Alexa play, Dirty Little Secret by Sarah Mclachlan 🎵🎵🎵
4 harmless teenagers accused of the murder of a fellow student, well, ‘harmless’ may be overstating things when we have a criminal with a history as a drug supplier, a supposed goody-two-shoes, a perfect homecoming princess, and a talented baseball player and the criminal may be the only open book among the group.
The 4 of them end up in detention with Simon Kelleher, who is, just the creator of a notorious gossip app famous for airing people’s dirty laundry, no biggie. Did I mention that the subjects of his next post were going to be the very 4 people he was in detention with?
Well, that post never saw the light of day because while in detention Simon was killed. Now the question that arises is who is lying? Is it the criminal, the jock, the nerd, or the perfect princess?
Comment your guess.
The book is supposed to be a YA murder mystery, a thriller. But it is so much more than that, the characters are well-fleshed out, and their relationships are shown beautifully. There is romance too. I personally love these types of books but I understand that not everyone likes them. This book is not only about who killed Simon, it is also about how these teens deal with the backlash, their families & friends, and their secrets. In fact, I’d say it is much more about them dealing with shit and finding a solution for their problems, since, as sad as it sounds not a lot of people cared about Simon.
Does that mean the ending does not take me by surprise? God, no! The pace is fast but not too fast if you get what I mean. The plot was good and I’m not gonna lie at different points in the book I suspected different people. The last quarter of the book I spent in one sitting because that is when everything starts making sense, there is some major plot building going on until that point.
Now coming to the characters (*rubs hands in excitement).
First, the nerd that is Bronwyn Rojas an aspirant to Yale. Rojas is a goody-two-shoes with a very clean record and is very set on her goal of going to Yale, the thing is she is willing to go to great lengths to achieve her goal. the question is how far is she willing to go? Everyone has secrets, and so does Bronwyn, and hers is a particularly dangerous, one that could shake everything, which includes her goal, the one she was so close to achieving. When she walked into that detention everything changed.
Her character doesn’t go through some drastic development, of course, the experience of being accused of murder left its mark. She is the brains of the group. I would call her a book-smart person, though she has her moments where she is other smarts as well. Rojas is a worrier. She is part of the good girl and bad boy fall-in-love trope. That’s right she and the criminal are each other’s love interests. They are the cutest, I was living for their interactions. If there was a poll for the best couple they would have my vote. It was wonderful to journey with them as they figured out their relationship amidst everything else going on.
Next up, Copper Clay, the jock. Cooper’s got it going for him, he is the number one baseball player in Bayview High and has got colleges and universities lining up for him, he is basically a sports star and he has a girlfriend, the most beautiful girl in school who is supportive as hell. He is the subject of many people’s envy. He has a secret too which could potentially strain his relationship with his father, who is his largest supporter and also the one who puts the most pressure, Clay’s secret could also cause problems in his career path.
Cooper’s character like Bronwyn’s doesn’t go through major development, the crap he goes through teaches him a thing or two. Not gonna lie when the first hints regarding his secret were given I instantly disliked him but as things progressed my opinion slowly changed.
Let’s talk about Nate Macauley, the criminal. He is the one who has got everything out in the open. Everyone knows that he is a drug supplier on probation. He literally has a history as a criminal, a criminal committing the murder is the most obvious conclusion but this also makes him the best scapegoat out there, especially when he isn’t well-to-do. So did he do it? or not?
He is my favorite among the four, he has had the hardest life out of the four and faces pretty extreme reactions to what happened in that detention. And his character arc was so realistic and followed whatever he went through. I was so happy with how things ended for him.
Last but not least, is Addy Prentiss, the perfect princess. She is not actually a princess for people who get that impression, she just has a picture-perfect, well-put-together life, she is picture-perfect, with a boyfriend whom she loves and a place with the ‘cool kids’. It certainly seems so, but this picture-perfect life may fall apart if her secret comes out and Addy definitely doesn’t want that.
Her character goes through major growth and development. She goes from…well, I don’t want to spoil it, but it was amazing. My feelings for her were mixed tipping towards negative when her secret came out and severely liked her by the end, I think the mistake she made is unforgivable in book life and in real life, and I liked the fact that she actually faced consequences. I cannot stress enough how satisfying her character arc was, one of the best-written characters I have read till date. I felt that the trope right person wrong time was in play, I was kind of hoping her romantic ending would be different but it went perfectly with her arc so cannot complain.
All of them are flawed some more than others no one is exactly black and white. I take that back one person was definitely black and I am not going to spoil the story but I did not see that twist coming at all. The plot was really good, but the ending could have been written better, and made a bit more exciting I was able to predict what would happen during the main climax. The final reveal about the murderer was good and surprising but there was still scope for improvement.
There are plenty of cliches used, the four teens are all cliches- good girl, bad boy, jock, and popular girl, and the police is as lousy as any mystery book, a very annoying, which is putting it mildly “mean girl”. But, It wasn’t overdone, now that I think about it they all break these typical stereotypes in some way or other, or give a reasonable backstory, all of the leads are examples of Don’t judge a book by its cover.
I feel the book showed the double standards and the hypocrisy of people. Also, the ingrained misogyny, in the treatment of Bronwyn and Addy after the incident is so different from what Nate and Cooper faced. A very big theme of the book is friendship, real friendship, people who stay with you through shit, and people who don’t. McManus was successful in wonderfully portraying these concepts.
The book touches on issues like homophobia, infidelity, manipulation, depression, suicide, drugs, alcoholism, blackmail, and extremely bad parenting if you are sensitive towards any of these issues or they make you uncomfortable I would suggest you think before you read. I would give it a 13+ age rating, The characters do get a bit too cozy here & there and the language includes swearing, there is some violence too. But nothing too graphic be it violence or romance.
The book is from the perspective of all four of the MCs in 1st person, which turned out to be an excellent decision, It is about 270 pages long, divided into 3 parts plus a prologue. The first and second parts are both 9 chapters each, and the last part is 11 chapters long. The English used is not too hard yet not too easy.
Overall it is a pretty good book, maybe not Sherlock Holmes level, still. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading the next book in the series, which I hear is even better. If you’re looking for drama, mystery, romance, adventure, friendship, and suspense, this book is for you.
Bye, for now.
Yours
A Fellow Bookworm
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