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These Things Hidden

by Heather Gudenkauf (Goodreads Author)

3.85 of 5 stars 3.85 · rating details · 12,258 ratings · 1,894 reviews

When teenager Allison Glenn is sent to prison for a heinous crime, she leaves behind her reputation as Linden Falls' golden girl forever. Her parents deny the existence of their once-perfect child. Her former friends exult her downfall. Her sister, Brynn, faces whispered rumors every day in the hallways of their small Iowa high school. It's Brynn--shy, quiet Brynn--who car...more

Paperback, 337 pages

Published January 18th 2011 by Mira

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2011: What the Over 35s Have Read So Far

55th out of 1,715 books — 402 voters

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

2011 - Books to read

103rd out of 497 books — 621 voters

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Community Reviews

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Dec 11, 2012 Carole rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, five-star-books, books-read-in-2011

This is a must read. I LOVED this book! I couldn't put it down and I was just speechless upon completion.

I was surprised at so many points while reading These Things Hidden and that doesn't happen often for me when reading a book. The author did an incredible job of slowly revealing secrets, piece by piece, and from various points of view.

My heart broke for many of the characters. I truly felt for them all, although my feelings changed toward the end and I had the deepest compassion for one of...more

8 likes · like · see review

Jan 09, 2011 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: mystery

These Things Hidden is all about secrets. As the story progresses, the past is revealed piece by piece. The story falls into place easily while offering shocking things, long hidden, yet never expected.

The book is written in alternating viewpoints between four different women all linked in some way to a little boy named Joshua. Each woman wants to ensure Joshua is safe and taken care if, even if they have different ideas and motives driving them.

The book begins with Allison being released from p...more

20 likes · like · see review

Feb 17, 2011 Suzanne Barrett rated it 4 of 5 stars

Heather Gudenkauf’s second novel deals with a difficult subject: murder. Told in first and third person by a quartet of female protagonists, it opens with Allison Glenn, the main protagonist who is getting out of prison after serving half of a ten-year sentence. Her lawyer, Devin, escorts her to a halfway house run by pragmatic-but tender-hearted Oleta. Allison wants desperately to put the past behind her and start anew but finds obstacles at every turn. Her sister, once a confidant, won’t answe...more Heather Gudenkauf’s second novel deals with a difficult subject: murder. Told in first and third person by a quartet of female protagonists, it opens with Allison Glenn, the main protagonist who is getting out of prison after serving half of a ten-year sentence. Her lawyer, Devin, escorts her to a halfway house run by pragmatic-but tender-hearted Oleta. Allison wants desperately to put the past behind her and start anew but finds obstacles at every turn. Her sister, once a confidant, won’t answer the letters she’s written; her parents want nothing to do with her, and it seems her reputation has preceded her because the other house residents taunt her with cruel notes and even more graphic reminders.

Younger sister, Brynn, has struggled to get on with her life, but she has never measured up to the perfect older sister, the straight A student and athletic champion on a fast track to a stellar career as an attorney. In fact, Brynn finds getting on in school following her sister’s imprisonment so traumatic that she tries to overdose on sleeping pills and is sent packing to her grandmother’s. She’s not the scholar her sister was, but she seeks a career working with companion animals.

Claire Kelby runs a bookshop. With husband Jonathan, the infertile couple have adopted a baby boy five years earlier–an infant abandoned at their local fire station. Joshua is a special little boy, loving, but with social issues. Attending kindergarten is a hard task for him, made even more difficult when the bookstore is robbed and his adoptive mother injured.

Charm Tullia, just twenty years old, lives with her stepfather Gus, a retired fireman in the final stages of lung cancer. Charm cares deeply for Gus while juggling a nurses’ training course at the local college and working part-time for Claire at the bookshop. Charm’s mother is a love-em-and-leave-em woman living with one of a long succession of men, and her brother disappeared years ago. Gus is Charm’s family and she nurtures him as best she can.

Ms. Gudenkauf’s story switches viewpoints between all four women. Each character has a voice and both good and bad traits that make them real to the reader. I identified less with Brynn, because she seemed the least capable of dealing with issues. The other three are strong, even in their weaknesses. Ms. Gudenkauf has a wonderful way of humanizing each of them to the point that I felt compelled to read on past my bedtime to see what would happen next. The connection of the women is best left to the reader to discover.

Even when you unravel all the threads, the ending will surprise you. This is a skillfully crafted story with many threads, all neatly woven into an exciting and dramatic conclusion. Ms. Gudenkauf’s present tense third person use is highly effective in this tale of loss and redemption.

I look for more powerful stories from this clearly qualified new author.(less)

14 likes · like · see review

Dec 18, 2012 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: literary-fiction

This is a book that is all about secrets, choices, second chances, abandonment, and ultimately of hope.

The story is told from the POV of multiple characters whose lives are connected in ways that only become readily apparent as the story unravels in unexpected ways.

Allison is the twenty one year old former overachieving highschool student convicted of a heinous crime that has left her alienated and abandoned by her family and an outcast in the small Iowa town that she grew up in.

Brynn is Allis...more

7 likes · like · see review

Mar 19, 2013 Farfished9 rated it 2 of 5 stars

Got this book for some mindless entertainment...To me, that's just what it was. It wasn't good...it wasn't bad...Won't tell you what it is about because you can read any other review or the book's jacket for that...

It's like...you know...when you're flipping through the channels on the tellie and there is nada on...and you settle on some lifetime movie or something that's already been on for however long (who cares anyway?)just because you're tired of flipping and you know you can just keep flip...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jun 19, 2012 Linda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: domestic-fiction

These Things Hidden is a suspense filled novel that explores the lives of,four women and the tragic events that have bound there lives together. The book begins when 21 year old Allison is released from prison after serving 5 years for the murder of her newborn infant. Once a scholar, athlete and all around perfect child, she is now emotionally fragile and struggles with the rejection of friends and family. Each of the four women face there own demons but they are all connected by 5 year old Jos...more

2 likes · like · see review

Apr 11, 2011 Lisa O. rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ya-lit

I have been debating whether to give this book one or two stars for a while now but, in all honesty, I did not like this book. I wanted to like this book, I struggled to get to the end to see if there was some redeeming last minute revelation but, alas, it never came.

The story rotates around 4 women, - Allison, an ex convict, Brynn, her sister, Charm, a nurse to-be and Claire, a bookshop owner - a little boy and a terrible secret that seems to connect them all. I didn't see the terrible secret....more I have been debating whether to give this book one or two stars for a while now but, in all honesty, I did not like this book. I wanted to like this book, I struggled to get to the end to see if there was some redeeming last minute revelation but, alas, it never came.

The story rotates around 4 women, - Allison, an ex convict, Brynn, her sister, Charm, a nurse to-be and Claire, a bookshop owner - a little boy and a terrible secret that seems to connect them all. I didn't see the terrible secret. Not because it wasn't terrible but because it didn't seem that much of a secret to me. I know this novel was meant to address the issue of newborn children abandonment and promote Safe Haven program but I honestly think it could have been dealt much better in a pamphlet. Or something.

This is what I'd call a book of stereotypes.
All characters are so cut out from some pre-printed cliché that this book gives a whole new nuance to the meaning bi-dimensional. As in made of paper. All characters are pushed to the excess, all black and white with no shades of grey. This is so not realistic. Allison is the monster who is secretly a saint, Brynn is the psycho, Claire is Perfect Mom, Charm is just plain St. Charm, Gus is the dying martyr. Charm's mother is the Bad mother and even Allison and Brynn's parents come out like "the source of all evil". This is less feasible than Urban Fantasy, for god's sake. Other characters like Christopher and the girl's Grandma are so barely sketched and superficially introduced that I didn't even understand their reason for being in the book.

Aside from the stereotyping factor, there were some major inconsistencies in the book that had me in brow furrowing mode repeatedly.(view spoiler)

Furthermore, stylistically, the alternating 1st/3rd person POV didn't work for me. I'm not referring to the difficulty of keeping track of who was telling what because that was made pretty clear by the heading of each chapter. I'm referring to the continuous 1st/3rd person switching. First of all.... WHY? Why tell all Allison and Brynn's parts in 1st person and Claire and Charm's in 3rd? Was there some recondite meaning I totally didn't get? Second, it didn't work. The 1st person parts were ok but the 3rd person parts were awful, flat, devoid of personality.... pretty much like the characters. It was like reading a bad newspaper article.

Finally, this book was just not for me. There was too much drama, too many people with issues crammed together in a single space, their greek drama was all over the place. Actually, it just dawned on me that, in a way, they all had their kind of psychosis going on. Even Perfect Mom.

(less)

34 likes · like · see review

Feb 07, 2011 Shay (Shannon) rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Trying to come up with words is almost impossible. I read The Weight of Silence quite awhile ago but I still think about it and talk about it. This one will be the same. I read different genres and enjoy them all, but I love fiction that could easily be fact.
Allison's character was one of the biggest reasons why I enjoyed this book so much. Throughout the book I wanted to hate her, but something told me to be patient. It's rare that there is a character I hate to love, it's usually the other wa...more

9 likes · like · see review

Feb 02, 2011 Candace rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was a crazy ride! At first I didn't know what was going on, what Allison had done that was so terrible. So I flew through the pages dying to know. In those pages I felt like I got to know Allison well enough that I couldn't imagine she had truly done something horrible. I couldn't imagine why everyone would be so hateful toward her. When I found out what her crime had been I just had to know WHY?!
This book alternates characters. We go to know Allison, the center of it all and the one who ju...more

8 likes · like · see review

Feb 23, 2011 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Kate by: Received a review copy from publicist

Shelves: received-for-review

These Things Hidden is shocking and heartwrenching, with a storyline that feels like it could have been ripped from the headlines. It tackles various hot-button topics, including the pressure on teens to excel, teen pregnancy, adoption, mental illness and depression, cancer, and poverty, in a gripping and realistic way. I kind of feel like I've given out some spoilers by saying that, but it's not exactly what you would expect. In fact, throughout the story things aren't always as they seem, and...more

1 like · like · see review

May 19, 2013 Sandra Marie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2013

I started this book shortly after midnight... lying in bed next to my fiancee as he slept. Insomnia is a horrible thing to most, but for me it allows me to escape into a world of fiction. Mini-vacations that happen in the middle of the night, sweeping me away to a world of make believe, a world of promise... of wonder. :-) This book is amazing, the plot is well thought out and proves just how strong a sister's love is. This novel keeps you on your toes as everything unravels. It is full of twist...more

1 like · like · see review

Jan 08, 2013 Casey Hays rated it 3 of 5 stars

I must admit, there were things I liked about the book, but more things I didn't. The author was able to paint some images in my head with her descriptions, and that worked. Some of those images I will not be able to erase. Every once in awhile, she said something profound and beautifully-written that made me sigh in satisfaction, but these were few and far between.

Many things bothered me about the book. Christopher was too vague. Grandma was too vague. I couldn't figure out the relationship Br...more I must admit, there were things I liked about the book, but more things I didn't. The author was able to paint some images in my head with her descriptions, and that worked. Some of those images I will not be able to erase. Every once in awhile, she said something profound and beautifully-written that made me sigh in satisfaction, but these were few and far between.

Many things bothered me about the book. Christopher was too vague. Grandma was too vague. I couldn't figure out the relationship Brynn and Allison had with their parents. Some of the things Allison feared her mom would do if she found out about the birth of the baby didn't seem to line up with the woman I believed the author had painted. Their parents seemed like people who would do anything to make sure Allison looked like the perfect daughter who would never make a mistake. So why would she fear that her mother would want to keep the baby for herself? Or have Allison raise it? It seems that her mom would have done everything she could to get things back to normal as if a baby had never been born. So Allison's reasoning there made no sense to me. I also didn't understand why they erased Brynn out of their lives. Why? They knew nothing of her involvement. This excuse that she just couldn't be the perfect daughter once they lost their precious Allison didn't quite vibe with me.

Brynn really made no sense. The author did a good job of portraying that Brynn had issues with depression; that she often drowned herself in alcohol and medication to overcome that depression; that she tried to kill herself right after the baby died, but we are with Brynn... in first person... for quite a bit of the story. And yet she never shows any signs of mental illness that would cause her to commit the heinous act in the bathtub. We are with her, inside her head, and we don't see it coming? We never even see her visiting her doctor, or having mental breakdowns or conversations that are incoherent until near the end. Instead, her doctor is only vaguely mentioned a couple of times. If Brynn was that messed up, we should have seen it. So the ending to her saga was very disappointing.

And something is clearly wrong with Joshua. Is he autistic? I didn't quite get his tantrums. I mean, there is no way he could have suffered some traumatic episode before he was adopted that he could have even remotely remembered. He was only three weeks old when he came to live with Claire and Jonathan. Nobody remembers anything from that young age. But that is the feeling I got--that we were supposed to believe his hardship before adoption had somehow tainted him. It just didn't work for me. I didn't fall in love with Joshua like every woman in this book seemed to because he didn't tug on my heartstrings like he should have. He just seemed spoiled, and everyone tried to walk on eggshells around him like they were afraid he would break if they did or said the wrong thing. It was all very weird.

Most of the main characters weren't fully fleshed out, and that always bothers me. Jonathan was too vague. He flitted in and out of the story with no real substance, although he was supposed to be important. Claire was very one-sided; wrapped up in fertility and adoption and the fear of losing another child. We don't know anything else about her. She didn't strike me as real. Joshua is five years old and she's still dwelling on the past. It was strange. The women at the halfway house were so underdeveloped that even Olene and Bea came off as superficial when they were supposed to be the voices of reason for Allison. They had one meaningful conversation, or maybe two. But I felt no connection between the women and Allison. I did not feel the ambiance of the halfway house like I wanted to, either. I wanted to see more of what Allison's life was like there. I would have liked to see scenes where she interacted more with the women. This was her home, after all, for the entire book.

The story was rushed, especially at the end--to the point that it began to feel like we were watching flash scenes rather than smoothly making our way through a good story. The action was so fast in certain parts. Dinner with Charm's mother didn't impress me. Charm was there, then she was gone in six pages flat. I wanted meat in that chapter. I wanted to see motives behind her mother. Her mom was again, a disappointment as far as character development. There were things I could see about her very well, and I thought "this character has potential." But then it was gone. She is a character I would have run with. The villainess is the most enjoyable character to create, and she was as close to a villainess as one got in this novel.

SPOILERS BELOW:

I think if the author had slowed her pace a bit and really allowed us time to get to know Christopher, for example-- to see the relationship between him and Allison blossom into love-- then I would have felt more of a connection to Joshua. I would have seen the Allison that the author merely told us about, but never let us meet. The scene with Allison and Brynn delivering that baby would have been moving in a different and personal kind of way. The author spent a lot of time telling us about Allison and what she was like before the pregnancy, but we didn't really know her, so it was hard to connect with who she was now.

All in all, this book had a lot of potential, and I really did like the first half better than the second. I was disappointed when it all became predictable, and then unreasonable. And my one question still is how in the world does a thin, 17-year old girl hide the fact that she's having twins? It's just not realistic. One baby, maybe. Twins? Hmmm... Not sure that could be pulled off as easily.(less)

3 likes · like · see review

May 10, 2012 Chantal rated it 4 of 5 stars

These Things Hidden by Heather Gudenkauf.

These Things Hidden is a powerful, complicated story about the ties that bind us to our families. Completely unpredictable, this novel will have readers guessing about what will unfold next.

Newly released from prison, Alison tries to contact her family without much success. She was their “golden girl” upon whom everyone placed their hopes. No one planned on Alison making a mistake--dating an older student and becoming pregnant. No one planned on "perfect...more

1 like · like · see review

May 22, 2012 Benilia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My basis of a good story depends on how it surprises the reader especially on how the story has ended. I failed to predict the ending and all the more the revelations shocked me. At first, it was a plain family oriented story which speaks more of parents-children relationships. And then went over to sweet childhood to sibling rivalry to growing pains and then eventually to young adult dealing with complex situations. Lies and deception took in as I went on every chapter of the story. Shocking re...more

4 likes · like · see review

Jul 27, 2011 Sandra Stiles rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult, realistic-fiction, suspense, young-adult

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. What happens when an over-achiever teenager gets pregnant? What happens when she hides the pregnancy from everyone? Who will be there to help her when time to deliver the baby? What will happen to the baby?

This book had me from the opening chapter. Allison is being released from five years in prison. Her crime? She is accused of giving birth to a baby then throwing her in a river to drown. But things are not what they seem. The book is told from the perspective of four women. Allison who is accu...more

1 like · like · see review

Aug 24, 2011 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars

I won an advance copy of “These Things Hidden” in a Goodreads giveaway (which was a complete and unexpected thrill!)… but will admit I was a little worried when I saw that the book was coming from Harlequin. (Would it sport a windswept, half-naked Fabio on the cover? Would I be embarrassed to read it on the train?) For many of us who grew up in the 80’s and giggled over the Harlequins sitting on our mothers’ shelves (not MY mother of course), Harlequin has always been associated with romances of...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 25, 2011 Mara rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who loves Jodi Picoult

Shelves: suspense, womens-lit, 2011

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. We've heard the news stories before: secretly pregnant teenager secretly gives birth and disposes of the baby by nefarious means, such as a dumpster. Allison's story doesn't so much involve a dumpster as it does a mentally unhinged sister and a freezing river. Enter backstory!

Most of These Things Hidden is a winding road through past actions as they affect current events. Sixteen-year-old Allison Glenn wound up in jail, convicted of drowning her newborn infant girl. Five years later, Allison fin...more We've heard the news stories before: secretly pregnant teenager secretly gives birth and disposes of the baby by nefarious means, such as a dumpster. Allison's story doesn't so much involve a dumpster as it does a mentally unhinged sister and a freezing river. Enter backstory!

Most of These Things Hidden is a winding road through past actions as they affect current events. Sixteen-year-old Allison Glenn wound up in jail, convicted of drowning her newborn infant girl. Five years later, Allison finds herself on parole and living in a halfway house, disowned by her parents and ignored by her sister, Brynn. Brynn is having a hard time of it, too. Living with her grandmother and on some serious medication, she's only barely making things work as she takes extra strides to avoid her sister at all costs. Then there's Claire, the mother of the adopted Joshua, and Charm, who could only be described as the middleman. They are all connected through the boy, Joshua.

The book attempts to tell the story of how Joshua came to exist through the four women. It shifts point of view for every chapter, and skips from first person to third person depending on who's talking. I did not find this distracting, however the number of POV changes definitely gave me enough time to notice that no character has a distinct voice. Each one sounds mostly the same, and if not for the handy character name titles, it would be difficult to figure out who's speaking. The only one who manages to create a unique voice for herself might be Brynn, and really only in the last pages of the book. The rest of the characters are vibrant shades of perfection, spouting predictable words and doing predictable things. I found myself completely skimming over Claire, as she was so void of personality that was not Perfect Mother. Charm also came close to this level of dullness, being the Perfect Daughter Whose Mother Is Stereotypically Terrible.

Speaking of Stereotypically Terrible Parents, this book hits a double. Maybe even a triple, if you count Allison and her boyfriend. Certainly there are bad parents in this world, or parents who say or do the wrong things, but then you have the petty, melodramatic actions of bad parents in fiction, who only say or do wrongs and only act selfish to downright vicious to their children 100% of the time. If these characters are supposed to counteract the near sainthood of Claire, Charm, and occasionally Allison, they don't. They just make it far more clear that this book can't handle shades of gray.

The writing, and even the story, are fairly simplistic. In fact, the storyline is downright convenient most of the time. The story will hold readers in suspense just by refusing to announce who threw the baby in the river until the last few chapters, and whether or not Allison deserved to go to jail. The resolution might leave people wondering. I felt Brynn's devolving into homicidal/suicidal mania was sudden, her actions illogical and almost comical. The treatment of such a character felt almost unsavory and disrespectful to mental illness as a whole. What are we supposed to think after reading this?

(I received an advance copy of These Things Hidden from the publisher.)(less)

11 likes · like · see review

Feb 01, 2011 Cynthia (A Blog about Nothing) rated it 4 of 5 stars

After reading the synopsis for These Things Hidden I knew I wanted to read it, it was intriguing, and sounded very intense. I thought it was going to be a young adult novel which is pretty much all I ever read but it wasn't, it was more of an adult novel or a much older YA. When I figured out that it wasn't YA I immediately thought I wouldn't like it because I haven't read adult novels in quite a while, but I was wrong, because this book captured my attention from the first fifty pages.

The stor...more After reading the synopsis for These Things Hidden I knew I wanted to read it, it was intriguing, and sounded very intense. I thought it was going to be a young adult novel which is pretty much all I ever read but it wasn't, it was more of an adult novel or a much older YA. When I figured out that it wasn't YA I immediately thought I wouldn't like it because I haven't read adult novels in quite a while, but I was wrong, because this book captured my attention from the first fifty pages.

The story focuses on the lives of four different women, three of them are college age and one is an older woman but they are all connected somehow and the reader doesn't really know the connection at the beginning, except for the two sisters. The book starts off with Allison Glenn being released from jail after serving five years for a horrible crime that she committed while she was still in high school. Allison has a sister name Brynn who is trying to live a normal life but filled with guilt and bitterness over what happened with her sister five years ago. Then we have Charm, another 20 year old who has a connection to Claire a book owner that has an adopted son, and I won't say much more on that so I won't spoil it for you. The book is told from the point of view of these four women and they are all very different, so even if it wouldn't have the character's name on top of each chapter the reader would be able to notice the differences in their voices and who's point of view you're reading it from. These were very well written and well developed characters that the reader can relate to and feel a connection to at least one of them.

This story was shocking almost all the way through, I kept getting blown away when things just kept being revealed and just about everything that I thought I knew and had already predicted was wrong, because the story doesn't really unravel all of its secrets until the end. It was intense and emotional, I cried at least four times while reading it and just had a very hard time putting it down, to say it had me glued to its pages doesn't even begin to describe it, I just needed to know what was going on and what had really happened to these people five years ago. I just kept saying NO WAYS and OMGs the whole way through, that's how shocking, intense, and good this book was. It had me fooled until almost the end and had me in tears through most of the story. It was definitely a great contemporary novel about real life choices, sister relationships, family secrets, and motherhood. If I had to choose one adult novel to read this year this would have been it, I'm glad I read it as it's a painful but beautifully written story. (less)

1 like · like · see review

Dec 21, 2011 Anna rated it 4 of 5 stars

These Things Hidden is one of those books I had tucked away for reading someday. Well, someday came and I feel bad for waiting so long. The analytical me wanted to tear parts apart, but still this book held its own. Fom the view of four different women, each lending something important to a previous tragedy/crime. I admit, I thought it to be a bit predictable, but it the end, it got me!!! Ha! Not as smart as I thought!
Good job Heather Gudenkauf. Looking forward to reading more of your work.

h ...more

1 like · like · see review

Aug 16, 2012 Rikke rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012

I liked this book a lot, it was easy to read and never got borring. However one thing really annoyed me in this book ...

(and heres a spoiler - so stop reading now if you have not allready read this book)

When Allison is in the hospital bed, being adviced to tell everyone she thought the baby was allready death when she dumped it (yes, it) in the river - she have this inner dialog with herself, about how she knew the babygirl was alive as she could hear the cries.
I liked that bit, as it shows how...more

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Feb 19, 2013 Anke rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Het is een goed boek. Er wordt vanuit 4 personen geschreven, je leest en leeft met allmaal mee en denkt ze te ‘kennen’, en toch is er een verrassing aan het einde... Ik kon me het meest vinden in de verhalen van Allison en Claire, ik voelde veel sympathie voor ze en hoop dat het goed met ze gaat. De verhalen van Brynn en Charme vond ik wel goed, maar ik had er minder mee.

1 like · like · see review

Mar 19, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 110-book-challenge

This book was written well and was easy to read. Heather Gudenkauf is a very talented writter. You are easily consumed by the story and the characters. However, this was a very thought provoking book that takes you through tons of emotions. It is not an uplifting book that makes you feel good but it is written well and keeps you on the edge of your seat. It's like the scary movies that you don't want to watch because you know you won't be able to get them out of your head but you keep watching t...more

1 like · like · see review

Feb 02, 2013 Sonia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, women-s-fiction

This book was amazing. The title is perfect, as you read the book more and more hidden things are revealed. The ending was perfect. There were some issues that I had with some inconsistencies and unbelievable things.

1 like · like · see review

Mar 13, 2011 Juanita rated it 5 of 5 stars

I absolutely loved the way the story unfolds. Love the way it is written from a variety of perspectives and slowly showing you the full picture. A gripping story that had me turning the pages on my kindle long after lights should have gone out.

2 likes · like · see review

Aug 17, 2011 Cecilia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, read-2011, f2f-bkclb, suspense-thriller

Pulled an all-nighter to finish this book! I am not going to tell you a thing, because it is one that must be experience from beginning to end on your own. Fasten your seat belts, this is a bumpy ride.

2 likes · like · see review

Nov 11, 2012 Stacy rated it 4 of 5 stars

So many twists and turns. A great weekend road trip listen. The audible version is narrated by different people for different characters. Really really enjoyed. Might submit for future book club selection.

1 like · like · see review

Oct 25, 2011 Dottie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Wow! This was a great book! Not as predictable as I'd originally thought. Well put-together. If I tried to put this book down, it would call me back for more.

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 02, 2011 Rob Litvin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Well it was clever.. my friend couldn't get past the first few pages because of the unique way it was written and even so he guessed the ending (almost) I liked getting into the heads of all the characters and the way it played out...

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 07, 2012 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: high-school, mystery-thriller

A very original and interesting story. FINALLY a book I could not predict the ending of and felt constant suspense. It was really creepy and sad but overall a great story.

1 like · like · see review

Apr 29, 2011 Claire rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

So amazing and so sad, it kept me on my toes until the very end. I'm definetly gonna try to find more books by this author.

4 likes · like · see review

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About Heather Gudenkauf

Heather is the NYT and USA Today Bestselling author of THE WEIGHT OF SILENCE and THESE THINGS HIDDEN.

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9166559-these-things-hidden?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1296001564l/9166559.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9166559-these-things-hidden?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]These Things Hidden by Heather Gudenkauf[/url]

These Things Hidden

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