âVisceralâŚa vital, heart-wrenching account of one teenâs harrowing experience.â âPublishers Weekly (starred review)
In the vein of The Way I Used to Be and Kelly Loy Gilbertâs Conviction, this âexceedingly well-written, powerful, and suspensefulâ (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) young adult novel follows a girlâs struggle to reconcile friendship, sexual abuse, and the secrets we bury deep down inside to survive.
High school freshman Emma Clark harbors a secretâa secret so vile it could implode her whole world, a secret sheâs managed to keep buriedâŚuntil the day her best friend, Hannah, accuses Emmaâs father of a heinous crime.
Following her fatherâs arrest and torn between loyalty to Hannah and to her family, Emma is devastated to learn she must testify against Hannahâs word in order to keep her family together. As Emma wrestles with this impossible decision, her fractured past begins to resurface piece by painful pieceâcausing the line to blur between her present-day reality and the dark fairy tales she writes to survive, all of which threaten to expose Emmaâs long-buried truths.
The Secrets We Keep explores the complex, powerful bonds of friendship and family, asking the difficult question: At what point does Emmaâs loyalty to another become a betrayal of herself? And perhaps the toughest question of all: Can Emma find the strength to finally unbury her secret?