Review: The Secret History of Us by Jessi Kirby

Title: The Secrety History of Us 

Author:  Jessi Kirby
Publisher: HarperTeen

Publishing Date: August 1st, 2017

Pages:  288
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction 

Series:  Stand Alone
Source: Audio

 

A near drowning…a coma for days…and then…

Olivia wakes up to realize she doesn’t remember. Not just the accident—but anything from the last four years. Not high school. Not Matt, the guy who is apparently her boyfriend. Not the reason she and Jules are no longer friends. Nothing.

That’s when it hits her—the accident may not have taken her life, but it took something just as vital: her memory. The harder she tires to remember things, the foggier everything gets, and figuring out who she is feels impossible when everyone keeps telling her who she was.

But then there’s Walker. The guy who saved her. The one who broke her ribs pumping life back into her lungs. The hardened boy who keeps his distance despite Olivia’s attempts to thank him.

With her feelings growing for Walker, tensions rising with Matt, and secrets she can’t help but feel are being kept from her, Olivia must find her place in a life she doesn’t even remember living.

I have read one other book by Jessi Kirby and I adored it. I really enjoyed this one too. I don't think it was quite what I expected and it wasn't quite as good as the other one I read by this author, but I really did enjoy it. It was realistic fiction with a little bit of a mystery. I really couldn't put the book down. I just had to keep going to learn more and know more. 

There was an accident, Olivia wakes up in the hospital with no memory of the accident or the last four years of her life. She has missed her entire high school experience, she has missed her first real boyfriend, a breakup with a best friend, changes in her hobbies and her life. She remembers none of this. As she tries to figure out the last four years of her life and adapt to being older and different, she finds that her friends and family are keeping things from her and she sets out on a mission to figure out what really has happened these last fours years of her life and the accident itself. 

Where to start... so I love amnesia books. I love it because I am in the dark right along with the MC and its very interesting to watch as memories come back or a life unfolds. I think also it being something so unknown, its interesting to read about it. It is a mystery and I just love it. This book did an amazing job capturing the feels the fears the mystery of having pieces of your life just missing. I can't imagine what this would be like but I am pretty sure this book really explains it well. 

I really liked the main character, Olivia. She was troubled and confused but she wasn't whiny or angst she just needed to find out what really happened and have her loved ones quit lying to her. I could totally understand this. Really there were a ton of characters in this book but I didn't connect to any but the main character. It was hard to connect to those that the MC barely knew or didn't know for the last four years. Really this book was just figuring it out and I was okay with that. 

There isn't really a romance. I wish there would have been a little more but there wasn't. I don't think the book needed it but it kind of felt set up for one and didn't deliver. That is my only negative about this book. If it wasn't supposed to really have one leave it at that. It felt like it was in the middle. I was waiting for something to happen in the romance department and it just never did. 

It was a very short read, but the pacing never felt rushed or slow. It was a good length, good pace, with lots to discover and enjoy. 

I really enjoyed it. I will for sure read more from this author. 

Jessi Kirby is a former English teacher and librarian. She lives in Orange County, CA with her husband and two kids, where she writes stories and runs the beach every day. Well, almost every day.

You can contact Jessi at jessi@jessikirby.com