Publisher: Viking (Penguin)
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 208
Source: My local library.
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 Julia left behind. But Colt is not prepared for the truths he discovers about their intense relationship, nor to pay the price for the secrets he’s kept. (From the author's website.)
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I read most of The Secret Year by Jennifer R. Hubbard* in one sitting, and--I don't care how cliched this next clause sounds--I enjoyed every page of it.
The Secret Year in a nut shell: take Romeo and Juliet, subtract the double-suicide, add class conflict and a heaping cup of secrecy, and add an extra dash of suspense. Mix thoroughly.
Colt Morrissey is a boy from the flats--think wrong side of the tracks--and Julia Vernon is a privileged girl from Black Mountain Road, a fancy neighborhood not too far from the flats. They attend the same school, but hang out with different people: Colt with his friends from the flats, and Julia with the Black Mountain elite. Julia already has a Black Mountain boyfriend, but after she and Colt meet by chance at the Willis River bridge and share an illicit kiss, she begins leaving Colt secret notes and asking him to meet her at the bridge. Julia tells Colt that she wants to have a secret, no-strings-attached relationship with him; she tells him that he wouldn't enjoy the social obligations of being her public boyfriend. And Colt agrees. The two meet at the bridge in secret for a year, until Julia dies in a car accident. Colt is left to grieve for his secret sort-of girlfriend in private.
No one can know about the Secret Year because Julia wouldn't like it if their relationship became public, and besides--who would believe him? Julia already has one grieving, real, Vernon-family-approved-Black Mountain-boyfriend.
Julia was beautiful, cunning, and spirited. She was also a poet who kept a lot of journals. And, not long after the funeral, Julia's younger brother approaches Colt with one of Julia's journals. It's full of letters written to a C.M.: Colt Morrissey. Colt reads the journals over the school year following Julia's death, and Julia becomes a forceful, if deceased, character through her journal. Julia is constantly in Colt's head, and his secret relationship with her begins to affect his relationships with his friends, potential girlfriends, and family.
The Secret Year is a beautifully written novel about love, friendship, and the power people can have over others even after they are dead. I recommend The Secret Year to readers of contemporary and realistic fiction as well as readers who appreciate stories filled with social intrigue, class conflict, and stories dealing with family dynamics.
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*Not to be confused with Jenny Hubbard, author of Paper Covers Rock. Although, funny story, the only reason I picked up The Secret Year was because I did get them confused. I liked Paper Covers Rock so much that, if Jenny Hubbard wrote any other books, I wanted to read them, pronto. Did I think the different first names and the middle initial were odd? Yes. But the two novels contain so many similarities that it's spooky: both feature first-person narration from male protagonists, guilt, unrequited and/or secret love, poetry, settings centering around rivers, untimely deaths, and tell either all or part of the story through journal entries. These elements could easily be the favorite motifs of one writer.
Except that they are not. The J. Hubbards are talented--and distinct--authors. And I'm so glad I mistook one for the other and ended up reading The Secret Year.
1 comment:
Great review. I recently read a book with a character that has heavy issues and I found out that it was not my cup of tea. I think 'The Secret Year' might be the same, as in not for me. ;) Those issues, pfff, I need light reads next to all my thick history textbooks. ;) I do have to say that this cover ROCKS. ;)
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