KEEPING YOU A SECRET
Julie Anne Peters
Little Brown and Company
Fiction
ISBN: 0316702757
256 pages

Holland Jaeger's mother's version of Holland's future: Girl goes to school, girl gets good grades, girl goes to Harvard or Stanford or Antioch College, girl meets boy, girl gets married, gets great job, has children and lives happily ever after.

Holland's version of Holland's future: Girl goes to school, girl gets good grades, girl gets rejected from Harvard, girl meets girl? Girl wants to be an artist, or maybe work with kids?

Holland knows she's in love with Cece Goddard the minute she sees her, wearing a t-shirt that says "IMRU" with a small pink triangle underneath. Cece becomes Holland's biggest secret, the source of her greatest happiness as well as her biggest fear. They begin a relationship, but when word gets out that they are dating, Holland faces ostracism. Through all of Holland's troubles, Cece remains a steadfast companion, sacrificing time and energy when Holland's family turns on her. Holland knows her life will never be the same.

Though the writing is smooth and Holland is a likeable, well-developed character, this is not as strong a story as, for example, Nancy Garden's ANNIE ON MY MIND. The peripheral characters are underdeveloped and somewhat stereotypical, except for Holland's friend Leah. The reactions from Holland's friends and family are painfully, undoubtedly real, but the reader ultimately begins to despair as to whether Holland will have any kind of redemption, as she seems to have no support system other than Cece. Holland turns her life in a positive direction in the end, but not without a lot of sacrifice.

   --- Reviewed by Carlie Kraft

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