Dirty Little Secrets
by C.J. Omololu
Release Date: February 2, 2010
Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 212
Source: Publisher
Interest: Debut Author
Challenge: 2010 Debut Author Challenge
Everyone has secrets. Some are just bigger and dirtier than others.
For sixteen years, Lucy has kept her mother's hoarding a secret. She's had to -- nobody would understand the stacks of newspapers and mounds of garbage so high they touch the ceiling and the rotting smell that she's always worried would follow her out the house. After years of keeping people at a distance, she finally has a best friend and maybe even a boyfriend if she can play it right. As long as she can make them think she's normal.
When Lucy arrives home from a sleepover to find her mother dead under a stack of National Geographics, she starts to dial 911 in a panic, but pauses before she can connect. She barely notices the filth and trash anymore, but she knows the paramedics will. First the fire trucks, and then news cameras that will surely follow. No longer will they be remembered as the nice oncology nurse with the lovely children -- they'll turn into that garbage-hoarding freak family on Collier Avenue.
With a normal life finally within reach, Lucy has only minutes to make a critical decision. How far will she go to keep the family secrets safe?
Dirty Little Secrets was such an emotional and absolutely disgusting book!
I can't describe the dismay I felt for teens that have to grow up in this type of environment. It's bad enough that people suffer from this disorder, but it's even worse that there are innocent minors that are subjected to this sickness.
My heart broke for Lucy and her ache for normalcy. I didn't really understand it at first... I was angry at Lucy for not calling the police right away, and then by the end, I had so much admiration for her... I don't think I would have even been so brave.
I loved how Omololu revealed Lucy's past and basically showed us the path of her mothers illness through the layers of trash that goes through.
This was such an informative read as well, I know there is a lot of stigma surrounding hoarding because science has a hard time defining it... it is an obsessive compulsive disorder, or is it something totally different. Omololu does an excellent job exposing an issue that not many people understand.
Overall, Dirty Little Secrets was a very intense, unsettlingly real and emotional read, but definitely worth reading.