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carolyn0613's review against another edition
3.0
Elizabeth and Mike are happily married in a small English village until tragedy strikes and Mike is drowned saving a teenaged girl. Elizabeth, overcome with grief, tries to make sense of life without Mike. Mike's mother, also grief stricken, deals with the death is a different way - Elizabeth is paralysed with grief but Mike's mother copes by getting on with her life. Elizabeth's grief is beautifully described and brought me close to tears at times. The story moves on and Elizabeth's grief becomes the backdrop to questions raised by the accident. This is a wonderful story, beautifully written and amazingly real people inhabiting the pages. It is very intense and at time almost claustrophobic. The story starts to fall into place about halfway through but is not disappointing in any way for being foreseeable at that point. I loved this book
judithdcollins's review against another edition
3.0
A special thank you to SOURCEBOOKS Landmark and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 3.5 Stars
THE SECRETS WE KEEP, an exploration of grief, secrets, betrayal, and love of a marriage – a powerful, yet uplifting debut novel by Stephanie Butland.
Michael Gray, age 37 has drowned in Butler’s Pond on a late Sunday night. While walking his dog, Pepper, and spots a 19-year old Kate Micklethwaite in trouble in the water and dives in the freezing lake to save her. Michael, a brave police officer was an important member of the community, and left behind widowed wife, Elizabeth.
Michael and Elizabeth met when they were traveling around Australia. Less than forty-eight hours from the knock on the door –would mark the Before and After of Elizabeth’s life. She then begins to worry about the night he died. She continues waiting for him to return, thinking it is a horrible dream.
Kate is home from the hospital and her heart labors and burns under the weight of Michael Gray’s death, and when interviewed she recalls nothing more of what happened that night.
Thereafter, we hear from Elizabeth through letters to Mike, of her grief, her breaking heart. About 60% through the book, we finally get glimpses into the awaited secrets of the marriage, the ones Elizabeth is drowning in.
The author keeps you in suspense regarding the events of the dreadful night. Why was Kate in the water and why did Mike drown versus Kate? What really happened that night?
Some reviewers mention the book is drawn out, which it can be at times, especially the first half. You may get impatient with Elizabeth’s grief, until discovering there is much more. This is when the pain, loss and the devastation moves to a different level; when everything is not as it appears. There is something deeper, and this is the real beauty of the novel and the writing.
Elizabeth’s letters seem at times like she is in denial, naïve; however, as we move on, you see the shift; the change in her, as she goes through the emotions, and steps of grief- until she gets to the anger and hatred part. She wants answers to all her questions, doubts, fears- the what ifs, the where, and the why?
A complex novel with an unraveling of lives, secrets, a past. Even though a novel of grief, loss, and sadness; ultimately we hear from Mike, a final letter written to Elizabeth, which may change the way you think about the relationship, and his love for his wife. The explosive ending will reveal the events leading up to that tragic night, for answers behind the mystery.
An ongoing theme of water, representing significance in many ways and lives throughout the novel. Water, a flowing element – symbolizing purity, healing, and cleansing; life, rebirth, and happiness. Water not only represents all things good, but bad too. As we see the grief, as it also represents death, entrapment, life storms, sinking, and drowning.
Recommend to those readers preferring a more psychological, emotional and deeper read. Look forward to reading more by Butland!
JDCMustReadBooks
THE SECRETS WE KEEP, an exploration of grief, secrets, betrayal, and love of a marriage – a powerful, yet uplifting debut novel by Stephanie Butland.
Michael Gray, age 37 has drowned in Butler’s Pond on a late Sunday night. While walking his dog, Pepper, and spots a 19-year old Kate Micklethwaite in trouble in the water and dives in the freezing lake to save her. Michael, a brave police officer was an important member of the community, and left behind widowed wife, Elizabeth.
Michael and Elizabeth met when they were traveling around Australia. Less than forty-eight hours from the knock on the door –would mark the Before and After of Elizabeth’s life. She then begins to worry about the night he died. She continues waiting for him to return, thinking it is a horrible dream.
Kate is home from the hospital and her heart labors and burns under the weight of Michael Gray’s death, and when interviewed she recalls nothing more of what happened that night.
Thereafter, we hear from Elizabeth through letters to Mike, of her grief, her breaking heart. About 60% through the book, we finally get glimpses into the awaited secrets of the marriage, the ones Elizabeth is drowning in.
The author keeps you in suspense regarding the events of the dreadful night. Why was Kate in the water and why did Mike drown versus Kate? What really happened that night?
Some reviewers mention the book is drawn out, which it can be at times, especially the first half. You may get impatient with Elizabeth’s grief, until discovering there is much more. This is when the pain, loss and the devastation moves to a different level; when everything is not as it appears. There is something deeper, and this is the real beauty of the novel and the writing.
Elizabeth’s letters seem at times like she is in denial, naïve; however, as we move on, you see the shift; the change in her, as she goes through the emotions, and steps of grief- until she gets to the anger and hatred part. She wants answers to all her questions, doubts, fears- the what ifs, the where, and the why?
A complex novel with an unraveling of lives, secrets, a past. Even though a novel of grief, loss, and sadness; ultimately we hear from Mike, a final letter written to Elizabeth, which may change the way you think about the relationship, and his love for his wife. The explosive ending will reveal the events leading up to that tragic night, for answers behind the mystery.
An ongoing theme of water, representing significance in many ways and lives throughout the novel. Water, a flowing element – symbolizing purity, healing, and cleansing; life, rebirth, and happiness. Water not only represents all things good, but bad too. As we see the grief, as it also represents death, entrapment, life storms, sinking, and drowning.
Recommend to those readers preferring a more psychological, emotional and deeper read. Look forward to reading more by Butland!
JDCMustReadBooks
erinnejc's review against another edition
4.0
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I liked how it was written with the letters interspersed with the 'then, now and between'. It was easy to follow and the characters well formed.
jove64's review against another edition
5.0
I enjoyed this book which alternates between letters the main character, Elizabeth, is writing to her dead husband, and narrative from 2 time periods Then and Now. It explores the complexities of relationships in a really interesting way. Marriage. Family. Friendships. There is also an underlying theme about connection to a particular geographical place as "home" and how that intertwines with the importance of the people who live there.
portybelle's review against another edition
4.0
It isn't often that a book moves me to tears but the opening few chapters of this book did. It was heartbreaking reading about Elizabeth's grief after the sudden, tragic death of her husband Mike. It is one of these situations where you can't help thinking what if this happened in my life: how would I feel? Stephanie Butland has written very movingly about the depth of Elizabeth's grief as she tries to comprehend and cope with what has happened. The effects of Mike's death on his mother and friends is also convincingly depicted and shows how people deal with loss in very different ways. Elizabeth's letters to Mike are full of sadness, despair and anger. And when a secret is revealed which shows Mike in a different light, the characters have ever more conflicting emotions to cope with. A sensitive portrayal of grief and loss told amazingly well by this debut author. I look forward to her future novels.
lenoradavis's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
felinity's review against another edition
5.0
At first this seems straightforward enough: it's a story about a grieving widow trying to regain her footing in an unfamiliar world. That doesn't do it justice, though, because it captures the visceral pain of loss, the feeling that an entire side of you has been lost with them, the feeling that you'll never recover, leaving you almost as breathless and devastated as Elizabeth, grieving in a different way from her mother-in-law, trying to cope in a different way, each feeling that the other is somehow wrong, loved him less. There's the defining moment when she starts, consciously, to move on. And then you start getting hints that maybe, just maybe, there's something else there. Maybe appearances are deceptive, things weren't as they appeared.
[a:Stephanie Butland|5276201|Stephanie Butland|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s choice of the perfect tense for narration and first-person present tense for the letters makes it incredibly experiential, giving the writing a sense of immediacy as hurtful, devastating secrets are exposed with brutal honesty.
Elizabeth's letters to Mike describe the gut-wrenching grief and denial, and although she cannot see past her grief we can see how she is gradually adjusting, accepting her new reality. Step by step we journey with her, feeling the rawness her all-consuming grief until we can hardly bear it when life kicks her again. She wants to know how, she wants to know why, and yet these answers may never be hers.
I could identify very strongly with more than one character, and am proud to say I too have a Mell in my life, a fierce protector and sharer of memories.
But despite all this, it isn't a story of sadness. It's a story of hope. It's a story of suffering and making it through, of friends and family and rebuilding, and life.
Disclaimer: I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
[a:Stephanie Butland|5276201|Stephanie Butland|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s choice of the perfect tense for narration and first-person present tense for the letters makes it incredibly experiential, giving the writing a sense of immediacy as hurtful, devastating secrets are exposed with brutal honesty.
Elizabeth's letters to Mike describe the gut-wrenching grief and denial, and although she cannot see past her grief we can see how she is gradually adjusting, accepting her new reality. Step by step we journey with her, feeling the rawness her all-consuming grief until we can hardly bear it when life kicks her again. She wants to know how, she wants to know why, and yet these answers may never be hers.
I could identify very strongly with more than one character, and am proud to say I too have a Mell in my life, a fierce protector and sharer of memories.
But despite all this, it isn't a story of sadness. It's a story of hope. It's a story of suffering and making it through, of friends and family and rebuilding, and life.
Disclaimer: I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
anawilson05's review
3.0
I wish I could rate this higher but I can't. Unfortunately it had a very predictable arc and ending that I saw coming within the first quarter of the book.
The characters weren't really fleshed out and had no (forgive the pun) character or personality really.
It does mention in the author questions that tbis is Stephanie"s first book so I have to give her credit for that.
Not awful but sadly very formulaic and predictable
The characters weren't really fleshed out and had no (forgive the pun) character or personality really.
It does mention in the author questions that tbis is Stephanie"s first book so I have to give her credit for that.
Not awful but sadly very formulaic and predictable
taylorzuk's review against another edition
2.0
The book was overall boring, in my opinion. The plot was predictable and the characters were very flat. There is no substance and felt almost too YA for me. 2/5.