Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - The Truth About Keeping Secrets

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Truth About Keeping Secrets by Savannah Brown

26 reviews

cvbattum's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I went into this book not expecting a whole lot. I just knew Savannah Brown from YouTube, liked those videos (a lot) and I figured I wanted to read what she'd written.

First of all, I am a huge fan of Savannah's writing style, which I think is well-suited to the exploration of emotion this book is. Specifically, the emotion of grief, from the perspective of an already hurting seventeen year old girl. The descriptions of feelings are intense, but also beautiful, and they're really gripping.

What's less than perfect about it, is the lack of depth to the mystery of the plot, as well as the lack of character depth. Both of these are forgivable when looked at the story as an exploration of grief and romance, but not so much when looked at it from the perspective of a thriller. The two central mysteries could be solved quite quickly, and I wasn't surprised for the story to take the turns that it did. I found this to be forgivable, because there was still enough suspense that made me unable to put it away, and in the end I didn't feel like the plot was the most important part of the book; it merely served as a means to explore Sydney's grief.

Even though the characters (especially narrator and protagonist Sydney) have great and believable emotional depth, their more superficial traits were almost not explored at all. At the end of the book, I still had no idea what any the characters like to do, what their hobbies or favorite things are, what their ambitions or interests are, etc. If it's not directly relevant to either the mystery or the emotions, it's not there. I think I'd have liked to see a little more of that.

What I absolutely loved about the book are the central themes of loss and ending, and how all-encompassing those can be to our lives. The romance and character relations were well-written and believable, uplifting and heartbreaking. Like I mentioned earlier, Savannah Brown is really good at writing about feelings and emotions, and manages to make you feel like you're reading your own internal monologue, even to feelings you've never experienced. The book has a very dark setting and theme, but lights up so much in sweet moments that leave a warm fuzzy feeling.

In conclusion: It's a great book for younger people (though not necessarily 17yo girls only; I'm 23M), who are always stuck in their own heads a bit too much, and who like flowy, occasionally poetic prose. People of any age, who have experiences of grief/death, loneliness, unrequited (queer) romance or sexual/domestic abuse might find this book difficult to read, but might also find it cathartic to read about someone else's unfiltered and raw experience, and Spoilerfeel better after the positive ending. Highly recommended!

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itsareference's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The book had some flaws but it depicted trauma, grief, and abuse in an extremely accurate light.

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anniereads221's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

3.0

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pastelkerstin's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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aya347's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Didnt expect to love this one as much as I did.
The characters were written beautifully and never felt like a tropes that were supposed to fill but like people you can actually meet.
The subject of death and grief in a very honest and understanding way.
I got really sucked into this book, the pacing is great to keep you on your toes when it wants to.
my only complaint was that the ending was pretty obvious from the moment we met the suspect

Bonus: queer representation

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