Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review. This was posted on Goodreads 10 Aug 2019 however has not appeared on Netgalley; many apologies!

I feel that I didn't read the same book as many of the Goodreads reviewers. It was a fairly forgettable contemporary teen fiction novel. The writing is good and the structure is good, but it does feel a bit overwritten in places.

This, however, is not a thriller. It is a multi-layered, emotional exploration of grief. The mystery part is barely a mystery and is only referred to as an afterthought.

It is a good enough story to lose a few hours too with excellent revenge near the end. Without the revenge, it veers toward a cheesy ending. There are so many issues in this book- grief, domestic violence, race, homophobia, mental health- it does feel like a game of contemporary teen fiction bingo.

Great exploration of themes in this book and an excellent summary to finding out 'who' is behind it all. Brilliant!

I really liked the writing style and the characters in the book, although there was a lot of dialogue in the book. I did like the story however I expected something else to be the big reveal especially because of the mystery being built up.

I don't normally read YA books, but this I couldn't put down. A fabulously written murder-mystery that encapsulated so much more. Definitely a recommended read.

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

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I am always sceptical about debut novels, don't get me wrong I like to support them but I always worry that I will not enjoy the book. This was such a good debut and it surprised me in a really good way.

Trigger warnings for: abuse, grief and sexuality. However they are managed so sensitively and beautifully that I highly suggest that you do not let that put you off.

I love Savannah Brown's writing style, it is so beautiful. It just flows so easily and sucks you straight into the story. I really struggled to put this book down. Actually, who am I kidding? I didn't put this book down, I read it in one sitting. This book gives me so many emotions and in turn covers so many emotions and I just cannot praise it enough.

The characters feel so real, and I built up such a connection with them. I did not want to story to end and the connection to fade I could read this book over and over again.

Well done Savannah Brown you created such a wonderful story with such beautiful characters. I cannot wait to see what you write next. I will recommend to everybody!

While there's a lot of promise to this book, for some reason, I couldn't connect with it. It seemed to be a little too over the top and while there were interesting themes to be explored, it was all a little too over the top for my taste.

I suspect this will be a hit with YA fans who aren't that bothered by realistic characters and story lines, but it wasn't for me.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC without obligation.

There's a lot that I enjoyed about this book. I mean, it's an f/f mystery, so that's already a lot! It is quite a dark book, and starts off very depressing, but I think it does a good job of dealing with some of these heavy themes. I also really liked the sapphic relationship here. I liked the way it was developed, and that was can clearly see the good and the bad about the two characters and how they relate to each other. I also liked that they both address the potential unhealthy stuff in their relationship in the narrative.

The mystery was...okay. I figured it out soon enough but I think it was organically done and felt fully fleshed out for the most part. I guess I was a little annoyed because when we get to the reveal and find out why everything happened, Sydney's role in it seems...unimportant. Like she could have not existed, and the plot of the mystery would have gone on essentially the same way? The book is a lot more than just the mystery but I still feel like Sydney should have been more than basically a coincidence to the mystery plot.

I was also quite annoyed at the fact that the book is centered on the death of a therapist but then it falls into the same trope of bad people doing bad things because they're mentally ill. It just seemed to cheapen everything and the book would have been more or less the exact same without that being put into it.

Another thing that irritated me - and this is mostly because this is something that keeps happening in YA and I'm tired of it - was that the love interest, June, is biracial, but you have never realised if June hadn't specifically said, "I'm biracial," about halfway through the book. Because it's literally never mentioned again, and even though Sydney is obsessed with this girl, she doesn't give much of an indication to the fact that June is biracial. I don't know. I'm just tired of surface-level "representation" that is not representation at all.

In any case, I did enjoy the book and I was turning the pages pretty fast to find out what was going to happen!

This is a YA thriller bt it is so much more too. It was a beautifully written account of grief and i read it one sitting

"Dad never goes away. He's in the tress, and the inside of my eyelids, and sewn into my flesh. This isn't something I can change"

A strong thriller with a great voice: the writer really nails the tone and voice of a teenage girl, so well that I could have believed that she was a teenage girl herself as she wrote!

It's a fun journey into death, grief, friendship, and sexuality.

This novel is poignant, creepy and brilliantly scribed. Not only does it explore bereavement, but it weaves in other plotlines too. I liked the quirkiness of the characters and the organic underlying romance that was a slow but appealing burner. Sydney is such a plausible character. Her overpowering grief and her struggle to move on and proces it had me near to tears very often. At one point when she discovers the book about grief processes, highlighted by her mother, I just wanted to pick her up and hold her till she was stronger. The ongoing mystery surrounding her father's death and his relationship with her friend June is tantalisingly dangled just out of reach, keeping me hooked till the end. This is, despite the subject matter, both uplifting and informative. Highly recommended.

This is not a fast paced thriller with a huge reveal instead it is a well written, thoughtful book about death, love, grief and friendship within a background of a tragic accident ... or not. I read it feeling empathy with Sydney who along with June were the most well drawn characters. I’ll be looking out for more from this author.

I really enjoyed the truth about keeping secrets by Savannah Brown, it was fast paced and kept me interested all the way through. I've recommended this to everyone as I enjoyed it so much.

Sydney lives in a small town and her father has just died. The story takes us through her life so far and we find out out that along with grief she has so many other teenage issues that every teenager goes through and it just breaks your heart. You can feel her grief and see through her coping mechanisms. The second half of the book gets more sinister. Very well written!

Loved this book, kept me guessing until the end. Easy read, but difficult to put down sometimes, I just wanted to keep on going. Highly recommend

Really enjoyed this book- Brown is a talented writer with a unique style. I love the LGBTQ+ representation, and think that it’s great that it adds to the YA market .

This was a story with lots of drama and mystery. Predominantly about how a girls deals with the death of her father but with lots of asides. Excellent Y A Story

I am in charge of our Senior School library and am looking for a diverse array of new books to furnish their shelves with and inspire our young people to read a wider and more diverse range of books as they move through the senior school. It is hard sometimes to find books that will grab the attention of young people as their time is short and we are competing against technology and online entertainments.
This was a thought-provoking and well-written read that will appeal to young readers across the board. It had a really strong voice and a compelling narrative that I think would capture their attention and draw them in. It kept me engrossed and I think that it's so important that the books that we purchase for both our young people and our staff are appealing to as broad a range of readers as possible - as well as providing them with something a little 'different' that they might not have come across in school libraries before.
This was a really enjoyable read and I will definitely be purchasing a copy for school so that our young people can enjoy it for themselves. A satisfying and well-crafted read that I keep thinking about long after closing its final page - and that definitely makes it a must-buy for me!

Okay, yeah, no. The tone is completely off for the situation - completely. I mean, miles and miles and miles away. It feels shallow and cold and flat; something that you most certainly do not want to come across as in the protagonist's father's funeral scene. Grief, I have found, is all-consuming and its juxtaposition in this book with the more 'trivial' details of teenage life, only managed to cheapen it as opposed to adding nuance. It is really odd, because the book has been widely praised (in the reviews I have seen, at least) as both a thriller and a deft exploration of grief, but I see no trace of either of them here.

What a story! Could not put this book down. Had me page turning well into the night.
Well written and stunning story about a girl who seeks the truth. She knows her Dad isn't dead- even though everyone says he is. It is a powerful tale of grief and coping, sadness and love.