448 books
—
637 voters
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “These Things Hidden” as Want to Read:
These Things Hidden
by
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
Get A Copy
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
These Things Hidden,
please sign up.
Popular Answered Questions
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30
Start your review of These Things Hidden
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
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
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
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
This book has been collecting dust on my shelf for far too long.
Like a dental appointment, I kept putting it off, not sure why. Now I am sorry I waited so long for such a great read.
Upon release from prison for a devastating crime, Allison attempts to reunite with her family and get her life back on track. This book unfolds from several points of view. Each character telling their own intriguing story, until the inevitable collision in the end. Love that!!
Really enjoyed this book. Will defini ...more
Like a dental appointment, I kept putting it off, not sure why. Now I am sorry I waited so long for such a great read.
Upon release from prison for a devastating crime, Allison attempts to reunite with her family and get her life back on track. This book unfolds from several points of view. Each character telling their own intriguing story, until the inevitable collision in the end. Love that!!
Really enjoyed this book. Will defini ...more
In her high school in Linden Falls, Iowa, tall, blonde 16-year-old Allison Glenn was a five-sport athlete and a straight A student.
Thus Allison expected to get a college scholarship, go to law school, and have a stellar career far from Linden Falls. Instead, teenage Allison was arrested for an unthinkable crime and - advised by her lawyer to plead guilty - sentenced to ten years in prison.
Paroled after five years for good behavior, now 21-year-old Allison is released to a Linden Falls halfway ...more
Allison Glenn has just been released from prison after serving five years for a terrible crime. Before Allison was sent to prison, she and her sister, Brynn were very close, but that all ended the night Allison was sent away as Brynn wanted nothing more to do with her sister. If dealing with what happened that night wasn't enough, Brynn also had to deal with kids staring and whispering behind her back. It was all becoming too much for Brynn, so her parents sent her to live with her grandmother w
...more
"Her heart is pounding, fearful of what they're going to find when they reach the top."
*Audiobook*
These Things Hidden by Heather Gudenkauf, narrated by Angela Goethals.
Allison -
Perfect, seventeen year old Allison Glynn. Smart. Straight A student. Competitive athlete. Pretty. Everything her parents want her to be. Her life is all mapped out ahead of her. Finish highschool then on to an Ivy league college, study to be a lawyer, work at a top law firm.
For all her accomplishments what Allison ...more
*Audiobook*
These Things Hidden by Heather Gudenkauf, narrated by Angela Goethals.
Allison -
Perfect, seventeen year old Allison Glynn. Smart. Straight A student. Competitive athlete. Pretty. Everything her parents want her to be. Her life is all mapped out ahead of her. Finish highschool then on to an Ivy league college, study to be a lawyer, work at a top law firm.
For all her accomplishments what Allison ...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 answe
...more
Oct 29, 2014
David
rated it
did not like it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Andrea Yates, Susan Smith, Oprah
Shelves:
female-protagonist,
contemporary,
mystery,
audiobook,
crime,
female-author,
young-adult,
teenagers,
chick-lit,
mental-illness
Why was this on my TBR list? I must have read some review that made it sound interesting, and so I picked it at random at the library. At least I didn't pay money for it.
This is a book about secrets and babies and mommy-love and bad parents and crazy.
Perfect college-bound athlete Allison gets knocked up by a summer fling, manages to keep this secret from her parents, because they are caricatures of Bad and Superficial Parenting, and when she gives birth, with her flaky sister Brynn present, she ...more
This is a book about secrets and babies and mommy-love and bad parents and crazy.
Perfect college-bound athlete Allison gets knocked up by a summer fling, manages to keep this secret from her parents, because they are caricatures of Bad and Superficial Parenting, and when she gives birth, with her flaky sister Brynn present, she ...more
All i can say is i absolutely recommend this book to all my lady friends you wont be disappointed this made me have mixed emotions Characters were dealing with real situations we all deal with every day will be reading more of this Author
Confession: I saw this on the shelf at work a couple years ago and thought it sounded interesting. Put it on my paperbackswap list and forgot about until I got the notification my request came in. Was in a bit of funk yesterday and grabbed this off my shelves on a whim.,hoping it would bring me out of it. Didn't read reviews of it before I started, just plunged in.
It reminded me of 'Reconstructing Amelia' and 'Girl on the train' (both I loved) in the fact that the suspense and characters are wel ...more
It reminded me of 'Reconstructing Amelia' and 'Girl on the train' (both I loved) in the fact that the suspense and characters are wel ...more
Another great book by Heather Gudenkauf. She's quickly becoming one of my top authors. These Things Hidden felt very real, builds suspense and includes sympathetic characters. A page-turner for sure! 4.5 stars!
...more
Sep 26, 2013
Maxine (Booklover Catlady)
rated it
did not like it
Shelves:
did-not-finish,
women-s-fiction-read
This won't be a long review. I can't find enough words to say about this drawn-out book. I suffered to the halfway point with this book, bored to tears wondering what the point of it all was.
Not all books are thrilling page turners but both the plot and the characters fell flat in this for me in this one completely. It's put me off her other books although I know she has her fans and many loved this too.
It failed to capture raw emotion that should have been there in this story and in a nutshell ...more
Not all books are thrilling page turners but both the plot and the characters fell flat in this for me in this one completely. It's put me off her other books although I know she has her fans and many loved this too.
It failed to capture raw emotion that should have been there in this story and in a nutshell ...more
A tragic mystery that slowly reveals it self like peeling an onion. In the beginning I thought I had a handle on what was going on in the lives of the three young girls at the center of the story. Wrong... Needless to say, there are twists and turns that make you keep changing your feelings toward each character.
Choices and fate seem to run along in the same lane for two sisters, an innocent bystander and a very lonley couple. The characters were believable and the narration was very good. This ...more
Choices and fate seem to run along in the same lane for two sisters, an innocent bystander and a very lonley couple. The characters were believable and the narration was very good. This ...more
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
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
Bullet Review:
DNF at 46%, read the last 4 chapters.
To show how utterly stupid this book is (trying to be discreet in case someone wants to read this but sorry if there are slight spoilers): an extremely sporty and active teenager somehow hides a pregnancy with twins and gives birth with a family member helping. Instead of, I don’t know, using birth control in the first place or perhaps checking out an abortion, she goes through with THE ENTIRE pregnancy and chucks one baby into the water to die. ...more
DNF at 46%, read the last 4 chapters.
To show how utterly stupid this book is (trying to be discreet in case someone wants to read this but sorry if there are slight spoilers): an extremely sporty and active teenager somehow hides a pregnancy with twins and gives birth with a family member helping. Instead of, I don’t know, using birth control in the first place or perhaps checking out an abortion, she goes through with THE ENTIRE pregnancy and chucks one baby into the water to die. ...more
A contemporary family drama narrated by four different women-Allison, her sister Brynn, nursing student Charm, and bookseller Claire. At first, I was thinking "Yikes, quite a number of characters for a short book." But quite quickly the connection between the four women becomes clear. I won't say too much about the plot because it was quite easy to figure out, it is perhaps the ending that is most surprising(tragic too).
...more
This is another Audible gem. They were having a "Buy One, Get One" sale, and These Things Hidden was my "Get One" book, chosen on a whim. But for that sale, I probably never would have read this. (I've been kind of unofficially avoiding YA lately, being sick of the love triangles and the YAPNR and the blah blah blah.) But had I missed this one, it would have been a shame, because this book is fantastic.
I almost don't want to talk about the plot of the story at all, because I'm afraid of ruining ...more
I almost don't want to talk about the plot of the story at all, because I'm afraid of ruining ...more
This was a nice easy-reading book, and although I thought I figured out the ending quite early on, I was wrong. The reason it only gets a three start rating from me, is that I never felt that much empathy with any of the characters. If you want to try a book by the author, which was brilliant and reminded me a lot of Jodi Picoult's writing, I highly recommend One Breath Away
The story: When her sister Allison, convicted of a heinous crime, is released from prison to a halfway house and is despera ...more
The story: When her sister Allison, convicted of a heinous crime, is released from prison to a halfway house and is despera ...more
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
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
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
This book alternates characters. We go to know Allison, the center of it all and the one who ju ...more
I really enjoyed this book. I love Heather Gudenkauf. She has a wonderful, almost lyrical way with words. These Things Hidden had everything I adore in a book:
1)in depth character development
2)plot twists and turns
3)secrets and lies
I zoomed through this in a day and a half! I could not put this book down. 4.5 stars!
1)in depth character development
2)plot twists and turns
3)secrets and lies
I zoomed through this in a day and a half! I could not put this book down. 4.5 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
Many things bothered me about the book. Christopher was too vague. Grandma was too vague. I couldn't figure out the relationship Br ...more
This one confused me! Originally I read "Not a sound" by this author and really thought it had something. This one seemed a bit "simple" and predictable but in some ways it wasn't! Powerful at times, rather simple at others - ultimately quite dark and I'm still not quite sure what I think of it!!
...more
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
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
Great book! This is my first Heather Gudenkauf novel, but will not be my last. Heather writes beautifully, the story is told with words that flow down a lazy river until they reach the rapids. I especially love the way the story unfolds through the eyes of four women. I read this book in one day, I couldn't put it down.
...more
The book begins with Allison being released from prison. She committed an unforgivable crime, the nature of which we don't learn until later in the book. Every bit of Allison's past is revealed at the perfect moment. Her story is traumatically heart-wrenching and you can't help but feel for her while at the same time hating her actions.
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 ...more
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 ...more
4.5 stars
I normally dissect a mystery plot and have it all figured out within 20% of starting a novel, but this book just kept surprising me. The subject matter is definitely rough, and the book gets more and more fucked up as it nears the end, but I enjoyed all of the twists and turns and how the book was never boring for a single second.
The only negative for me is that I didn't care for Claire's perspective. I felt like it didn't really add to the story, and any of the important information i ...more
I normally dissect a mystery plot and have it all figured out within 20% of starting a novel, but this book just kept surprising me. The subject matter is definitely rough, and the book gets more and more fucked up as it nears the end, but I enjoyed all of the twists and turns and how the book was never boring for a single second.
The only negative for me is that I didn't care for Claire's perspective. I felt like it didn't really add to the story, and any of the important information i ...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
These Things Hidden was my second Heather Gudenkauf book. And, just like the first book I read and loved, The Weight of Silence, this was also a quick fantastic read!
This is a beautifully human story about love. All kinds of love, and the different ways it takes shape in different people. It's also about the difficulties, struggles and consequences of the decisions we make...and the decisions that are already made for us.
It's also about the beauty and tragedy of dealing with one's family. The b ...more
This is a beautifully human story about love. All kinds of love, and the different ways it takes shape in different people. It's also about the difficulties, struggles and consequences of the decisions we make...and the decisions that are already made for us.
It's also about the beauty and tragedy of dealing with one's family. The b ...more
Really enjoyed this book. This author is proving to be one of my new favorites.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What's the Name o...: SOLVED. Adult Thriller / Mystery. A teenager has twins and abandons them, keeps this a secret for years. Read around 2012-2013. Cover: teddy bear in right corner? Spoiler ahead? [s] | 6 | 23 | Dec 15, 2020 11:34AM | |
| What's the Name o...: SOLVED. A girl is sent to jail for 13 years for a crime she did not commit. She went to jail to protect someone else... [s] | 8 | 549 | Nov 05, 2019 12:29PM | |
| The Asocial Readers: January Book | 1 | 4 | Dec 29, 2017 10:14AM | |
| Bookworm Bitches : April 2011: These Things Hidden | 36 | 268 | Mar 15, 2017 09:52AM |
Readers also enjoyed
Related Articles
If you ask us, it's always the perfect time to lose yourself in a page-turning mystery. To help you sleuth out a new read, we asked the...
175 likes · 103 comments
23 trivia questions
More quizzes & trivia...
“You were a wish that we made every morning when we woke up and a prayer we said before we went to bed each night,”
—
5 likes
“I get Allison’s letters. Sometimes I wish that I could write back to her, go see her, act like a sister to her. But something always stops me. Grandma tells me I should talk to Allison, try to forgive her. But I can’t. It’s like something broke inside me that night five years ago.”
—
0 likes
More quotes…
