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A review by dani_1405
The Secret of You and Me by Melissa Lenhardt
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
This entire review is essentially going to be spoilers because I have so many issues with the contents of this book. Before that, I will say the overall writing of this book isn’t horrific, however the contents and the interactions between characters are where most of my issues lie.
Where do I even start? Let’s start with the hypersexualisation of queer people, more specifically sapphic relationships. This is a harmful trope in media and this book is riddled with it. At one point in an argument with Charlie, Sophie describes "I flinched at how he turned my time with Nora, something beautiful and full of love, into something crude and dirty" and yet, unless I missed something, all descriptions of their relationship had been involved with heavy make out sessions and sex. That's not me saying sex is dirty in anyway, but there had been no 'domestic' moments between Nora and Sophie to show the genuine love between the two. Another issue I had linked to sexuality and queerness is when Sophie asked Nora how she was supposed to trust her because she's bisexual. this is just another very harmful stereotype about bisexual people, and as a bisexual woman myself I really didn't like it.
The fact that the only Muslim character (one of the only character's who isn't white) was told that she "sounds like a terrorist" while speaking Farsi and again is later described as Nora's "terrorist girlfriend". Disgusting. I get that the small town is homophobic, racist and just prejudiced in every way possible but this just felt really unnecessary.
Speaking of the small town, as I said this small town is repeatedly presented as outwardly homophobic, racist, very conservative, very Christian. But it is overbearing. Characters make comments randomly in conversations just to prove their prejudice and then when Sophie finally announces that she's a lesbian in front of a crowd of these very conservative, very Christian people, not a single comment is made. I didn't want to have to read more homophobic abuse directed towards the characters, however it made absolutely no sense that they were suddenly so quiet when one of their most popular town members came out.
As well as this, pretty much every character in the book cheats on another character at some point, in fact I think the only relationship that doesn't have any instance of cheating is the one between Logan and Joaquin but even then they break up by the end of the book. This just makes the grown adult characters seem very childish and also seems ridiculous that again in a small town where everyone knows everyone's business, people are able to so easily get away with cheating on their spouses. As a separate point that is semi-linked to this because it's about relationships between the characters, the arguments that Nora, Sophie and Charlie have throughout this book are ridiculous and so selfish and sometimes Nora is in the wrong then Sophie says something outrageous and she's in the wrong and it's just a mess.
And now we come to Sophie's mother. The most Christian and homophobic of them all. Now while Sophie's mother is an abhorrent person, my first point about her is actually to do with Nora and Sophie's interaction with her after they've rekindled their relationship. Nora and Sophie repeatedly antagonise Sophie's mother with jokes about them making out, having sex and in general just being together. And while I understand the comedy in purposefully making a bigot uncomfortable, it happens to often and so it starts to feel childish? Anyway, the other issues I had involving Sophie's mother is the ending.
We end the book with Sophie's mother coming to Nora's house, finding Nora and Sophie together and once again berating them for even being in the same room. Nora and Sophie stand up for themselves, which is a good thing, but then Sophie's mother reveals that she was going to charge Nora with rape when they were younger. This is then explained as the reason why Nora's father sent her to basic training, to protect her, while Nora thought he couldn't deal with having a queer daughter. And so, Nora's whole perception of her life is turned on it's head, and then the book just ends with Nora and Sophie saying they love each other. Considering there were so many other random plot points that got development or some form of resolution it felt so strange to have a pretty major reveal on literally the second to last page of this book.
Overall, the book was awful, the reading experience was even worse and I wouldn't even recommend this to my worst enemy.
The fact that the only Muslim character (one of the only character's who isn't white) was told that she "sounds like a terrorist" while speaking Farsi and again is later described as Nora's "terrorist girlfriend". Disgusting. I get that the small town is homophobic, racist and just prejudiced in every way possible but this just felt really unnecessary.
Speaking of the small town, as I said this small town is repeatedly presented as outwardly homophobic, racist, very conservative, very Christian. But it is overbearing. Characters make comments randomly in conversations just to prove their prejudice and then when Sophie finally announces that she's a lesbian in front of a crowd of these very conservative, very Christian people, not a single comment is made. I didn't want to have to read more homophobic abuse directed towards the characters, however it made absolutely no sense that they were suddenly so quiet when one of their most popular town members came out.
As well as this, pretty much every character in the book cheats on another character at some point, in fact I think the only relationship that doesn't have any instance of cheating is the one between Logan and Joaquin but even then they break up by the end of the book. This just makes the grown adult characters seem very childish and also seems ridiculous that again in a small town where everyone knows everyone's business, people are able to so easily get away with cheating on their spouses. As a separate point that is semi-linked to this because it's about relationships between the characters, the arguments that Nora, Sophie and Charlie have throughout this book are ridiculous and so selfish and sometimes Nora is in the wrong then Sophie says something outrageous and she's in the wrong and it's just a mess.
And now we come to Sophie's mother. The most Christian and homophobic of them all. Now while Sophie's mother is an abhorrent person, my first point about her is actually to do with Nora and Sophie's interaction with her after they've rekindled their relationship. Nora and Sophie repeatedly antagonise Sophie's mother with jokes about them making out, having sex and in general just being together. And while I understand the comedy in purposefully making a bigot uncomfortable, it happens to often and so it starts to feel childish? Anyway, the other issues I had involving Sophie's mother is the ending.
We end the book with Sophie's mother coming to Nora's house, finding Nora and Sophie together and once again berating them for even being in the same room. Nora and Sophie stand up for themselves, which is a good thing, but then Sophie's mother reveals that she was going to charge Nora with rape when they were younger. This is then explained as the reason why Nora's father sent her to basic training, to protect her, while Nora thought he couldn't deal with having a queer daughter. And so, Nora's whole perception of her life is turned on it's head, and then the book just ends with Nora and Sophie saying they love each other. Considering there were so many other random plot points that got development or some form of resolution it felt so strange to have a pretty major reveal on literally the second to last page of this book.
Overall, the book was awful, the reading experience was even worse and I wouldn't even recommend this to my worst enemy.