Hi All,
I recently read The Secret of Letting Go by Katherine Fleet. A digital arc was made available to me by Entangled Teen in exchange for an honest review.
The Secret to Letting Go is about two main characters, Clover and Daniel, each with their own traumas to deal with. Clover has secrets that she doesn't trust anyone enough to share them with and Daniel lost someone close to him and has yet to deal with it. Clover and Daniel meet and shenanigans ensue.
This book switches perspective between Daniel and Clover every once in a while. I liked that it didn't do it every chapter like some novels do. It was a really quick read for me, and over all, I did enjoy it. There were a few things that I didn't enjoy, though. There is a character that is very obviously mentally ill, and I don't know how to say who it is without spoiling things. He does bad things, and Clover often refers to him as evil. I did not like how the mental illness was handled in this book at all. While I'm sure some people act and do the things he did, it just gave a poor image to what mental illness is. I feel like it adds to the fear and misunderstanding by portraying it the way that it did.
Clover and Daniel spend a lot of the book saying the same things about themselves or their situations and it does get a bit annoying. Clover keeps repeating that no one would ever love her if they knew what her secrets were and Daniel doesn't want to allow himself to feel anything for Clover and he absolutely doesn't want to talk about him tragic event. This pretty much happens until about 60% into the book, then the secrets start coming out. None of the secrets were a surprise. The book is a bit predictable. But there are enough hints dropped throughout the story that nothing is shocking.
However, despite these, I still enjoyed it. It kept me up past 11 pm one night and I had to force myself to put it down and go to bed because I had to get up early for work the next morning. Katherine Fleet managed to write teenage characters that I, mostly, didn't want to slap and I don't think I rolled my eyes once!
I liked her characters, especially Amelia, Daniel's twin sister. The one I liked the least was probably Clover, but she just frustrated me with her unwillingness to let go (which I'm sure is the point, considering the title). She described the setting really well. It made me remember what it was like the two times I've visited Florida, with the thunder storms and the humidity. Ugh.
Overall, I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars.
Until next time,
Jenell
I ended up really enjoying this book. However, in the beginning I had a really hard time with it. I was very close to DNFing it actually. You're just thrown right into the action right in the beginning, and as someone who is not very familiar with Chinese folklore, was a little overwhelming. The author also has a tendency to repeat some stuff. For example, there'd be a description of something, a few sentences, and then the description would repeat itself. Not always in the same exact wording. It's just a writing quirk that bugs me.
