Sydney’s dad is a psychiatrist, and he’s also suddenly dead. Everyone around her keeps telling her it was just an accident. Sydney believes that there is more to it than that – he was a man that knew everyone’s secrets, so isn’t it weird that he crashed alone with no explanation? Then Sydney starts getting these creepy and mysterious texts, and it all seems linked to her dad. Is she seeing connections that aren’t really there, or is there really something more sinister going on?

I’ve been really excited about The Truth About Keeping Secrets for a while now, especially after hearing it was a queer mystery/thriller. I’m not going to lie, I struggled with it a little at first, it was very character driven and almost nothing happened, which is why I dropped a star and it is definitely a slow paced book that focuses more on characters and their relationships. But, I did really grow to love it and the main protagonist, Sydney.

Sydney is a brilliant, albeit a little disturbed, character. After her father died, she has this acute fear of death and she kind of has this morbid fascination with it. She’s struggling with how to cope with her father’s death and what it all means in the grand scheme of things. She feels guilty for living while he doesn’t. She’s angry, confused, and scared about the world around her. The Truth About Keeping Secrets is less about the mystery and more about character study.

The Truth About Keeping Secrets mainly explores the many facets of grief and how some coping mechanisms aren’t always healthy. I think it did it really well. Grief isn’t the only topic it explores as it does highlight some other really important and difficult topics too such as abusive relationships. I do want to give some trigger warnings though for anxiety, PTSD, depression, self-harm, suicide, death, homophobia, forced coming-out, and sexual and emotional abuse.

Another prominent aspect of The Truth About Keeping Secrets is the relationship between Sydney and Jude, who is a girl that comes into Sydney’s life after her father’s death. Jude is a mystery, and their relationship is complicated but also really great. It is a romantic relationship but it did explore the unrequited crush thing really well.

The Truth About Keeping Secrets is an atmospheric, addictive, intense, and emotional book with a large focus on characters but also with a slow burn mystery, and a book that I would highly recommend.

|3.5 stars|

Sydney loses her dad-the only psychiatrist in a small Ohio town, and that pushes her into the world of depression and crazy pass times, including watching random people die again and again. But what makes it all suspicious is July Copeland’s sudden involvement in her life right after her father’s accident and creepy messages saying that her Dad’s death was in fact, a murder. Sydney, with the help of June, deals with her grief, but the messages won’t stop coming and no one is ready to believe Sydney until she meets Leo.

‘The Truth About Keeping Secrets’ is a look into the mind of a teenager who had lost her father and a child trying to connect with her mom so that they can share their pain. It is also about finding love in the craziest of situation. While the mystery unfolds very slowly, we get to see Sydney’s dynamics with her friends at school and at the support group she is forced to attend.

The story also brings out the dangerous consequences of a toxic relationship and that it is important to talk to people about it and get out of it as soon as possible. The book is essentially YA, the pace is fast and the writing is pretty simple. The plot feels like a drag sometimes, but that also helps us to get to know the very few characters well (and take our mind off the stalker).

Sydney lives in a small Ohio town where her dad was the only psychiatrist for miles before he unexpectedly died. Could Sydney be crazy in thinking that her day, a man whose entire job revolved around other peoples’ secrets, crashed his car along with no explanation? Also, why is June Copeland, the homecoming queen and the town’s golden child at Sydney’s dad’s funeral? When Sydney and June grow closer in the wake of the accident, not everyone is happy about their new friendship. What is the picture perfect June hiding and does Sydney even want to know?

9780241346303The Truth About Keeping Secrets is such a stunning debut novel! This book covers a lot of intense topics, grief, abuse, sexuality and suicide. This means that this book comes with trigger warnings and won’t be for some people. I had heard of the author Savannah Brown through her YouTube channel and I also was a fan of her poetry. So, when I found out that she was releasing a YA novel I was excited!

When first going into this book you have to let go of an assumption that this is going to be a thriller book, because it is not. Yes, it is a beautifully plotted novel with mystery elements throughout, but it mostly focuses on a portrayal of grief. It tells of a young girls journey through the loss of her father and how she deals with the grief and things she is feeling about his death.

It doesn’t just tackle grief though, it also tackles depression, mental health, male privilege, friendship and abuse. It tackles these subjects incredibly well whilst still feeling real. This book isn’t completely plot-focused and most of the dramatics happen within the last 60 pages. A large percentage of the book is Sydney learning to cope with her father’s death and how falling in love as well as other things helps her with it all. This book is beautifully written, and I enjoyed it a lot. One things I enjoyed a lot was the writing style. I would class the writing style are colloquial but not overly chatty which made me enjoy the book even more.

The cast of characters in this book is very well-drawn. Sydney is an awesome heroine. I just wasn’t a fan about how she handled her friendship with Olivia at times throughout the book. Although I feel this was intentional on the authors part to make you feel like this. I also loved June and Leo, they are just two more incredible characters. The cast of character is also incredibly diverse, with June, Olive, and Leo being people of colour and then Sydney, Leo and June being LGBTQ+.

Overall, this book is excellent, and I will certainly be recommending it to other people! Savannah has created a stunning debut that I couldn’t put down. If you a fan of contemporary YA books with mystery elements weaved in, then this book is for you!

What a wonderful book.  So well written and a great story.  I would definitely recommend this book to anyone, young or old.

I love YA thrillers and this book didn't disappoint at all. 

It was very well written, very thrilling with a very good pace. I kept guessing and guessing. But, it was full of twists and turns. 
Definitely recommended if you're into YA thrillers, it's hard to find a good one. 
Thanks to the publishers and netgalley for the chance to read this arc for an honest review in return.

Really addictive and well written and packaged beautifully too. Loving this YA crime trend as I don't normally read crime/thrillers etc.

Read this in one sitting. Very well written and I really enjoyed it. Lost 5 hrs on a stormy Saturday afternoon!
4/5 on goodreads

Thanks to the publishers for allowing me the chance to read this arc for an honest review in return.

I had been excited for this book to come out before I saw it on NetGalley and I was so delighted when I heard I could read the arc. The book was brilliant, to say the least. It kept me on my toes and had me spiralling for ideas and searching for clues and yet it all still managed to shock and amaze me to no end.

Definitely, a thrilling book that will keep you itching to read more. especially if you're interested in hard-hitting thrillers.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters were great, all with their own stories which feed into the main story. It was an easy read, but still had its twists and turns. I would recommend this book to my family and friends.

This is a fantastic debut for Savannah Brown. It is far more than the run of mill high-school thriller. It takes a deep dive into so many important topics. We follow Sydney in her journey though grieving for her father. It is really raw and powerful. The emotions are not hidden behind cliches. It describes the dark places the mind reaches to in fear in a beautiful and understanding way that has an almost comforting reassuring tone that I feel a lot of people could identify with. While marketed as a mystery, that really is secondary to the exploration of grief. The mystery itself is interesting playing on the central aspects of Sydney’s grief and winding its way to an equally important denouement. It was not the best twist and did wrap up fairly quickly and slightly too neatly for my liking.

I adored Brown’s writing style, it brought so much life to Sydney’s narration with such a fantastic use of language to really pinpoint her feelings at the time. It really cemented I enjoyed how the side characters moved the story forward. I do wish we had more communication between Sydney and her mum and her best friend Olivia. I feel there was more to the stories between them but we never really explored them. I also feel a certain character was brought in just to move the mystery forward adding a convenient skill set (and racial diversity) to the narrative. However, they had the possibility to be one of the best characters and I wish we got more from them.

—– Slight Spoilers —– This book also clearly describes a form of an emotionally abusive relationship that as a teenagers I wish I had so clearly recognised. While to some reading this novel it may seem like it is paying lip-service to the issues of consent. I feel the way that the emotion is discussed in this book is fantastic. It clearly shows how it feels to be on the inside of a relationship like that.
—– Spoiler end —–

I am in too minds about the romantic elements in this book. While not a lot of actual romance took place and I liked how Sydney’s feeling built in a very natural way. I feel that when we explored the potential of a romance it was kind of forced to give us a happy ending that wasn’t needed. It had its positive and negative aspects for me and its why this book just hasn’t made the 5 stars. The true star is really how all the feelings of grief, fear, love, happiness, etc are portrayed on the page. They really do capture them perfectly and that is really what made this book special.

Overall this was a page turner with beautiful writing. While, personally I wish it had a little more too it and delved a little deeper into some aspects and the ending was a little too happy for me, I still really enjoyed it.

The Truth about Keeping Secrets - Savannah BrownHey, you wanna hear a secret?Come closer.Closer.Ok.*whispers* this is one of my most anticipated books of the year.Wanna know another one? I got an early copy of this and now I want to convince you that it should be on your list of anticipated books of 2019 too. So, what is it all about?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? THE TRUTH ABOUT KEEPING SECRETS is a page-turning, voice led, high school thriller.If like me, you've been on the internet forever, you'll know of Savannah Brown, either for her YouTube content or her blog content. While this is her debut novel, it isn't her first brush with publishing, she released a poetry collection a little while ago, which I haven't read because poetry and I don't really get on, I can, however, confirm that this does not suffer from the curse of an internet famous author. The Truth About Keeping Secrets is actually a decent debut and an even more engaging and compelling suspense novel that examines some incredibly tough issues without deviating from the plot. This is a book about grief and bereavement. Sydney's loneliness is raw and very real and her grief combined with her growing paranoia and a series of threatening messages just serves to further isolate her from everyone she knows. That is until June appears at her father's funeral, and at his grave and at the window of his office, which is all rather sketchy but what emerges is an interesting friendship dynamic and slowly, but surely, her secrets start unfolding. At its core, this is a fast-paced, engaging thriller with enough intrigue to keep you going and so much heart that all you really want is for Sydney to be ok and June to not be a dangerous murderer.If all that wasn't enough, The Truth About Keeping Secrets has some amazing LGBTQA+ representation and explores race relations in small town America, both of which were done, to me anyway, in a sensitive way. I haven't come across an author who deals with their main character's sexuality in quite the same way as it is here - it's quite refreshing! We don't have a come out scene and we don't have anything highly sexualised, we just have a teenage girl that likes girls and sometimes gets a bit of stick for it. I am singing the praises of this a bit because I was so looking forward to it and I had such an enjoyable time reading it, but I do have another secret to share with you, there were moments, that did seem a bit far fetched to me in regards to the plot, but over all, The Truth About Keeping Secrets is a compelling, suspense novel which is thoughtful and well written.Here's a final secret for you, I am excited for whatever Savannah Brown has up her sleeve next because I have a feeling she's going to be one to watch.

The Truth About Keeping Secrets by Savannah Brown was not exactly the book that I expected. I do like Young Adult books and I did enjoy this but it wasn't the thriller I was expecting.  The characters were great, but a little predictable - as was the ending.  It was a good quick read that didn't require too much thinking.

Sydney is still grieving the death of her father in a car accident.  He was the local Psychiatrist and knew the towns secrets.  But did she know his?  And why does she think that there is more to it than an accident. She can't accept that he is dead.  Then the most popular girl at school turns up at his funeral - why? The 2 become friends and the mystery deepens. Playing detective is a dangerous game.

Thanks to Penguin Random House UK Children's for my advanced copy of this book to read.  All opinions are my own and are in no way biased.

A beautifully written debut with the voice of the main character, Sydney, shining through.  A very moving and emotional read .   Although published as a YA I think this would have a wider appeal and suit adult readers also.

Part thriller/part exploration of grief, the writing is good & the characters mostly convince, though most readers will work out what's really going on before the protagonist does. A decent, if rather uneven, read for genre fans.

I read <i>The Truth About Keeping Secrets</i> in about three days, and mind you, they were busy days. It felt nice reading a book again where the characters remain in your head while you're not reading it. 

First of all, this Savannah Brown has written a beautiful book. We know she has a way with words because of her poetry, but not everyone can translate that talent to prose as well. She can. Some will promote this book as a thriller, but I'd say it's a thorough exploration of grief. Beautiful friendships and connections and relationships are woven throughout, with intriguing multi-faceted characters. Yes, there's mystery as well, and thriller aspects are certainly present, but my gosh, the grief and pain and struggles make you <i>feel</i>.

Sydney is trying to work out if there is anything suspicious about her fathers death. This is good read about coping with grief and love as a teenager.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

3.5 stars (Rounded up)

Thank You NetGalley, Savannah Brown snf Penguin Random House UK for this book. 

I'm not 100 percent sure on this book although I did read it all the way through. Yes it had emotion and that mystery element but something made me feel unsure when I'd read it. 

Don't get me wrong Savannah Brown wrote the story really well and she did manage to keep me reading but I cant help think that the story was a bit drawn out in places and maybe there could of been a few more dark twists and spruced uo in parts. 

This is one of those books that I think not everyone will enjoy. If you want to read it don't let someone put you off. Read it, Make your own mind uo and see what your own opinions are.

The first thing that hits you when you start reading this book is how refreshing the narration is. Although the story begins at a funeral, there is a clear indication of the level of intelligence of our lead character (and a twisted sense of cynical humour).

Sydney's father died in an accident and she is mourning him in a completely unhelpful way. The better part of the book consists of different stages of her grief which may not be textbook. Her father would have known how to deal with the situation since he was the local psychiatrist, but he is no longer around. The book may be targeted at young adults, but it deals with grief and trauma in a way that would appeal to anyone who can empathize/sympathize with the situation. To make matters worse for Sydney, her suspicions of foul play with regards to her father get compounded by some unexpected things and one of them lead to a new friend (of sorts). I do not want to reveal any more information because each character is introduced in an equally interesting fashion which helps the reading experience. The one thing I would like to mention for when you read the book (or those who already have), is the attitude Sydney has in the beginning of her current 'best friend'. The differences between the two has made their relationship seem a certain way to her and she is sure she is right. The maturity of that thought seemed very realistic to me when push came to shove as well as the dynamics with her mother.There is a bit of suspense which is brought into the forefront every other chapter but for the most part it sticks around like a background score.

It may seem slightly slower in parts but it is mostly fast paced and well written.

A young adult story which is enjoyable for adults too.  The sudden death of Sydney’s Father sets in motion her quest to find his killer. A therapist holds many secrets and perhaps this is what killed him. Not all is what it seems though in this deceptively light thriller.  Mystery is everywhere - from Sydney herself to her new best friend June.  A bit of a slow burner this story although by the end ramping up the pace to a satisfying conclusion.

Sydney's dad is the only psychiatrist for miles around their small Ohio hometown. He has died unexpectedly. Is Sydney crazy, or is just weird that her dad, a man whose job revolved around other people's secrets, died alone. And why is June Cooeland, homecoming Queen and towns golden child, at his funeral?

What an incredible debut this is. The book covers some intense topics: abuse, grief and sexuality. The writing just flows beautifully across the pages, drawing you in. I simply adored Sydney, my heart went out to her. The book covers many emotions life can throw at  us: confusion, anger, homophobia to mention a few. Although this book has been put in the YA genre, I do think it can be read by any age.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Penguin Random House UK, Children's and the author Savannah Brown for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.