The Truth About Keeping

Secrets
By Savannah Brown

Student: Lucila Huilen Auzza

Subjetc: Lengua Inglesa IB
Proffesor: Alejandro Castiglione

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Date: 10/09/19
About the story

Genre: Young Adult Thrill

Narrator: First Person/Sydney Whitaker
Time and Place: United States of America, Ohio, Pleasant Hills. 2010s.

Plot: The Truth About Keeping Secrets tells the story of Sydne of a teenage girl whose
father recently passed away in a car accident. She is depressed and is becoming
obsessive with Time of Death’s videos and the files of her dad’s patients, specially the
one from June Copeland. A girl who appeared at Sydney’s dad funeral and days later at
the cemetery.

In between feeling like she doesn’t want to spend time with her only friend,
Olivia, and her mom insisting that she should go to a support group her relationship
with June Copeland only grew stronger.

The feelings Sydney had from June were so strong that she became obsessed
with her and even trick herself into thinking of her every time she started to spin and
feel like his dead dad was everywhere she was.

At the same time someone had been sending her horrible and malicious text
messages since the funeral. She tries to get help from her mom and friend Olivia but
both don’t believe her and she is left with little hope to find who sends her this
messages and if they had anything to do with her dad’s death, until she meets Leo, a
boy from the support group who believes her and helps her to traces the texts and
pictures back to the person who has been sending them.

Sydney realise she is in love with June but despite her feelings she knows she
can’t confess her love since June is in a relationship with Heath and doesn’t know if
June is straight.

After watching June and Heath argue one day, things started to get weird
between the girls. She was not as talkative as she used to be and she was cold and
insensible with Sydney.

In a desperate search for new clues Leo finds direct evidence of who was the
person who was harassing Sydney. It was Heath. But without time to warn Sydney,
Heath kidnaps both girls and start driving outside the town. A car crash happens and
the girls manage to escape just in time when the police arrive and brought them to the
hospital.

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 After being realise from the hospital June confess that she had been wanting to
break up with Heath for a while but could escape the abusive relationship and that she
is in love with Sydney.

Characters
Sydney Whitaker: Sydney is the main character, protagonist, and narrator of
the story. She is a seventeen-years-old teenager girl from a small town in Ohio. She is
an only child. She likes riding her bike and her only friend is Olivia.
 She is struggling with her father's death, and as she's convinced someone killed
him, she can't move on. Over the time she becomes obsessed with June.
The grieving and the search of love makes up the development of the character
and the central core of the novel.

June Copeland: June is Homecoming Queen and golden child. She has been in
a relationship with Heath for almost three years. Her parents have recently gotten
divorce. She was seeing Sydney’s dad because she wanted to “start taking care of
herself”. June is Sydney’s main love interest.
Olivia: Olivia is Sydney’s long time friend. They know each other since they
were young. Their relationship is complicated since it looks like they are stuck with
each other but somehow care for each other too.
Leo: Leo is a boy Sydney meets at the Support Group for teen who lost
someone. He has good skills at informatics. He and Sydney connect fast and became
really good friends. He is the only person who helps Sydney investigate more about her
dad’s death.
Heath: Heath is Junes boyfriend. He seems to be a nice guy for most of the
story. Sydney says she can’t be jealous of him being with June since she likes him.
Bea: Bea is an old friend of Sydney. She was the person who outed her and
after that they didn’t talk anymore.
Benjamin Whitaker: Benjamin is Sydney’s dad. He is the only psychiatrist for
miles around in Pleasant Hills. On September 14th he dies in a car accident. Sydney and
he had a close relationship they used to spent a lot time together.
Rebecca Whitaker: Rebecca is Sydney’s mom. They have a difficult relationship
specially after the accident since they have different ways of grieving and don’t
communicate much.

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About the Author

Biography
Savannah Brown is an American poet and novelist born in 1996. A spoken word
poem about self-acceptance catapulted her into the public eye at the age of 17. After,
she moved to London, where she self-published her debut poetry collection Graffiti.
Since then, her poetry has amassed more than ten million views online and has taken
her worldwide to perform. Her first novel, The Truth About Keeping Secrets, was
published in 2019 with Penguin Random House UK. She's currently working on her
second book.

Bibliography
Graffiti (and other poems), 2016
The Truth About Keeping Secrets, 2019

Personal Opinion
The Truth About Keeping Secrets, despite some character issues, is well
planned out especially for new readers. But there are some pacing issues due to the
two major plot overlapping each other. A big part of the story is focussed on Sydney’s
obsession with June that it causes some lapses in excitement between text message
scenes. Due to this, when it’s time for the big climax, it feels like the book has gone
from steady to ultra-fast in 2 seconds. I think that explains why June’s character
development is squashed into practically one chapter. This really shook my enjoyment
of the book because it’s been marketed as a Young Adult Thriller but for the most part
it’s not particularly thrilling.
However, it features one of the most accurate portrayals of grief that I’ve ever
read. Sydney becomes obsessed with a website called Time of Death, which plays
videos of people dying in various ways. Grief often causes people to act out of
character, and it was nice to see that represented.
So ultimately The Truth About Keeping Secrets is a book I’d recommend – but
just not to thriller lovers. I wish it had been marketed properly as what it really is,
because it definitely was not a thriller! But it’s still a fun, quick read that doesn’t
require too much in depth thinking and it was a fun little ride!