Secret by Brigid Kemmerer
Gahhh. You know that anger and anxiety you get when you finish a really good book? Yeah. I has it.
Like... Does it HAVE to be over? Does it? I could read about these characters all. Day. Long.
They're just so insanely realistic. I feel like I'm reading about guys I grew up with and arguments I had with my own brothers. The dialogue is so damn natural, the writing just flows and is perfect and I felt like I was right THERE living it every time I picked up this book. There are no clunky descriptions or cheesy dialogue. Teenagers react exactly like normal teenagers tend to react and have conversations that real teenagers would have. It's amazeballs.
The attachment I have to each and every character can't even really be put into words. But somehow I feel like one of the family every time I pick up a book from this series. The love and appreciation I have for the world and people Kemmerer has created here runs deep. There are less than a handful of authors who I will say that I will, without a doubt, read anything they publish. Brigid Kemmerer is one of them. It's authors like her that remind me that YA has some really, really good stuff to offer.
I often find it really difficult to write a proper review for books that blew me away like Secret did. I'm just so damn full of feel right now and trying really hard to keep it together, but I just have to say that the Merricks have to be one of my favourite fictional families of ever. They're right up there with the Cohens, anyway. (OC forever, baby.) But, man. Kemmerer write, and keep writing, because the world needs more books like yours.
