Every Secret Thing

Book 4 of Summer Reads: A bit confusing, disappointing. Wanted to read it because it's been made into a movie I wanted to see starring Diane Lane, Elizabeth Banks, and Dakota Fanning....now not so sure I'll see it.

This book was difficult to read, hard to get into... But I must say, well done... I wasn't expecting the ending and was caught by surprise at the turn of events... I also liked the fact that it didn't have a happy happy ending, but an almost real life ending... Not my book of the year, and I wouldn't put it on my highly recommended list, but if your bored and it's there, you might as well read it...

There was hardly a redeemable character in this book. Alice and Ronnie, Alice's mother, her defense attorney, the young reporter, even the baby's mother. None had qualities I found I could relate to or root for. Near the end I found myself feeling sorry for Ronnie who seemed to have been screwed over the most. For some reason the two I disliked the most were Alice and Cynthia, the mother of the baby in the stroller. At first it was because who leaves her baby on her front porch unattended? Then when that was explained I still couldn't find any sympathy for her because she just seemed like such a terrible person. And who's to say that I wouldn't react the same way she did if that were my situation? I probably would.

I did find the detective Nancy to be a genuinely good person who kind of got the short end of the stick in her rookie days.

But all in all the book was relatively disappointing to me. Everyone got away! The one who deserved redemption paid the price for all the idiots. Some things I didn't understand the point of. Mira's character? Annoying and unnecessary. And then she gets rewarded in the end? When she didn't even have a story? It was all so pointless. I didn't need a happy ending, but I did want a justified one.