Short Book Reviews: Deadly Secrets: A Brilliant Depiction of a Trans Teen

 Mad Honey, by Jodi Picoult; Jennifer FinneyBoylan (Ballantine)

Jodi Picoult’s writing never fails to blow me away. Shetackles complex and difficult issues with compassion, nuance, and page-turningdrama. I’ll gladly gobble up anything she writes, so I nabbed a copy of MadHoney without reading the description. I wasn’t familiar with co-author JenniferFinney Boylan; Picoult’s name on the cover was enough to sell me. And what ajourney the two of them took me on! The collaboration was a brilliant idea, aduet of two distinct voices with two authentic life experiences.

I won’t elaborate on the plot too much, because the plottwists are half of what kept me up way too late, turning the pages. Suffice itto say that the backstory of boy-meets-girl, each from a family with hidden trauma,quickly explodes into tragedy. From there, the story—told in alternating pointsof view of the girl and the boy’s mother—plays out from that turning point, onestory unfurling into the past, the events leading up to the crisis, the othertaking the story forward. If this sounds confusing, it isn’t. The dual timelines/narratorslayer connection upon connection like a four-dimensional tapestry. I foundmyself falling in love with characters and wishing them happiness even when I alreadyknew this would never be their fate.

It is a mark of the skill of the authors and their chosen narrativestructure that the twin struggles of a trans teen coming into their own and anabused woman seeking safety and empowerment perfectly mirror and inform eachother. The story left me wanting to rush up to everyone I know and demand thatthey read it!