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.

Sydney's dad dies unexpectedly and she is quiet surprised by some.of the people that have showed up for his funeral........ a  very easy read ..

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.

This book really drew me in, and what I thought would be a slow-moving novel turned into quite a page-turner, especially at the end.  Despite being an adult author writing for a primarily teen/tween audience, I never felt like Brown was talking down to her readers, which is really important for a YA novel to be truly good.

Brown does an excellent job portraying teenagers, grief, and abuse very realistically.  Every time I questioned why a character would make such a dumb/unsafe/etc. (in my opinion) choice, I found myself reflecting on what it was like when I was a teenager and realizing that choice did in fact make sense for someone at that level of emotional maturity. 

The complexity with which Sydney, her mom, and June experience grief and try to cope with it - sometimes in healthy ways, sometimes in very unhealthy ways - is also fantastically portrayed, and I really appreciated that.

My only complaint about this novel was the dialogue - not the wording itself, but the way it's written down with single quotation marks (not double) and often with few interjections such as "Sydney responded..." to remind us who is speaking at a particular turn.  That could be particularly confusing in long conversations, and I would sometimes have to count back to the last interjection or even the beginning of the conversation to figure out who was speaking in a particular spot.

For me this book was a slow starter, I found it quite difficult to get into and in some ways the narrative felt disjointed. However I am glad i persevered as it turns into a very realistic and tense storyline. I think the author has done a great job of drawing together the problems encountered after a death and then injecting a little something to make it all fell just a bit uncomfortable. I liked the characterisation which was very believable.

For me it just misses the 5 star rating for the start but i would definitely read more from this author

A really gripping thriller that kept me guessing until the very last page. I loved it. Would recommend!

The Truth About Keeping Secrets by Savannah Brown is a story of grief, trust and friendship.  The story sucked me right in at the beginning as the protagonist, Sydney, goes on a quest to find out what happened to her dad, who had died in a crash.  I loved the complex characters in this novel, which kept me gripped to the end.  4 stars

It took me a good while to get into this book, but once I did, I didn't want to put it down until I found out what was going to happen. Judging from the synopsis, I thought that this was going to be a thriller mystery, but instead, it addressed very important and often neglected topics like mental health, male privilege and abuse. On top of that, there was a female/female romance which I always think should be seen more often in YA.

I wasn't the biggest fan of the writing style because it sometimes felt too forcibly 'teen', but it still worked well with the story. 

Overall, I think this was a beautiful portrayal of Sydney's inner character development and struggle with grief and identity and definitely kept me engaged the entire time.

This book is well written and enjoyable. The characters are mostly well developed, apart from those who are mysterious intentionally. The plot is slightly fantastical for a YA anti-hero. There is definitely a need to suspend reality during parts. Overall a 4/5 great read.

Sydney's father is the only psychiatrist in town. He is also dead. Sydney cannot bring herself to believe it was an accident. She also cannot imagine why the most popular girl in the school should turn up at his funeral- this must mean something mustn't it?

This book was a heart wrenching portrayal of the grief of a teenage girl- a girl who already finds herself as different from the general populace being the only self acknowledged lesbian in the school.

I found this book very moving, but I also found it rather slow for my taste. I think I was expecting a bit more of a thriller & that is why I couldn't score it more highly.

Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

Oh my! A fantastic book- I think this may be a contender for book of the year. So well written, I can’t wait to see what else Brown has up her sleeve- she has a way with words that just lifts you up and sucks you in to her world. The ending was a complete shock to me. Fantastic.

An incredible portrayal of the fear of death in a YA mystery/grief story. I could not stop highlighting quotes (on my Kindle, don't panic). Full review in my March Wrap Up on booktube! (ReadByJess)

I received a copy of The Truth About Keeping Secrets in exchange for an honest review, thanks NetGalley and Penguin Random House!

Sydney’s dad has just died. It was a car crash – a tragedy, yes, but an everyday occurance. Nothing suspicious. But Sydney thinks there is. She thinks someone else was involved. Someone who made him swerve, or who fiddled with the breaks, but she’s having trouble convincing others of her theory. Her best friend Olivia thinks losing the plot – and is telling everyone at school so – and her mother thinks she’s grieving. But then there’s June. June, who was one of her dad’s psychiatry patients. June, who there is a folder of information about downstairs in Sydney’s dad’s office – a folder that could answer so many of her questions. June, who is keeping a secret. A secret about Sydney’s dad. Sydney starts to get closer to June, who becomes her only friend, until she knows she is so much more than just a friend to her. But with June acting weird and weird text messages about her dad’s death, Sydney doesn’t know who to trust.

I love Sydney. I think one of the main reasons for this is that I relate to her really well. My dad died when I was 7, but I feel that if it happened when I was older, when I was 17 like Sydney is, I think I would have reacted similarly to her. The grief and heartache is raw and emotional and beautifully written about, and for that I commend Brown 100%. Obviously everyone’s experience of grief is going to be different, and there was definitely no suspicion of murder with my dad, but I think it’s so realistically traumatic. There is anger and frustration, but there is also bleak sadness, so much so that the book peaks and troughs in its emotions, which made Sydney feel real and relatable.

I also loved her relationship with June. A slow burn, for sure, but both girls are dealing with things, separate things the other will never understand, each is distant and unavailable and yet they fall for each other anyway. However, it’s not a healthy obsessions that Sydney has with June. She pushes away her other friends, she states clearly she doesn’t like to share her, and her mood completely revolves around June acts – but this is noted. It’s pointed out that it’s not healthy – Sydney knows it’s not. But it’s great to read about a less than perfect relationship where each party knows it’s not good, and it’s not portrayed as healthy or #relationshipgoals.

But, the way Sydney talks about June, their interactions, the ease with which they act around each other, is, for the most part, so sweet to read. Especially because of Bea (but I’ll leave that for when you read the book).

As for the thriller aspect of this novel, again, I loved it. I was picking each character out – it’s them, it’s them – but when it came down to it, to the reveal, you have that ‘oh shit’ moment when you realise where it’s going and it’s brilliant. It was gripping from the start and pacey, even though it’s also not pacey? I was definitely kept hooked throughout – on both the mystery and the relationship – but there were times it was slow and gradual – both which worked really well to build up the tension and make you carry on reading.

However, be warned that this isn’t a happy book, and not only because it deals with grief and messed up teenagers. Savannah Brown has posted on her Goodreads review for this book a link to a trigger warning page on her website, which might be useful for you to read before heading into it (no spoilers).

Please go out and read The Truth About Keeping Secrets! I still think it’s very rare we get thrillers centred around queer characters and this is a really good example of it done well!

4 out of 5 stars.

The Truth About Keeping Secrets is out now!