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These Things Hidden
400 pages
A tense, emotionally layered exploration of the devastating lengths people will go to protect the ones they love.
What it feels like
Reading this novel feels like watching a slow-motion collision, where the impact is entirely emotional. It is a brisk, character-driven domestic thriller that wraps you in a suffocating blanket of small-town secrets and fractured family loyalties. The narrative shifts seamlessly between different women, each carrying her own heavy burden of guilt, grief, or desperate maternal love. As the layers of deception are peeled back, the atmosphere grows increasingly tense and claustrophobic, driven not by action, but by the psychological dread of the truth coming to light. The prose is accessible and emotionally direct, hooking you with its raw vulnerability. It is a perfect fit for readers who devour suspenseful, emotionally tangled stories about sisterhood, the fierce instincts of motherhood, and the devastating ripple effects of a single tragic choice.
- Mood
- tense
- claustrophobic
- emotionally heavy
- shadowed
- Tone
- earnest
- urgent
- empathetic
- suspenseful
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- fractured sisterhood · complexities of motherhood · weight of buried secrets · guilt and redemption · ripple effects of trauma
- The writing
- Accessible and emotionally direct, relying on shifting perspectives to build psychological tension.
- The arc
- Moves from suffocating guilt and isolation toward painful but necessary truth and fragile healing.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love character-driven domestic suspense and emotionally tangled family dramas centered on dark secrets.
Content notes
- teen pregnancy
- child abandonment
- incarceration
- trauma
About the book
"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 carries the burden of what really happened that night. All she wants is to forget Allison and the past that haunts her. But then Allison is released to a halfway house, and is more determined than ever to speak with her estranged sister. Now their legacy of secrets is focused on one little boy. And if the truth is revealed, the consequences will be unimaginable for the adoptive mother who loves him, the girl who tried to protect him and the two sisters who hold the key to all that is hidden"--Publisher's web site.
Description from Open Library.
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