[description from goodreads]Seventeen-year-old Colt has been sneaking out at night to meet Julia, a girl from an upper-class neighborhood unlike his own. They’ve never told anyone else about their relationship: not their family or friends, and especially not Julia’s boyfriend.When Julia dies suddenly, Colt tries to cope with her death while pretending that he never even knew her. He discovers a journal she left behind. But he is not prepared for the truths he discovers about their intense relationship, nor to pay the price for the secrets he’s kept.
Review:
This book is totally my type. Contemporary fiction, kind of sad, emotional, but still hopeful. This is what I love to read. And yet, I didn't love The Secret Year. I needed to read it twice because the first time, I got mad at it. There was a scene that was so very much like The Outsiders that I was literally angry (but admittedly, I'm way too emotionally attached to The Outsiders). I was hoping that I would like the book more when I read it a second time, but I still had the same reaction minus all the anger because really, the scene is only vaguely The Outsiders. But when I first read it I read too fast and thought "these greaser wannabes will never be Ponyboy and Johnny. JOHNNY! *cries*"
One of my main problems was that I never connected to Colt. Something about his voice just never sparked an interest. Because I didn't connect with him, I didn't particularly care about what happened to him. I know he was sad over Julia's death, but I never got a sense of why he was so sad; in flashbacks, they didn't interact that much, and when they did it was mainly physical. Julia's diary entries didn't help much either because they weren't that many, and after Colt read them he would usually be upset with her in one way or another.
The plot also could have been improved. The book is made up of more subplots than plots, and each subplot only gets a few chapters of screen time. The book is not that long, and therefore neither are the subplots, which definitely was not good. So many things were going on- Colt's grief; his relationships with new friends, his family (specifically his brother), his friends, his best girl friend (not to be confused with girlfriend); the "war" between the rich and poor kids; and other school stuff. Not much time is spent on any of these things, so I was never satisfied with how they were handled. There was so much potential for them to be great- they were all intriguing ideas, but there just wasn't enough time spent developing them. They were decent on their own but I was just frustrated because they could have been so much better.
Obviously, I was underwhelmed by The Secret Year. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. It was just good. It was realistic, yes, a bit emotional, yes, but it could have been so much better. I will definitely read Jennifer's next book because I did enjoy the writing style in The Secret Year, but I only hope that I like it more than this.
However, I have noticed that people who generally like contemporary fiction better than fantasy (like me and my buddy Jordyn) don't like this book as much as people who generally read fantasy. Obviously that isn't true for everyone, but maybe if you don't read as much contemporary this would be a good intro to it? *shrugs*
Book details: Viking/Hardcover/$16.99
Links: Jennifer's website/blog/twitter
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