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A review by buecherdiebin
The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
This book seemed quite promising at the start but turned out to be a big disappointment. I read it as an audiobook and I listened to the last 30% on 1.25 speed because I was bored out of my mind.
At first, I liked the idea of a typing-pool narrator, as it could show the we're-in-this-together mentality I can very well imagine developing between women in a misogynistic working environment. Irina was a character made for good character development, and all in all the focus on women in a male-dominated area a good idea. This had the setting and plot to be a thrilling and engaging feminist spy novel.
The book even got me truly excited when Sally showed up and Irina developed a big crush on her, as I was hoping for some gratuitous lesbianism as soon as I read about the female spies setting, and there all my hopes and dreams were coming true!
Unfortunately it went all downhill from there. I think there are two main problems with this book.
First, the spy part of the novel - which is the main focus of its marketing after all - is extremely underwhelming.I thought the story was going to be about the main characters, Irina and Sally, procuring the novel, going behind the iron curtain, in constant, immediate and real danger of being caught. Instead we got non-characters getting the book out of the Soviet Union, and Sally and Irina just go to bookshops and fairs to acquire respectively distribute the book, never being in any real or palpable danger. This might be historically accurate (?) but it doesn't make for a very thrilling book.
Second, there are way too many characters, and I didn't connect with any of them. Their stories, actions and emotions all seemed very wooden and rushed.
For example, the romance between Irina and Sally ended up leaving me completely cold, because we were never given any real reason why they liked each other. We spend barely any time with them falling in love, then all of a sudden, Irina gets engaged to Teddy, Sally and Irina confess their feelings and sleep together, then Sally decides she has to leave Irina, all in the space of like five minutes, without delving at all into their decision-making process. Irina is just fine with suddenly realizing she's into women? Why did she get engaged to Ted anyway? Why does Sally just give up and leave her? Why does she suddenly get fired for being a lesbian? I certainly don’t know, though it might be possible I slept through the relevant parts.
At first, I liked the idea of a typing-pool narrator, as it could show the we're-in-this-together mentality I can very well imagine developing between women in a misogynistic working environment. Irina was a character made for good character development, and all in all the focus on women in a male-dominated area a good idea. This had the setting and plot to be a thrilling and engaging feminist spy novel.
Unfortunately it went all downhill from there. I think there are two main problems with this book.
First, the spy part of the novel - which is the main focus of its marketing after all - is extremely underwhelming.
Second, there are way too many characters, and I didn't connect with any of them. Their stories, actions and emotions all seemed very wooden and rushed.
Prescott’s writing left me cold, because she didn't really dive into her characters' emotions, just described a series of actions and events.
I read this book as an audiobook and I listened to the last 30% on 1.25 speed because I was bored out of my mind. The typists-narration I liked in the beginning ended up being a complete waste of time, because kept being told things that we already knew happened, or things that would have been much more captivating being told from the people actually concerned than some tepid second-hand account. For some reason there were even one or two boring chapters being told from Teddy's perspective and I have no clue why - I certainly did not care about Teddy,
This book easily could have been 100 pages shorter and given the same amount of information, or if it had to be this long, at least focus on the really interesting stuff and its characters’ emotions and motivations, instead of biting off more than it could chew and not really getting to the bottom of any of it. I suppose I did end up learning a bit more about Doctor Zhivago, but I might have preferred just reading the Wikipedia article for that instead of listening to this for 10+ hours.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault