The Secrets We Keep
Author: Trisha Leaver
Publication Date: April 28th 2015
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~
A girl takes over her twin sister's identity in this emotionally charged page-turner about the complicated bond between sisters.
Ella and Maddy Lawton are identical twins. Ella has spent her high school years living in popular Maddy's shadows, but she has never been envious of Maddy. In fact, she's chosen the quiet, safe confines of her sketchbook over the constant battle for attention that has defined Maddy's world.
When—after a heated argument—Maddy and Ella get into a tragic accident that leaves her sister dead, Ella wakes up in the hospital surrounded by loved ones who believe she is Maddy. Feeling responsible for Maddy's death and everyone's grief, Ella makes a split-second decision to pretend to be Maddy. Soon, Ella realizes that Maddy's life was full of secrets. Caught in a web of lies, Ella is faced with two options—confess her deception or live her sister's life
The Secrets We Keep is a hard one to review, because whether
you agree with Ella's decision or not, you will never know what you would do in
her situation, unless you have a twin. It's bad enough losing a sister or
brother, but a twin, that's the other half of you? That's a whole different
bond only twins have, especially identical twins. It is character driven, and because
of that I'm not quite sure how I feel about it.
When Maddy and Ella were younger, they were inseparable and
as close as you expect twins to be, until Maddy drastically changes after
falling in with the 'in' crowd in high school and started dating Alex. The way
she acted, the way she did her hair and makeup, to everything she wore changed
to appease the people around her. Maddy shut off the way she used to be, and
effectively, shutting out Ella.
