REVIEW: This Summers' Secrets by Emily Barr

Genre: Thriller | Young Adult Fiction | Mystery

Release Date: Expected 8th June 2023

Publisher: Penguin Random House

Nobody understands why Senara visits Martha up in cliff house. Everyone in town says she’s an old witch, the Mrs Havisham of Cornwall. But since they started talking the one night she and her friends broke in to search for ghosts, they’ve made a friendship she can’t shake.

Then one summer, Martha’s family comes to visit and the ghostly Cliff House becomes a summery paradise, luring Senara into a world of sunshine, wealth and excitement she’d never imagined.

Although Senara didn’t find any; there are plenty of ghosts at Cliff House. Generations of secrets, lies, and skeletons in closets that have started to rise the surface and will not be buried again.

"Some secrets needed the stay in the ground."

A sweeping story full of secrets and hidden things set against a backdrop of unsuspecting backdrop of wealth, privilege and sunshine.

Fans of We Were Liars and How to Kill Your Family will absolutely love this book — it’s quiet, calm and unassuming in its storytelling but in that silence comes an intense sense of anxiety and intrigue as the buried secrets and lies slowly emerge from the ground and come into focus.

Senara is a strange narrator, finding herself privy to the world of the elite and wealthy despite her own difficult life — but this family she knew long ago aren’t telling her everything, neither are her own. She’s just floating through the story for a while, not really doing anything, sometimes doing the wrong thing and waiting to find her moment to speak. We hear her as she struggles with her new and old friends and first loves, but also journey back to many summers in the past when secrets were buried but not deep enough. All the smaller stories creep along, characters becoming murky and not really knowing who to trust until they all merge together — hearing from her friends who find themselves wrapped up in this journey with her who develop their own distinct voices, have their own stories hidden from sight and become so familiar and endearing page by pages; with beautiful characters and stunningly complex friendships.

The setting was vivid and mesmerising; a sweaty, suffocating heat and bright sun accompanied by waves of nostalgia for our teen years and easier days. Electrifyingly exciting with an intoxicating setting and questionable characters, this is one of the must-reads for the summer!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was gifted an advanced reviewers copy of this title in return for an honest review.

cw: death, injury, references to suicide and war, mental illness, mentions of terminal illness.

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