SECRETS SO DEEP

A teen returns to the site of her mother’s drowning looking for clues and memories.

Seventeen-year-old Avril is in Whisper Cove on the Long Island Sound for a prestigious one-month acting camp. It’s no coincidence that she sought out this particular location, where her mother drowned 12 years ago and Avril herself nearly died. All she remembers is waking up in the hospital. Whisper Cove proves to be a place unlike any other, its thick fog enveloping the night and swirling through Avril’s clouded memories of her past. When she meets Cole Culver, the son of her mother’s college friend Willa, their connection is instant and electric. The pair become inseparable, eventually untangling the terrifying truth about what happened to Avril’s mother. The atmosphere of Whisper Cove is palpable, the fog-laden shore haunting and heavy at night. Sain deftly writes Avril’s confusion, desperation, and fear so that readers experience everything alongside her. Her friendships with fellow campers Val and Lex in particular are close in that way that only short-term shared experiences provide, and their connections are incredibly touching. What truly anchors the story, however, is the intense chemistry between Avril and Cole: Some of Sain’s best writing comes from their charged interactions. Most characters are presumed White; some cast members are queer.

Sorrowful, haunting, and romantic; a true page-turner.