Uptown Oracle Reads… The Truth About Keeping Secrets

The Truth about Keeping Secrets
Savannah Brown

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Sydney’s dad is the only psychiatrist for miles around their small Ohio town. He is also unexpectedly dead. Is Sydney crazy, or is it kind of weird that her dad-a guy whose entire job revolved around other peoples’ secrets-crashed alone, with no explanation? And why is June Copeland, homecoming queen and the town’s golden child, at his funeral? As the two girls grow closer in the wake of the accident, it’s clear that not everyone is happy about their new friendship. But what is picture perfect June still hiding? And does Sydney even want to know?

Unfortunately, I found The Truth About Keeping Secrets fairly forgettable. This could be a little bit because I read it during Uni when I was (obviously) trying to retain information for that, however when a friend asked me about it I could barely remember the plot! A good thing that I do remember is that it’s a fast and easy read, which I devoured in a couple of days despite being stressed at university.

The Truth About Keeping Secrets handles grief really well as we watch Sydney and the other characters handle the death of her dad in different ways. It explores the differences between Sydney and her Mother, and also how it affected their interactions with each other. It also discusses how others treat people who have lost someone, as Sydney gets irritated by others treating her differently afterwards.

The book also touches on the topics of abuse and sexuality and goes in depth into both of them. I won’t say more as I don’t want to spoil the book – but both of these are written well in how they’re portrayed. Plus, how they are handled by the characters feels true to life.

The book has a large mystery element which kept me on the hook throughout, which is probably how I read it so fast. I was constantly trying to guess and second guess what was going to happen and was happily surprised by the end. I would say that we only got into the mystery side about halfway in, so if you’re in for that reason then you may need to wait it out.

Sydney herself felt like the perfect POV character for this particular story. The way she handled her grief, whilst unhealthy, felt extremely understandable. I loved how she was sarcastic, but every so often fragile and emotional. She had the perfect balance that made her likeable and not just a typical grieving daughter that was doing unhealthy activities.

Overall, I have very mixed feelings about whether I actually liked the book or not because I had to google what had happened before writing the review. On one hand, as it came back to me, I remembered how much I was on edge for the mystery part of the book. On the other, I don’t know whether me forgetting so much of it is a reason to show that I maybe didn’t? I feel like the topics discussed in the book were extremely well written and I can now remember them quite clearly, however the characters and the full plot line maybe not so much. I enjoyed aspects of the whole and that’s good enough for me.

Positives

• Topics of grief, sexuality and abuse well-written
• Teenage voice

Negatives

• Forgettable
• Pacing at start

I received The Truth about Keeping Secrets by Savannah Brown from the publisher via Netgalley. This is an unbiased and honest review.