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Keeping You a Secret

Julie Anne Peters

Why we're reading this: Popular girl begins to question her own sexuality when an "out and proud" lesbian moves to town, and must…more
[close] Popular girl begins to question her own sexuality when an "out and proud" lesbian moves to town, and must deal with the reactions of her friends and family.

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What Members Thought

Oct 25, 2010 karen rated it liked it

Shelves: and-so-this-is-grad-school, why-yes-i-ya

i know all of you are off writing your damn novels this month, but don't forget to support me in my own writing project: NaReWriMo, where i write reviews for teen fiction and you all applaud my brave attempts to keep up despite finding it harder and harder to be charming as every book underwhelms me and i am forced to resort to gimmickry like adding soundtracks; a different song to each paragraph.

this is my last gay teen novel for class, so i wish i could be all flamboyant and anthemic and proud ...more

81 likes · Like · see review

Nov 12, 2009 jo rated it it was ok

Shelves: kids, queer, lesbian

i'm on a semi-professional kick of reading books with young protagonists dealing with sexual awakening. it's semi-professional because, while i'm slated to teach a class about teens' sexuality, teaching is never far from the soft nub of my life, and i tend to teach what my mind is working at figuring out at the time. managing to do this requires a constant whirlwind of reading-list changes and in-between-semesters reading -- my mind re-adjusts its focus constantly, and even a tiny little adjustm ...more

27 likes · Like · see review

Feb 03, 2008 Meagan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: teen_materials_class

Holland is, by all appearances, the perfect high school student. She is student council president, she's taking extra and advanced classes in pursuit of a college scholarship, she's on the swim team, and she has a popular and devoted boyfriend. Despite all this, she feels pressured by her mother, friends, and guidance counselor to pursue a particular kind of life that she's not sure she wants. Everything changes for her one day when CeCe transfers from another school. CeCe is confident, beautifu ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Dec 12, 2007 Krista the Krazy Kataloguer rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-lgbtq, read-ya, 2012-ya-book-club-a-z-challenge

When I picked up this book, I thought it would be a story of two teen girls finding love with each other, similar to Nancy Garden's Annie on My Mind. However, Peters' book is so much grittier and delves much more deeply into the issues of being honest with yourself, finding out who you are, and coming out. It also deals with how a person's coming out (i.e., declaring oneself to be gay) affects other people, such as family, friends, and classmates. Holland is in her last semester of high school, ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Oct 25, 2020 Michael rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-book, read-in-2020, young-adult, fall-reading-2020

Heading into the final semester of her senior year, Holland is trying to figure out her future. Where will she go to school? What are her goals in life? Will she stay with her perfect boyfriend Seth?

Instead of taking an extra study hall, Holland takes an art class. She also starts to notice and make friends with the new girl, CeCe, who has just transferred to her school.

Before the semester ends, Holland's life will change completely in ways she couldn't expect.

Julie Anne Peters' Keeping You A Heading into the final semester of her senior year, Holland is trying to figure out her future. Where will she go to school? What are her goals in life? Will she stay with her perfect boyfriend Seth?

Instead of taking an extra study hall, Holland takes an art class. She also starts to notice and make friends with the new girl, CeCe, who has just transferred to her school.

Before the semester ends, Holland's life will change completely in ways she couldn't expect.

Julie Anne Peters' Keeping You A Secret is a coming of age and coming out story for Holland. Over the course of the story, Holland begins to realize that the dreams her mother has for her (and seems to consistently force upon her) aren't the dreams she has. Her mother dismisses her interest in art, continually belittles any school that isn't Ivy-League-level, and even casts dispersions upon Holland's growing friendship with CeCe, at one point telling Holland she needs to drop CeCe as a friend. (SPOILER alert -- things get a lot worse when Holland comes out to herself and is then forced out by her vindictive ex-boyfriend, Seth).

I'm torn on how I feel about this young adult novel. On the one hand, the journey that Holland undergoes emotionally as she falls in love with CeCe is one feels completely authentic. But there are several points along the way that feel a bit like the novel is trying too hard to be melodramatic.

These stem from Holland's relationship with her mother, who is beyond controlling. Peters tries to sow seeds of the mom's motivation early -- she got pregnant with Holland at fifteen and had to give up on some of her dreams to raise her daughter. But, her mother's constantly meddling and then reaction when Holland is outed (she throws a fit, hitting Holland repeatedly and throwing her out of the house) make the character seem too much like a Snidley-Whiplash type of obstacle. The story does try to have some reconciliation between the two in the waning chapters, only for it to go wrong with the mother won't accept Holland isn't "going through a phase" and withholds her college money and Holland's personal savings from her.

The other stems from a portion of the novel in which it appears that CeCe could be cheating on Holland. As the novel progressed, I was never quite sure how to feel about CeCe. I never quite feel like CeCe is given the depth she needs in the story (none of the supporting characters really are for that matter). The cheating is eventually resolved, but you can't help but wonder just how secure the future for Holland and CeCe really is (of course, you can say the same about most young adult novel romances, I guess).

Listening to this as an audiobook, I have to say that it wasn't one of my favorite performances of a novel. Rebekah Lavin's choices for the voices of different characters becomes a bit grating after a while (the voice used for the art teacher seems like a bad impression of Spiccoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High) and that may have detracted a bit from my overall enjoyment of the novel. ...more

1 like · Like · see review