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A review by rosie_b
The Best Kept Secret by Wendi Nunnery
4.0
*I received a copy of The Best Kept Secret in exchange for an honest review.
Why do we do it to ourselves, fellow readers? Why do we read books that make us hurt inside, and would make me cry if I wasn’t 90% Vulcan.
It’s taken me a while to write a coherent review of The Best Kept Secret, and I do hope is his coherent.
Synopsis & plot
The Best Kept Secret follows Emma, a Sophomore student who is beginning to discover that she doesn’t know everything about her friends, especially her best friend Andy. Amongst all of the excitement about prom, and attractive boys, she begins to find out what’s really going on.
This felt a little like a book of two halves. The first half was about teenage drama; who’s taking who to the prom, dresses, bitchy girls etc, which was fair enough, but it wasn’t entirely gripping. The second half was much more interesting when we start to discover ‘the secret’.
I truly felt for the characters and it made me feel hatred towards some of the other characters. Any author who can make you hate a character for the way they’ve behaved towards other characters, is a good author in my book.
The Best Kept Secret deals with a big, and awful topic. It’s the first time I’ve seen that particular topic featured in a book, and I felt that it was handled well.
And the ending; oh it was it was heartbreaking, and very sudden. I would have liked a couple of more paragraphs, or maybe just sentences, after the end to find out what Emma’s reactions were, though I’m sure that would have made it even more heartbreaking.
Characters
Our main character, Emma, is well-developed and is going through all the kinds of things every teenage girl (and maybe boys?) go through, which is easy for the reader to relate to.
Secondary characters, such as Andy, Deegan, and Jesse, are also well put together. That’s not to say they’re all likeable characters, because some of them aren’t at all, and you actually feel like you hate some of them.
There are also parents present in The Best Kept Secret. Can you imagine it; a young adult book with parents?! The shock. The relationship between Emma and her parents feels a little too perfect at times, but it’s nice that they’re there and makes it feel more realistic.
World building
The world building isn’t generally so important in contemporary novels, because it’s not really necessary. I can imagine what a school looks like, what a bedroom looks like, so the world building was perfectly acceptable for me.
Conclusion
I finished The Best Kept Secret two or three weeks ago, and I’ve found myself thinking about it a fair bit over the past couple of weeks, and it’s taken me a while to figure out exactly how I feel about it.
I conclude that it’s a gripping, touching, and heartbreaking novel that deals with a serious topic, that sticks with you.
http://www.eatreadglam.com/2015/06/the-best-kept-secret-wendi-nunnery.html
Why do we do it to ourselves, fellow readers? Why do we read books that make us hurt inside, and would make me cry if I wasn’t 90% Vulcan.
It’s taken me a while to write a coherent review of The Best Kept Secret, and I do hope is his coherent.
Synopsis & plot
The Best Kept Secret follows Emma, a Sophomore student who is beginning to discover that she doesn’t know everything about her friends, especially her best friend Andy. Amongst all of the excitement about prom, and attractive boys, she begins to find out what’s really going on.
This felt a little like a book of two halves. The first half was about teenage drama; who’s taking who to the prom, dresses, bitchy girls etc, which was fair enough, but it wasn’t entirely gripping. The second half was much more interesting when we start to discover ‘the secret’.
I truly felt for the characters and it made me feel hatred towards some of the other characters. Any author who can make you hate a character for the way they’ve behaved towards other characters, is a good author in my book.
The Best Kept Secret deals with a big, and awful topic. It’s the first time I’ve seen that particular topic featured in a book, and I felt that it was handled well.
And the ending; oh it was it was heartbreaking, and very sudden. I would have liked a couple of more paragraphs, or maybe just sentences, after the end to find out what Emma’s reactions were, though I’m sure that would have made it even more heartbreaking.
Characters
Our main character, Emma, is well-developed and is going through all the kinds of things every teenage girl (and maybe boys?) go through, which is easy for the reader to relate to.
Secondary characters, such as Andy, Deegan, and Jesse, are also well put together. That’s not to say they’re all likeable characters, because some of them aren’t at all, and you actually feel like you hate some of them.
There are also parents present in The Best Kept Secret. Can you imagine it; a young adult book with parents?! The shock. The relationship between Emma and her parents feels a little too perfect at times, but it’s nice that they’re there and makes it feel more realistic.
World building
The world building isn’t generally so important in contemporary novels, because it’s not really necessary. I can imagine what a school looks like, what a bedroom looks like, so the world building was perfectly acceptable for me.
Conclusion
I finished The Best Kept Secret two or three weeks ago, and I’ve found myself thinking about it a fair bit over the past couple of weeks, and it’s taken me a while to figure out exactly how I feel about it.
I conclude that it’s a gripping, touching, and heartbreaking novel that deals with a serious topic, that sticks with you.
http://www.eatreadglam.com/2015/06/the-best-kept-secret-wendi-nunnery.html