‘The Best Kept Secret’ by Wendi Nunnery took me a few chapters to get into, but once I did, I was hooked. Not wanting to give too much away (it is called ‘The Best Kept Secret,’ after all), the story revolves around Emma, a sophomore in high school. Much of the plot deals with her relationship with her best friend, Andy. She also cycles between liking a senior boy named Deegan and Andy’s brother, Jesse. Rounding out the main cast of characters, aside from Emma’s parents, are her good friend, Elsie, and another girl, Georgia, the token mean girl whom Emma can’t stand.
The first half or a bit more of the story was your typical contemporary young adult novel with romantic entanglements, unrequited crushes, and friendship troubles. Nunnery did a great job fleshing out the way Emma felt about Deegan, as well as the way she started to come to terms with her feelings for Jesse. Since Deegan was good friends with Andy, Emma got to spend more time with him, and the way she saw him act around Jesse made her begin to think twice about what kind of a person he truly was. The uncomfortable nature of his remarks about Jesse being gay, which had never been overtly stated by Jesse or anyone else at that point, were a sense of foreshadowing in the worst possible way.
When Emma is asked to the prom by Deegan, her heart leaps, partly because she hopes to be able to see Jesse there. Her emotions toward both guys lead her to a trainwreck of troubles at the prom, starting with a conversation she was clearly not meant to overhear between two people she thought she knew – or at least hoped she did. The conversation brings to light realizations that are not at all pretty, and which send the story into a downward spiral of uncertainty over what will happen next, and what should be done about what Emma now knows.
The barrage of ‘what if’ scenarios and revelations of truths that permeated the storytelling were rife with emotion. Any reader who doesn’t feel a slew of emotions ranging from happiness to hope to anger and disgust, on to animosity toward anyone who has suffered at the hands of a bully will find this story compelling and relatable, despite the host of emotions plaguing them as they read it.
You can find ‘The Best Kept Secret’ by Wendi Nunnery here.