Here’s the thing about secrets: they change shape over time, become blurry with memory, until the truth is nearly lost.
2009. Lindsey and Georgie have high hopes for their summer on Martha’s Vineyard. In the wake of the recession, ambitious college graduate Lindsey accepts a job as a nanny for an influential family who may help her land a position in Boston’s exclusive art world. Georgie, the … art world. Georgie, the eldest child in that family, is nearly fifteen and eager to find herself, dreaming of independence and yearning for first love.
Over the course of that formative summer, the two young women develop a close bond. Then, one night by the lighthouse, a shocking act occurs that ensnares them both in the throes of a terrible secret. Their budding friendship is shattered, and neither one can speak of what happened that night for ten long years.
Until now. Lindsey and Georgie must confront the past after all this time. Their quest for justice will require costly sacrifices, but it also might give them the closure they need to move on. All they know for sure is that when the truth is revealed, their lives will be forever changed once again.
From a fresh voice in fiction, this poignant and timely novel explores the strength and nuance of female friendship, the cost of ambition, and the courage it takes to speak the truth.
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10/20/21- An interesting story, part laid back beach take part tragic story. The details of the summer are well written and intriguing and keep you wondering what will happen that is the “secret.” Upon finally learning the secret you wonder how each character will deal with it and how things change for them throughout the book.
I thought the author did an excellent job with a true to life type of story.
Wow! Another book that was hard to put down. The story focuses on one summer, but spans a 10 year period and concludes with a shocking finale. Such a great read!
Someone Else’s Secret by Julia Spiro is an excellent book that takes the reader through a wild ride that is a decade in the making from beginning to end.
We first see Lindsey as a young, fresh, and honestly naive graduate that is working as a nanny on Martha’s Vineyard after undergrad. She befriends the 15 y/o Georgie and it seems all is glitzy, glamorous, and ideal as one would see the privileged and elite through unknowing and rose colored glasses if one was an outsider. Soon we realize along with Lindsey that there are dark, troubling torrents of undercurrent present that leads to a traumatic event that stuns and alters both of their lives forever.
We finally see the eventual outcome (and I feel a satisfying ending but do not want to give anything else away) ten years later.
This is a book that kept me drawn in until the very last page. My heart was racing, especially in the last few pages. It is a book that covers friendship, secrets, ambition, and the fight good and just over hurt and wrong. It is not an easy read at times, but definitely worth the journey.
5/5 stars
Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.
Slow. Then Wow. This debut book is very much a slow burn. A recent college graduate circa 2009 becomes the nanny for a Martha’s Vineyard family, only to realize that there is much going on behind the scenes. One of her two charges, a 14yo girl, is coming of age at the same time and realizing that things are not always as they seem. Then, right around the 2/3 mark, The Event happens. Beyond saying that it ties into #MeToo, which is general enough to note a wide range within a given type of event, I’ll say no more about The Event itself. But both women experienced it, and the back quarter (ish) of the book flashes forward a decade to how it has shaped both of them. To the #MeToo era itself, though this is never directly mentioned in the text by that name. And it is here the book ends, with some of the heaviest punches outside of The Event itself. But who knows, maybe, for me, that was due to my own life and how I know all too well how trauma can shape a life, and thus identified remarkably well with a now early 20s and mid 30s female despite being a late 30s (ugh) male myself. Truly a remarkable debut, and I’m very much looking forward to more from Ms. Spiro. Very much recommended.
Someone Else’s Secret is an entertaining read. It tells of two young women who both desperately want to fit in with their ‘in’ crowd.
The main story takes place in 2009 with the ending occurring in 2019. It alternates narratives between Lindsey Davis, 22, a scholarship student and recent art graduate from Bowdoin College, a small but prestigious college; and Georgie, 14, a girl from a privileged family, who is experiencing all the teenage angst of body changes, suddenly being “cut” from her crowd, striving for independence, wanting a boyfriend, hoping to fit in again and trying to be seen as older than she is.
Lindsey, unable to find a job after graduating, takes a position as a nanny for a wealthy couple with two children who summer in Martha’s Vineyard. Her professor-advisor arranged the job for her, telling Lindsey that the couple has good connections to the art world and she feels confident that by summer’s end, Lindsey will have a job in her field. Lindsey, a girl from a modest background, had trouble fitting in with the high-brow and exclusive crowd at college. The last thing she wants to do is to serve as a nanny and to be surrounded again by entitled people who make her feel like a fish out of water, but she needs the job, and hopes her professor is correct that it may lead to a job in the art world.
Jonathan and Carol Decker, Lindsey’s employers, are the parents of Georgie, 14, and Berty (a boy), 5. Carol is stand-offish and emotionally unavailable to her family. Jonathan is a guy who likes to party, is often away, and when home, gives Lindsey the creeps.
Lindsey and Georgie, both trying so hard to fit in, develop a friendship of sorts. Georgie sees Lindsey as beautiful and confident, Lindsey sees herself in Georgie’s youthful struggles. A traumatic incident occurs at summer’s end that will change the lives of both of these young women forever.
The author develops the female protagonists and captures their emotions very well, and her dialogues are realistic and believable. She also deftly handles the main subject of the book (no spoilers). I’m giving it 3 stars because despite all the good qualities mentioned, there is a tendency towards repetitiveness that detracted from the overall read for me.
My thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for allowing me to read a digital ARC of the book in exchange for an unbiased review.
This book certainly gives you food for thought. It is about a rape that affected many peoples lives for 10 years but was never acknowledged that it happened. How could that happen? Well in our society today we are becoming more and more aware of these events and what the aftermath of them presents to our society. An event like this should always be examined and not forgotten but at what point does the victim and the perpetrator become responsible for the lives that are affected? I would recommend this book to anyone old enough for the subject matter.