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Secret Life (2000)

by Bria Quinlan(Favorite Author)
4.01 of 5 Votes: 2
languge
English
genre
publisher
RogueGiraffe Books
series
RVHS Secrets
review 1: I don't write reviews for books. I just don't. I can't. I'm mean, I'm picky, I usually hate everything, and so its for the best if I just don't say anything about the book.But I couldn't not say anything about this book. Lets just start with I fell in love with Bria Quinlan as a writer when I read 'Secret Girlfriend.' I bawled through the whole book. Straight up, tears running down my face, wiping the snot away bawled. My husband laughed at most of the time.I eagerly started the next book because I had to have more. More Amy, more Luke, more Rachel, and more Chris. I needed more warm Parker family fuzzies, more Amy find family. Just more.I got a whole lot of that in Secret Life. Secret Life is not about Amy anymore, which is great. Because Amy was super sweet, but kind of ... moredumb. I loved her for who she was, but she was a silly girl.Secret Life is about Rachel and what she's hiding from everyone, which is a whole mess of problems. Problems she doesn't want to talk about, problems she doesn't want anyone else to know about.I've never felt more understood than the moment I read the scene in Rachel's bedroom when she's having her latest and greatest meltdown. Bria took all of my emotions as a teenager and made them into a person. A person I could look at and watch and see. I was diagnosed with two things when I was very young. Chronic Depression and Social Anxiety Disorder.In Junior High it was bad. Speaking wasn't an option outside certain social circles. High school was worse. Those Emmy worthy performances Rachel was talking about- yeah, I have a few of those I'm more than kind of proud of. And the safe clothes. Dear lord, I still have safe clothes. Along with Rachel's obsession with lipgloss. For me it wasn't lip gloss, I just wore as many necklaces as my mother would let me out of the house with.But nothing hit closer to home than the meltdown. Everything in Secret Life puts into perspective what its like living with something like this day to day. It encourages getting help and treatment. It does not glorify the issues Rachel deals with, but it doesn't villainize her either. Its a perfect balance of what actually happens in situations such as these.Secret Life is a beautiful work of art created by Bria Quinlan and really, everyone should read it.
review 2: Loved it!It was such a heartfelt emotional ride reading Rachel's story. I didn't particularly like Chris in book one so I was a bit skeptic reading this when I saw that Chris was gonna be the main guy. But he has definitely grown in me. I loved reading his situation and seeing him as a good guy behind the public eye and how one of the moral of the story is that nothing is ever what it seems. It's definitely a good advice to take in. But another character that stood out for me was BEN! Definitely one of the funniest chatacter in the novel. I hope we get to read his story and find out more about this mystery girl his into. :-) less
Reviews (see all)
Tovie
Not bad, not bad. Broken people and secrets.
campsc16
I'd give 6 stars if I could.
Ladyspitfire
3.5
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