Review: Our Dark Secret

Our Dark Secret by Jenny Quintana
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Well that was disturbing.

It took a while for things to happen so there wasn't a lot of suspense in this one. It was more about sad, pathetic Elizabeth and her obsession with Rachel, and their messed up family relationships. I gotta say, Elizabeth was not someone I enjoyed getting to know. She's incredibly insecure and her girl-crush on Rachel is super cringe-worthy. But you do really pity her and her naivety.

But let me back up.

Here's the lowdown:
1978: Elizabeth meets Rachel. Thinks she's an angel. Obsesses over trying to be her friend for the entire book. Meanwhile there's something strange going on with her parents but who has time for that drama when she's fat and sad?
1999: Elizabeth is still fat and sad and is now also a lost case. She's stealing cake, reminiscing about that sad childhood and hoping that the body that's just turned up can't be connected to her this many years later.

I mean, the setup is interesting. I definitely wanna know who owns the bodies, how they met their end, and how dear sweet Elizabeth is involved. But the first half of the book has no interest in crime and/or suspense and reads more like literary fiction as it discusses the breakdown of her parents' relationship and the awkwardness of navigating the relationships that are left. This will be fascinating for people who like to dwell on the tragic realities of broken homes and it really was quite heartbreaking, but in my case I was expecting a tense thriller so it threw me off a bit.

Once we got a bit more of a taste of the mystery though it was quite interesting and did keep me guessing. There was a lot going on so it was fun to work out what went where.

There's not a huge amount of depth to any characters beside Elizabeth, but I didn't really like what I saw anyway so that wasn't a deal breaker for me. The pace was really slow to start with but definitely picked up at the halfway mark and by the end I was pretty committed to the story.

Overall it was an interesting read but not really enough to be memorable for me. A unique story, but more mystery and drama than crime and suspense. This will be more enjoyable for those who want to dwell on motivations and far-reaching consequences, but people looking for a hard and fast thriller may find this a little slow.

With thanks to Macmillan AUS for my ARC. (Publishing 11/2/20)

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