The Secrets we Keep, by Rick R. Reed

[Ulysses]

The Secrets We Keep
By Rick R. Reed
Dreamspinner Press, 2019
Five stars

This one made me cry a lot. I love that.

“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.”

Jasper Warren, 25, aka Jazz, is a boy trapped in his own sadness. He’s got a low-end job, a father who doesn’t care about him, and a meager love life based on hook-ups. The only thing going for Jazz is his roommate, Lacy, a smart, lonely goth girl who seems to love him more than anyone else in his life.

The truth is, Jasper’s sadness goes a lot deeper than that, and the reason for his blue-collar father’s emotional distance isn’t so simply pegged either. It takes another tragedy to bring Robert Burroughs into Jazz’s life.

Of course, that only creates new problems. Rob, a successful novelist under the pen name Michael Blake, is old enough to be Jazz’s father. This might play into Jasper’s kept-boy fantasies, but also triggers all of his insecurities from a lifetime of feeling unloved. Rob himself is complicated enough, with secrets every bit as deep and scarring as Jasper’s own.

This not a big plot, but a story of human frailty and longing, deftly drawn as it probes the genuine goodness of people who don’t quite believe in their own worth. It is not just about Jasper and Rob and their connection to each other, either, for there is more to rebuilding a broken soul than simply falling in love.