The Deepest Secret by Carla Buckley Review!

Book Details Hardcover: 448 pages Publisher: Bantam (February 4, 2014) Language: English ISBN-10: 0345535243 ISBN-13: 978-0345535245

About the Book

A riveting, poignant family drama perfect for readers of Defending Jacob and The Memory Keeper's Daughter, which explores the power of the secrets people keep-the darker, hidden facets of our lives, and what happens when they come to light.

Diagnosed with XP, a rare medical condition which makes him lethally sensitive to light, Tyler is a thirteen-year-old who desperately wants just one thing: to be normal. His mother Eve also wants just one thing: to protect her son. As Tyler begins roaming their cul-de-sac at night, cloaked in the safety of the darkness, he peers into the lives of the other families on the street-looking in on the things they most want hidden. Then, the young daughter of a neighbor suddenly vanishes, and Tyler may be the only one who can make sense of her disappearance…but what will happen when everyone's secrets are exposed to the light?

The Review

Once I started reading Carla Buckley’s The Deepest Secret, I could not put it down. Each chapter moves fast, the plot moves quickly and dives right into action, and the characters are well developed throughout.

A description of the plot from Goodreads is as follows:

“Diagnosed with XP, a rare medical condition which makes him lethally sensitive to light, Tyler is a thirteen-year-old who desperately wants just one thing: to be normal. His mother Eve also wants just one thing: to protect her son. As Tyler begins roaming their cul-de-sac at night, cloaked in the safety of the darkness, he peers into the lives of the other families on the street, looking in on the things they most want hidden. Then, the young daughter of a neighbor suddenly vanishes, and Tyler may be the only one who can make sense of her disappearance…but what will happen when everyone's secrets are exposed to the light?”

This book isn’t just about the secrets other people are keeping; it’s more about one woman and making choices under horrible circumstances. If you destroyed someone’s life, would you admit it when it meant destroying your own? If you destroyed someone else’s family, would you confess even though it would mean harming your own? Throughout the whole book, a wife and mother Eve Lattimore struggles with doing the right thing…but according to whom? Is it the right thing to admit what you have done to someone’s child, or is it the right thing to keep it a secret because it means saving your own son?

I’m not certain anyone will ever know the right answer to these questions, because we will never know, in any situation, what we would do unless we are in it ourselves. This book is especially interesting because I knew nothing about the disease Xeroderma pigmentosa (XP). It is a disease where skin and tissue covering the eye are extremely sensitive to ultraviolet light and Eve’s son Tyler unfortunately has this disease and must be in complete darkness anytime the sun is out, and even at nighttime, he must wear clothing that covers his entire body. Which makes his life, and his family’s life much more complicated; hence, Eve’s predicament.

The only issue with this book is we find out “the deepest secret” not even ¼ of the way through the book. So much of the plotline centers around a missing girl and this tragedy, although we already know who is at stake. It seems like Buckley could have written it differently, making us wait to find out who truly did it, but I don’t believe she wanted her book to be a mystery as much of a coming of age story about families, friends, and what you’re willing to risk for both.

Overall, it is a well-written book with a great storyline and interesting characters. What more can you ask for from a book?

Guest Reviewer: Kara Kelly

Book was received for an honest review and there was no monetary compensation.