way Alicia wants them to?

Everything I Say Is True is about the fall when Alicia should have been attending her first year of high school. About how instead, she starts working at a café. Starts fighting with her best friend. Moves out of the house of her unsympathetic parents and in with her much more sympathetic grandmother. About how she meets Isak – the Greek God who has such fine lines around his mouth that Alicia can’t stop staring at him. And about how it feels when her entire world falls apart in sorrow.