The Truth About Keeping Secrets by Savannah Brown

This is also a story that talks about imperfect friendships, abusive relationships and that 'liminal' space queer girls often find themselves in when they have a maybe-unrequited crush on a girl - the 'does she like me or am I just misreading everything' space. I loved reading about her, and when the focus shifted from grief to the actual mystery, I wasn't as interested. Some teachers really are that insensitive). Even other people's reaction to her felt very realistic (I have seen something very similar to the Dylan Thomas poem scene happen. Sydney is a teenage girl who is grieving, who is dealing with her father's death in an unhealthy way, and she's sad and angry and using sarcasm as a coping mechanism, and she felt real in a way very few characters do. I guess I just like introspective character driven stories more?Īnd as a character-driven story, The Truth About Keeping Secrets is really good, since it succeeds where many other supposedly character-driven books fail: the main character's voice was perfect. While the first half was an atmospheric, vaguely creepy story about grief and associated unhealthy coping mechanisms that also talked about what it's like to be the only girl who is out as a lesbian in your high school, the second half was about the main character trying to piece together a mystery whose resolution seemed - at least to me - obvious from the beginning. The second half did feel more like a thriller, but I also thought it was the weakest part of the book.

That's because to me this book felt more like an exploration of grief than a thriller, at least for its first half.

I'm seeing that this is being marketed as an f/f thriller, but while it does have a mystery element, I'd recommend it more to those who loved Nina LaCour's We Are Okay than to fans of Far From You or People Like Us.

The Truth About Keeping Secrets is a quiet, slow-paced contemporary novel following a girl who has lost her dad in a car accident - but was it really?

The Truth About Keeping Secrets by Savannah Brown