"Little Secrets"

"Little Secrets" by Anna Snoekstra
Review written by Diana Iozzia


"Little Secrets" was a curious read, it's hard to describe this book, but you cannot at all use the back of the book blurb to describe this book. You can, but the blurb could have been written by someone who read the first chapter of the book, and that's it. 

The story starts out with our main character, Rose, a twenty-one to twenty-four year old woman, who takes more care of her siblings than her mom and step-father. Naturally, like all characters in fiction books, she hates her step-father, and he's a terrible drunk with no redeemable qualities. Upon the first few chapters, Rose reminds me of Fiona Gallagher from one of my favorite television shows, "Shameless".

Rose is an ambitious journalist, who is not yet succeeding. She soon finds out that a mysterious person has been leaving dolls on porches that match the appearance of the little girls that live in the house. (I won't spoil the ending, but Jesus, it's a stupid twist). Rose realizes that with her friends who are the police and her mysterious new tenant at the pub she works in, that she can create interesting news articles, capitalizing on the strange town events.

There are a few twists and turns, a pretty creepy torture sequence, awkward descriptions of sex, and very unlikable characters (including Rose 50 percent of the time). Mia, Will, and Bazza are very good, likable characters, however. This book is very ambitious with many different complicated characters, but there are at least 5 main sub-plots. When the book ends, there isn't enough closure.

One of the things I need to point out is that often in fiction, children are not portrayed as accurately as a real child would be. This one is no exception. Rose's twin siblings could have been 6, 12, or 16. They're meant to be 8, I think? They act like shells of children. Her youngest sister is Laura, who speaks like a strange four year old, but is supposed to be 6. I teach children from the age 4 to 8, and none of the children in the story are similar to the correct age.

In addition, the location of the story is very ambiguous. In the blurb, it's said to be in Australia, but the dialogue is consistent with a melting pot of English, American, and Aussie. 

I had picked this up, thinking it would be similar to "Little Children" by Tom Perrotta. I was mistaken. It's an okay book, but it's more about Rose's ambitions and sex life and interrupting the police investigation than anything else.

*I received this book as a complementary ARC courtesy of the publisher.*