Reviews

It's Not Like It's a Secret by Misa Sugiura

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lanalewis0's review against another edition

3.0

i think the book was nice. the representation in the book was very good and the characters were enjoyable, although i did not like christina.

spacebun's review against another edition

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I was expecting a queer love story. Instead I got smacked in the face with

a cheating story line.

natalyawill's review against another edition

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3.0

I have never in my life been so close to DNFing a book virtually at the end. I like the plot and where it was moving and then all of a sudden there was a streak of toxicity, the cheating? The racism and stereotyping? The revenge cheating? The outrightedly being evil to Caleb and continuing it on? I understand and appreciate we are supposed to see the parallels between sana and her parents and whilst sometimes that was excuted well, other times it felt like the author was throwing in terrible behaviours because she had no other way of showing sana is a direct product of the pair of them. It didn’t feel like sana was acting based on deep rooted ingrained bias but instead having random quirky moments where she would mirror her mums racism (despite knowing it’s wrong and arguing against it earlier in the book) or just cheating and justifying it (even though she’s so hurt and angry at her dad).

Most of the characters in this book are insufferable. Elaine being the worst, she is outwardly homophobic throughout the whole thing and no one bats an eyelid, they just see her as being annoying, she encourages sana to do horrific things. She doesn’t feel like a real character, rather just a piece placed in the story to facilitate sanas poor decision making so 100% of the blame is never really on sana. Elaine doesn’t face any repercussions for her actions, she’s never pulled up, and in real life I’m not sure she’s someone anyone would want to befriend.

Jamie was likeable until she wasn’t, her cheating was brushed over, the going on a date was brushed over. The apology was simple and seen as enough because of the looming fact that sana had done so much worse.

Caleb was annoying, I felt somewhat sorry for him but realistically by that point my perception of him was set, he spent the first section of the book being a too cool, non conformist, whilst still managing to stereotype everyone edge lord.

Sanas mum was there to be a stereotype of a Japanese mum. She deserves better and I wish we saw more growth from her. She rejects everything alien to her, therefore she’s destined to live a life of misery being too accepting of her cheating absent husband, and refusing to accept a lesbian daughter (until she did). I felt there was a theme of retconning in the name of tying up loose ends. Sanas mum calling gay people freaks turning into ‘I didn’t know freak meant bad’ was cheap. There was no real growth just an immediate and unrealistic change of heart.

I cannot stand when books throw some kind of conflict in the last 20% for the sake of resolution. It’s something that’s really growing to bother me now, it’s not to move the plot forward but quite literally just for the sake of it and because nothing real has happened in the rest of the book. This book should have started the wrap up process at the 80% mark. What has happened doesn’t need a relationship resolution at all, there should be no coming back from that, but it definitely needed a personal one.

Sana is not a good person, i liked that she was angry enough to defy her parents (half heartedly), I like that she realised some of her mothers teachings were there to keep her silenced and to endure pain and I like that she realised she can do better than that. All of her problems realistically stemmed from this, her leading Caleb on (though illustrated terribly) was done as a result of her feeling she has to stay silent endure to make others happy. Similar somewhat with Jamie, she just let Jamie do whatever until she felt so walked over she did whatever she wanted (with the help of Elaine’s malice). The grand gesture at the end was forced, I’m in two minds thinking it’s quite cute that she stepped up and faced a fear. But also how it all came about was so unrealistic and ruined it a little bit.

I would say for the most part I enjoyed this book, the author was good in that she knew what issues the characters had and how she wanted them to be resolved. I just think the execution at times was lazy and unthought out. I feel the second half of the book was perhaps rushed, it feels completely different in terms of consistency from the first half, and actually very messy.

‘You know how if a drowning person can’t swim, the best thing they can do is stop trying to swim, and just float? But instead they panic and flail, and the more they flail the worse it gets, and the worse it gets the more they flail? Right now, that’s me. Flailing. Thrashing. And making things worse.’

‘Silence can be a plan / rigorously executed.’

‘I pull my knees up to my chest. Grit my teeth. Try to decide whether I should beg her to stay or yell at her to get out.’

‘She’s not denying it. I feel like the ground is suddenly tilting, like my life is tipping over.’

“Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—” by Emily Dickinson