Savannah Brown

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 teenagers 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? The Truth About Keeping Secrets is a page turning, voice led, high school thriller.

The Truth about Keeping Secrets

Taha

Review
I am so painfully not the target demographic for this book so take this review with a grain of salt.

This book is beautifully written and a joy to read, Savannah Brown's background as a poet really comes into its own - the prose are vivid and illustrative which made immersion easy. It feels like the prose of a seasoned novelist, not a debut author - refined yet simple. The dialogue felt realistic and the writing was dark and funny at the same time - a wonderful read.

However, I found the first half to be extremely slow - I felt myself willing the story on but it crawls. This isn't usually an issue for me in character driven narratives but this wasn't that. I found the mystery to be a little light and felt a little unsatisfied reading the first half. I found myself piecing parts together before the narrative reveals it. And then, the second half explodes, the plot becomes enthralling. I was hooked, I stayed up way too late reading the second half in one sitting.
Recommend to a friend? No
Read again? No
Inspired me to create? No
Filled me with the inescapable dread that I will never be able to make something as good as this? No

chloe rae

I loved this!
This is my first time ever reading anything by Savannah Brown and I gotta say, I was a little blown away. I've followed her on youtube for years, never got around to reading her poetry collection (still want to!) but was immediately intrigued when I heard about this book. I've been so distracted and antsy, lately, and the only thing really keeping my interest right now is mystery so I knew I needed to pick this up right away. And I'm glad I did!
First off, I loved how dark it went. I loved all the commentary on death and how it affects people differently; grief and its many faces. I loved the sometimes raw and uncomfortable metaphors she used. Her writing was very distinct and lovely but always had this tinge of darkness to it. I LOVED IT.
I loved Sydney. I LOVED June. I loved Leo. I love how the relationship with her dad (and mom) was discussed.
I loved a lot about this book. I thought maybe there were some pacing issues in the middle but also that could've just been me. I wished for a slightly different ending than the one we got, but I also understand the one we received. I'm very happy with the ending (SUUUPER happy) but I just wanted one other thing (if you know, you know). 
I am now super excited to read everything else by Savannah. I'll start with her poetry and hopefully she'll have another book soon. Can't wait to read it!

Aimee

loved this book and also the author is super gorgeous

Courtney 

Elinor

i devoured like 95% of this book in one evening and i was only going to read for a bit but i somehow read the whole thing because i wanted to know what happened next. beautifully written book and i dont know what to say really. it explores really hard themes like homophobia and grief and grief through the eyes of a teenager. i dont think i know how to word it. i just know i thought this was a good book

Ben Bastow

Check out my review at:

https://bensbibliophilicreads.co.uk/2...

Simply put, I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH!!! Checkout my post for more!

reads very like a John Green book/Looking for Alaska vibes. make of that what you will, some people like it, some people don't - it wasn't really my cup of tea

Revna

reads very like a John Green book/Looking for Alaska vibes. make of that what you will, some people like it, some people don't - it wasn't really my cup of tea



Archita Birla

i've been wanting to read this book for a while, as I've watched savannah brown's youtube videos for some time now. overall, i really enjoyed this book! the exploration of grief and fear is captivating. 

i feel like the first half of the book was a bit slower than i would've liked and conversely the last quarter had SO MUCH going into it, that it felt paced in a somewhat rushed way? like there was a lot going on and different aspects of it were not explored as much as they could've been.

Originally published in the United Kingdom by Penguin Books in 2019.

mia ¿

** spoiler alert **
           this book was so good!!!!! i was kinda worried about it not being great because it had an average rating of blow 4 stars, but it sounded interesting to me so i didn't let that stop me. (i know 3.92 isn't even bad, i just feel like this book deserves a rating higher than that)

my favorite thing about this book was the writing. sometimes i'll read a ya book and just feel embarrassed that the author thinks teenagers aren't smart enough to read more sophisticated writing (see my last review) but this author did not hold back. the writing felt poetic, and when i realized the writer was a poet, everything made sense. but the writing still felt real!!! it didn't feel unnecessary or flowery, and even the dialogue felt real. this book made me sad that more people don't give ya a chance, but there are so many books with less than stellar writing that i understand why they've given up on the genre.

i still don't know how to structure a review so here are some of my misc. thoughts:
the book had a really great atmosphere! i kinda wish i had read it in the fall for that matter but maybe i'll reread it then...
the topic of grief was handled really well in this book in my opinion. so many ya books i have read have dealt with this topic but none have felt as real as this one.
there were a lot of characters in this book but they all felt important and gave the main character some very realistic relationships. the whole book just felt real, i guess.
the thriller aspect of this book was a bit of a slow burn, but it was worth it in the end. by the time i got to the last fifty pages, i couldn't stop reading. it may not have been a great, capital t thriller, but it was a good book overall so i don't even care.

read this book, duh!

Tanja Hoffmann

This was so good!! Truly well written, engaging, but also smart and emotional while also being cute. And it was as gay as it possibly could have been, which is always good lol

Zoe Smolen

This book has been on my radar for a while, but I'm not 100% sure how I felt about it. I think I wanted a little bit more of a thriller than what it ended up being. That being said, I actually really enjoyed how realistic this book seemed about death and abusive relationships for teenagers. While it's not 100% realistic, I do think it tackles some pretty real elements head on. The characters were enjoyable - though I definitely wanted more Leo. 

Thanks to Netgalley for a free copy in exchange or an honest review.

esme villanueva

A stunning debut thriller from poet and writer Savannah Brown. 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 teenagers 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? THE TRUTH ABOUT KEEPING SECRETS is a page turning, voice led, high school thriller.

The Truth about Keeping Secrets

Reviews