Best Kept Secret
Reviewed by Diana Iozzia
How to start writing a review, after stopping for about seven months of not doing so. Well, I have been busy, as most of us have been. Burn out, Covid, and my personal life have all contributed to my lack of interest posting about books on social media. I've gained weight, and I find it difficult to appear in pictures. Strangely enough, I feel myself ready to return. The first book I have read since deciding to start book blogging again is Best Kept Secret by Amy Hatvany.
Do we still consider dramatic fiction about women to be called women's fiction? Do we still need to categorize novels based on the gender of who primarily reads them? I am sure that the Lifetime company leans into their female audience with far too many puns about cats, fire, and make-up, but perhaps we shouldn't be doing that as readers.
Best Kept Secret is a drama fiction novel, following the main character, Cadence, as she struggles to keep custody of her son while she battles heavy alcoholism. Ask me if I would have read this two years ago, two months ago, two years from now? I am not sure. As someone who has an unhealthy relationship with alcohol, one who has stopped drinking entirely at twenty-five years old, perhaps this book hit close to home. We can joke endlessly about women and teachers who need a whole bottle of wine at the end of a busy day, but perhaps we should not use language about alcohol so freely in comedy.
Cadence's family and friends are not wonderfully supportive, but as she quickly spirals and hits rock bottom, those people around her start to forgive and help. Although the novel does not have a particularly enlightening ending, I found it fitting and appropriate. There is no shocking plot twist, and I am quite glad for that. Thinking this novel to be intriguing and arresting is one thing, but we do not need every fiction involving a female to have a heart-stopping climax. Most of the novel does feel slow and belabored, however, it creates a fuller and more effective plot.
Amy Hatvany writes in a brilliant style, providing all the right details, creating interesting sequences, and fleshing out every character. Although the plot was not ideal for someone like me, I felt that I enjoyed the book, because she wrote it. I firmly intend to read any future books by her. I could recommend Best Kept Secret to fans of Jeannette Walls and Colleen Hoover.
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