REVIEW: 3rd Degree Secrets by Roni O'Connell

3rd Degree Secrets (The Chronicles of D.E.A.D. High, #2) By: Roni O'Connell Published: December 8, 2014 Pages: 310

Like burns, there are degrees of secrets. First-degree secrets are those that girls share with female friends under clouds of giggles and shushed voices, eyes bright, smiles flashing, with furtive glances to ensure that a certain boy doesn't overhear.  First-degree secrets are relatively painless, subject to no worse than blushes or easy tears depending upon if that boy does or does not return feelings of affection.   Second-degree secrets follow a person from her locker down the school halls—rolling eyes and pointed fingers marking her as surely as a painted X on her back. These secrets don’t leave scars, but injure nonetheless, deep inside where insecurities linger and fester, waiting to explode. The most serious secrets are third degree, just as third degree burns are the worst, leaving the scars, bumpy, pitted, and marred; these secrets irrevocably twist, disfigure, and ruin lives.  I’ve had my share of second-degree secrets that I mostly try to ignore, but my third-degree secrets, well, those I hug to me in a fear born of basic survival instincts. My exterior is unblemished, white with blue veins, road maps traveling to foreign places beneath my skin, but inside, the terrain rises into mountains and ridges, scared, puckered, and ugly, un-crossable except by painful passage that I’m unwilling to take.

REVIEW:

Have you ever stopped to think about secrets? Like, really think about them? Roni O'Connell's new sequel to the fabulous novel, FLOAT, inspires you to do just that. The concept that secrets have degrees of severity...it's pure genius.

And O'Connell's execution of the plot nails it once again. The plot explores the depths of secrecy and the characters are very well fleshed out. They are witty, real, and believable, and I found myself totally lost in the book. This is truly saying a lot considering the reading rut I have been in lately!!

The length of the novel is also perfect. It comes in at just the right length to have adequate attention to detail without being too wordy and it pulls you in and lets you go at just the right spots. Roni O'Connell has become an author to watch for and is one author whose books I eagerly await!!

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