ORB review

Second Quarter Outside Reading Book Review
The Secret Between Us by Barbara Delinsky. Doubleday, 2008. Fiction

The Secret Between Us is about a 16 year old girl, Grace, and her mother, Deborah, who get in a car accident in their hometown of Leland. The crash kills a man running by the side of the road in a bad rainstorm. They soon find out that the man they hit was Grace’s history teacher, Calvin McKenna. The Secret Between Us is a story about a girl and her mother, trying to cope with their town and everything they have to say.

“The Secrets Between Us is an unforgettable story about making bad choices for the right reasons and the terrible consequences of a lie gone wrong.” Quoted from doubleday.com, “Barbara Delinsky delivers a riveting story of family and a superbly crafted novel…”

The Secret Between Us is like no other story I’ve read before. The descriptive ability that Barbara Delinsky uses in this book is amazing. She describes each character with such clear visuals. You can not only see each character, but also imagine life in their shoes.Delinsky is also very good at capturing the audience and has a great way of showing different character’s points of view, without the story ever becoming overwhelming with different thoughts.

“She hoped Sunday would be better. It was a beautiful day to usher in May. The air was warm and clear, the oaks were beginning to leaf, and azaleas in the front beds were swelling with buds, contrary to the random havoc wrecked by storms, when the weather was calm there was a feeling of order. On days like these, she felt more in control.” (112).

I really enjoyed reading Barbara Delinsky’s book. I really liked how she made the characters and events seem very real. What I didn’t like about the book was how the juicy part was at the beginning and almost until the end, nothing really happened. I think it was a good idea to have alcohol and shop lifting being a big part of the story, because that makes the characters and conflict seem more realistic. I agree with the theme, lying isn’t good, even if it’s for a good reason. I believe that some people believe lying is okay if it’s going to help someone, but this book was a great example of how it can all backfire.