I usually love Stolarz's books, but this one didn't work for me. Terra's unreliable narrative made the book feel muddled, and I never cared about Terra or what happened to her. The lack of empathy from the characters around made the book uncomfortable to read. Plus, the mystery around what happened to Terra is revealed, the plot twist felt like an undeveloped twist which made the ending unsatisfying. I loved Jane Anonymous and have enjoyed many other books by this author, but The Last Select You'll Ever Keep didn't work for me.

The Last Secret You'll Ever Keep by Laurie Faria Stolarz is a thrilling story of an eighteen-year-old girl's search for answers lands her in one of the terrifying situations imaginable. The characters are well-written and develop at a smooth, steady pace. The conclusion of this story was twisty but not earth-shattering or emotionally overwhelming, kind of surprising. The Last Secret You'll Ever Keep grabs your attention from the beginning and leaves you wanting more.

After four days of being trapped in a well, Terra lived to tell the story. She crawled out of the well, and walked home, leaving behind any evidence that it actually happened. Because of this, no one believed her story.
Now, six months later, she finds comfort in an online chat room for survivors. One girl in the chat has a very similar story to Terra's. And now she is missing.
Terra needs to find her friend and stop the man that is terrorizing them and she needs proof that she wasnt making everything up.

This book was a bit of a brain beating. Bits were pretty confusing. Reality got lost in mental illness and story telling. I had a difficult time following the story line.
Terra is a difficult character to enjoy. I wanted her to be believable, but found it really hard with her paranoia. I am sure that is what the author wanted, but it only left me with a headache.
The wishing well aspect of the story didn't work for me either. All of the fairy tale stuff didn't work. Yes it was important for the end, but it was weird and far fetched.
I wanted to like this book. An unsolved abduction, mental illness and psychopaths? Usually my favorite, this time not so much.

Terra is a survivor. After the grisly accident that claims the lives of her parents, it takes a lot of work for her to get her life back on track. A stint in a psychiatric hospital to help her cope with her grief is followed by the seemingly compassionate decision to keep her back a school year while she settles into life with her Aunt Dessa, the only local family she has left.

Terra is a fighter. Her parents raised her that way, to be wary, to never become a victim:

QUOTE
Whenever some poor, pathetic girl got something slipped into her drink at a drunken keg party and wound up as <i>News at Eleven</i>, I got an hour-long lecture about personal vigilance and looking out for my friends. Even my thirteenth birthday: while most of the other girls got gift certificates for piercings and highlights, my present included a can of pepper spray and a six-month voucher to work with a personal trainer.

But my parents didn’t get it. I would <i>never</i> become a cliché. I wasn’t anything like those “poor, pathetic girls.”

Or so I believed.
END QUOTE

Terra is a victim. As part of trying to reclaim a normal life after her parents’ deaths, she goes to a party at the nearby college with her best friend. A nightmarish series of events finds her abducted and fighting for her life at the bottom of a dried well. When she finally makes her way out several days later, a huge fuss ensues over the girl who’s survived two shockingly terrifying experiences.

Terra is a liar. At least, that’s what some of the people she goes to school with are saying. And then it’s the investigators and the mental health experts who, unable to find any independent corroboration of her ordeal, decide that she must have made it all up for attention. Even her Aunt Dessa begins to treat her differently, refusing to believe that her disappearance was anything but teenage hijinks.

Terra is alone. So when she finds out about Jane Anonymous, a website where the traumatized can go to find support without judgment, she thinks she’s finally found a place where she’ll be believed. The anonymity of the chat rooms there make it easier for her to open up, and she soon develops a friendship with another girl, Peyton, who went through an abduction very similar to her own. But when strange things start happening to Peyton, and no one outside Jane Anonymous will take the girls seriously, Terra will have to start trusting people in real life again if she wants to save her friend:

QUOTE
I want so much to believe him. And maybe part of me even does. But I can’t help remembering: My aunt had said the same--that she wanted to listen too. Jessie and Felix were no different, pledging their friendship allegiance, but then taking said friendship away. Investigators fooled me too--all of them sitting across the table, telling me it was safe to say anything I wanted but then using that same info against me to “prove” my unreliability. The only person who’s taken my word without question is [...] Peyton.

Where is she now? How is she doing?
END QUOTE

The Last Secret You’ll Ever Keep is a frank, often searing look into the trauma that survivors of violence are forced to endure and overcome, and how that’s exacerbated when important people in their lives refuse to believe them. Terra is an unreliable narrator, but her pain feels both palpable and authentic, as she strives to prevent her friend from becoming the victim of someone who might very well be targeting them both. The grace she extends to the people who fail her is both exemplary and, because we readers have been inside her head this whole time, achingly believable.

This novel is also a remarkable interrogation of the very act of storytelling. Apart from chat room logs, the book is told entirely from Terra’s often disjointed perspective, going back and forth in time as her narrative unfolds. This structure serves to remind readers that the truth is subjective and that we all build our own stories, of what we’ll believe and what we’ll stomach, of ourselves and our surroundings. Laurie Faria Stolarz pushes this framing device to its limits in the deeply thoughtful follow-up to her critically acclaimed cult hit, Jane Anonymous, adding metaphysical depth to this already compelling tale of a girl no one will believe. I loved it.

Having never read the Jane Anonymous books, I may be at a disadvantage here. I may just be over the whole unreliable narrator thing. Sure, it can be done well. Or an author can just be using a cheap trick to avoid moving along the story. This one seemed to be the latter. Maybe fans of the first will be fans of the second. I thought it was just OK.

In the second in the series that follows Laurie Faria Stolarz's Jane Anonymous, the reader is presented with a VERY unreliable narrator who has experienced two major traumas in her life - the death of both her parents in a fire she survived, and then a mysterious abduction, from which she escapes.

However, the story rotates around the fact that while the narrator, Terra Smith, claims to have been abducted, there is no evidence to prove it. Flipping back and forth between the "then" of her abduction and the "now" of the storyline, Terra tries to figure out if she's truly crazy or if she genuinely was abducted, even though no one, not even her Aunt Dessa, with whom she lives, believes her.

In her quest, Terra spends time on a trauma survivor message board - the Jane Anonymous from the first book (this book reads fine as a standalone - I didn't know it was second in a series until after the fact). She is close with another visitor - Peyton - and when Peyton's story of her own abduction seems to be similar to Terra's, Terra starts digging.

I liked the interspersion of the message board chats and ultimately, the ending was a surprise. In hindsight I should have seen it, but missed it. It was a good read on the whole.

**Disclaimer: I recieved a free early access copy of The Last Secret You'll Ever Keep by Laurie Faria Stolarz through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you to them and the publisher for this opportunity.

The Last Secret You'll Ever Keep by Laurie Faria Stolarz is a YA mystery thriller about a girl who was kidnapped and held against her will, but unfortunately no one believes her.  It's the second book in the Jane Anonymous series.  It publishes on March 16th, 2021.  I rated it 4 stars on Goodreads.


Here's the summary from Goodreads:

Bestselling author Laurie Faria Stolarz returns with a thrilling novel where an eighteen-year-old girl's search for answers lands her in one of the most terrifying situations imaginable.
Four days…
Trapped in a well, surrounded by dirt, scratching at the walls trying to find a way out.
Four days of a thirst so strong, that when it finally rains, I drink as much as possible from the dripping walls, not even caring how much dirt comes with it.
Six months…
Since my escape. Since no one believed I was taken to begin with – from my own bed, after a party, when no one else was home…
Six months of trying to find answers and being told instead that I made the whole incident up.
One month…
Since I logged on to the Jane Anonymous site for the first time and found a community of survivors who listen without judgment, provide advice, and console each other when needed.
A month of chatting with a survivor whose story eerily mirrors my own: a girl who’s been receiving triggering clues, just like me, and who could help me find the answers I’m searching for.
Three days…
Since she mysteriously disappears, and since I’m forced to ask the questions: will my chance to find out what happened to me vanish with her? And will I be next?

The plot of this one was what drew me to it, and I only found out it was a sequel/spin off after I had already been granted access to read it.  Fortunately, it was more of a spin off than a sequel and I felt that I didn't need to have read the first to understand the second. 

The Last Secret You'll Ever Keep is a fascinating story.  I always enjoy an unreliable narrator, and our protagonist was well developed in that way.  I liked how she was depicted as she struggled with her PTSD and her grief.  I desperately felt for her as people didn't believe her and made her even question her memories.  It was a very heartbreaking story.


I really enjoyed how the story developed and how it kept me guessing.  I liked the structure of including flashbacks to introduce details of the protagonists backstory.  It was well written and really intriguing.  The twists kept me guessing and it was one of those books that I ended up reading in pretty much a single sitting.  I desperately needed to know what was going to happen and who had done this to her.

The ending was a pretty satisfying but it wasn't my favourite resolution.  I am really glad that things worked out for her and that she ended up with a good relationship with the people in her life.  Overall, I'd say that if you're at all interested in the premise of the book, you should definitely check it out when it publishes on March 16th.

I read this book in 2 days, eagerly turning pages, wanting to know Jane's secret.

I enjoyed reading the Jane Anonymous site, the posts, the feelings of the girls, and was ready to give this book 5 stars until...

yeah...

there was a part that was just SO So predictable, I just Knew what was going to happen and I knew most of the results of that one choice.

Which made me bring the stars down to 3 1/2.

I yelled at the book, for real lol.

And kept reading until the end because I had to know, I just had to know how it turned out.

And I'm glad I finished the book, it was satisfying to close the book.

And it made me want to read the first book.

The Last Secret You’ll Ever Keep kept me twisting and turning until I wasn’t sure which way was up in this compelling psychological thriller by Laurie Faria Stolarz.

What I Liked

I liked the use of chat room conversations along with the first-person narrative. It is so timely and appropriate – just the right touch of technology, for many reasons, some of which could be considered spoilers. It keeps the story in the present day. Talking to strangers via the internet is commonplace, and people with mental health issues tend to gravitate to that form of communication for anonymity and safety. I did not read the book that introduced the particular chat room found in the story, but now I want to do so.

Terra Smith, the main character, tells this tale. It is tough being in her head at times but also compelling and fascinating. She admits right from the start that she has been diagnosed with four mental health disorders – Delusional, Depression, Defiant, and Paranoid, so I knew this story would be taking me on a ride that I wouldn’t soon forget. The portrayal of Paranoid and Delusional Disorders, in particular, are disconcerting in their accuracy, though I didn’t see evidence of the other two on the level of a diagnosis. From a technological standpoint, the hard part is witnessing any growth in a character who realizes near the end that she has not been growing. There is limited character development because Terra has been reliving the past in various delusional ways for most of her teen years. I recognize that character development is not a strength of this novel but, I didn’t expect it to be, given the POV and the personality disorders Terra suffers.

The support characters are the ones that caused much emotion in me. I felt annoyed and sometimes frustrated with Terra’s Aunt Dessa, who I felt should be paying more attention to whether or not Terra is taking her medicine regularly. Like many teenagers in real life, Terra tends to skip her medication at times and remember it at others. Given the severity of her disorders, I had a hard time with Aunt Dessa’s lack of “parenting.” But, on the other side of the pendulum, Garret is my hero. I look for one of two types of characters in a psychological thriller – the voice of reason and, my favorite, the compassionate and supportive friend. Garret is the latter, and I just loved that he was not scared away by the intricacies of Terra’s disorder but, instead, did everything he could to keep her safe and to feel validated at times when she felt out of control.

I loved all the mental gymnastics I had to do to keep up with this story. The action doesn’t pick up until the last 30%, but the first 70% kept me glued to the page with its compelling portrayal of Terra’s delusions and paranoia. I love an unreliable narrator, and Terra is that and then some.

To Read or Not to Read

If you love an unreliable narrator, a story that keeps you guessing, and a fictional look at authentic psychological disorders, The Last Secret You’ll Ever Keep is the book you won’t want to miss this year.

The Last Secret You’ll Ever Keep is a riveting YA thriller that slowly burns into your imagination.

This has such a striking opening that left me desperately tearing through the pages until I could uncover every last detail. From there, you’ll be left spinning at all the twists and turns that follow. This story goes to some dark places, but always retains this strangely dream-like element. The mystery is genuinely gripping and engaging, keeping me guessing throughout. It always has this fairy-tale like quality to it, though I’m talking about the Grimm versions here. There’s something not quite right about everything that’s occurred but you can never quite put your finger on it. Here, you become unsure that you can fully trust yourself, let alone Terra.

Terra was a fascinating protagonist. Throughout the story, we are unsure as to how reliable she truly is. Her actions and certain tiny details trip you up at times. For me, I love being able to question the protagonist and therefore my own reading experience. It adds a certain touch of mystery to your own judgement and makes for a richer reading experience.

I really liked the Jane Anonymous site that we see jumping into the narrative time and time again. It felt like a good idea to bring together survivors of horrific events to a place where they can talk about their experiences and vent their frustrations and trauma. However, it is a double edged sword. There’s always a danger with technology that you never really know who you’re talking to and it’s easily manipulated to lure unsuspecting victims. This adds to the sense of paranoia and a foggy atmosphere of mistrust that permeates the whole book. In a story about secrets and trauma, there’s the further complications of reliability and trustworthiness. I never felt like I could fully trust anything or anyone that the story brought to my attention.

The Last Secret You’ll Ever Keep is the type of story you can never fully take your eye off, or you risk missing something and trusting the wrong person.

****ARC provided by NetGalley for an Honest Review****
I’m conflicted in how to rate this book. While reading there is so much misdirection and second guessing taking place I’m not sure how to feel having finished. We’re led to belive time after time that the chances of the heroine and narrator being unreliable are high. Even as she looks for her own proof and evidence, luck is not on her side and everything points to her being a liar. (view spoiler) Overall it’s been years since I’ve read anything by this author and I’m glad she’s still around. The story was pretty engaging from start to finish and I did enjoy the entire mysterious air throughout. There are many references to Jane Anonymous which I’ve been meaning to read but never got around to. On that note the mentions are more based on a virtual chat room for survivors which is probably created in the book. While I haven’t read the book and can’t vouch that you need to read that first, personally I did not feel left out or as if I needed to read that book to understand this one. It certainly worked for me as a standalone.

I didn't realize this was a go-along with Jane Anonymous which was just okay in my opinion. This is obviously pretty similar so if you liked the first book you'll like this one too. I'd hand this to teens looking for realistic fiction. It's scary in the way that things that could happen to you are.

2.75 - 3 stars? I didn't read the Jane Anonymous book that is linked to this story and although the Jane Anonymous website played a somewhat important role, this can very much be read as a standalone as elements of the JA book are briefly mentioned to give some context about the site and its purpose. It's been a while since I read a YA mystery/thriller so I was looking forward to this as the synopsis really piqued my interest. I tend to be easily spooked so this one definitely had those creepy tingles run up the back of my neck a few times!

The story is divided into then and now but more time is spent in the now as Terran deals with the repercussions of what happened to her. I'm a fan of the mixed-media format so I really enjoyed getting parts of the story told through the chat dialogue and it gave more insight into the experiences of other survivors and showed how important such a platform is for coping with trauma and how a non-judgmental network significantly eases the strains on survivors' mental health. Terran's story was hard to read at times from an emotional and mental standpoint--but admittedly also because the case of the unreliable narrator is pretty strong with this one! 😅 It was infuriating to see how the people who were supposed to care for her turned their backs so quickly and outright stated that what happened to her was made-up because of her PTSD and that she's mentally ill. I think the story has the potential to be quite triggering for some readers so please read with caution.

While the story pulled me in very quickly it did lose me in the middle as Terran's POV got more muddled and I became even more confused as we stayed stuck in her head in a bit of an endless cycle. I don't think that was necessarily an issue because the effect of Terran's experience and trauma was captured well, the problem was that I couldn't really connect to her character. I wanted to feel more invested but there's such a detachment to the way the story is told, not to mention I was often confused while reading, which kept me from caring more. In the end, I have to say that, other than a small unexpected twist that revealed how deeply her past affected her current state, the overall resolution to the mystery was pretty underwhelming. I managed to guess who the villain was closer to the reveal so it wasn't a shocker but I had hoped to get a better understanding of the why and how and didn't feel satisfied with what we got. There were definitely parts that were a little too unrealistic and bizarre to be plausible but overall, this was an interesting read and I'm glad that I checked it out!

The premise of this book was quite intriguing. The ending felt a little forced to me and I wish there had been a little bit more building to it. A good mystery overall.

Good writing, entertaining with twists and shocking revelations at the end. This was a little bit confusing to me at the beginning and I can't stop thinking that this is a too wild and crazy to happen like first one accident then one abduction and then something else and I get that there are more crazy things going on in real life but still this was kind of wild. I never couldn't empathize with the poor heroine though. Like I said entertaining but too crazy

This book sounded incredibly interesting to me but sadly I did not know it was a second in a series.
I only found that out through goodreads.

Such a good read. I was immediately sucked in and I liked that I didn't need to read book one in order to enjoy book two. I liked the writing style and the lack of unnecessary fluff.

I loved this first book so when I heard that there was going to be a second one I was very excited. This book
is all about our main character Tara who has been kidnapped and held under the earth for a few days. When she does manage to break free no one actually believes what happened to her and they all think that she is making it up. That is when she stumbles upon the site Jane Anonymous. The site becomes a place for her to vent on what happened to her and talk to other people who have gone through similar situations. Things start to hit close to home however when she meets another young girl who's story sounds eerily similar to her own. When this girl just up and vanishes it leaves Tara on her own to find her and hopefully in turn find her own abductor at the same time. I loved the characters in this book and I found the fact that they were talking to each other on the internet gave what could have been a very dark and scary story a bit more of a softer edge to it, however dark the content became. This series is one that I have very much enjoyed since the beginning so I'm glad to read this one. I think that the author does a great job with really connecting with her audience and her story telling will leave you wanting more no matter how much of her work you devour. Check out this series if you haven't already you wont be disappointed because each story continues to get better and never lets go of its grip.

Book Info
Hardcover, 336 pages
Expected publication: March 16th 2021 by Wednesday Books
ISBN 1250303737 (ISBN13: 9781250303738)
Edition Language English
Other Editions (1)
Source:Netgalley EARC
Buy book from
Amazon. B&N

BOOK BLURB

Bestselling author Laurie Faria Stolarz returns with a thrilling novel where an eighteen-year-old girl's search for answers lands her in one of the most terrifying situations imaginable.


Four days…
Trapped in a well, surrounded by dirt, scratching at the walls trying to find a way out.
Four days of a thirst so strong, that when it finally rains, I drink as much as possible from the dripping walls, not even caring how much dirt comes with it.

Six months…
Since my escape. Since no one believed I was taken to begin with – from my own bed, after a party, when no one else was home…
Six months of trying to find answers and being told instead that I made the whole incident up.

One month…
Since I logged on to the Jane Anonymous site for the first time and found a community of survivors who listen without judgment, provide advice, and console each other when needed.
A month of chatting with a survivor whose story eerily mirrors my own: a girl who’s been receiving triggering clues, just like me, and who could help me find the answers I’m searching for.

Three days…
Since she mysteriously disappears, and since I’m forced to ask the questions: will my chance to find out what happened to me vanish with her? And will I be next?
My Thoughts


There are multiple issues that made this a hard story to like but it begs to be finished once started if like me you just have to know what finally happens to Terra.

However the ending was bizarre and not in keeping with the rest of the book for me.

The final reveal prior to end of story however was a twist I did not expect but did think worked, at least it did until the actual ending of the book which did not follow up on the twist for me but went in a different direction altogether.

I will say that this particular YA is different than ones like I normally read and book would have benefitted from having read authors previous work, Jane Anonymous.

What I will not say is that this was a disappointing reading experience as overall it had quite a bit of interesting subject matters to digest as well as some that flat out were a surprise to me once revealed.

This will be a love it or hate it read that one has to judge by their own taste for sure.

[EArc from Netgalley]

On every book read as soon as it is done and written up for review it is posted on Goodreads and Netgalley, once released then posted on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles as well.

This kind of reminded me of a young adult version of <i>The Woman in the Window</i> in which we have a possibly unreliable narrator who keeps forgetting to take her medication and whom no one believes. This means I was constantly doubting the narrative and I could not put it down. It also hit me in a good way about in what it says victimhood and believing victims. It kept me thinking. It also raised my heart rate a few times because I was STRESSED! But this was not a bad kind of stress. This was that page-flipping kind of stress.

The book shuffles through several time narratives. We have several past narratives that we read about and a present narrative. It definitely added to the mystery, but it took some settling into. It does not start off as an easy read. Once I was able to get a grip on the narrative though, I truly was ignoring life until I finished it. Also, I still have questions. Is there going to be more?

I do wonder about the villain and I hope this is explored in further books. Or maybe it is covered the companion novel I have not read? These are not bad questions though. These questions just keep me thinking about what I just read. I will say the adults in this book are TERRIBLE. Yikes. Who are these therapists??

In a rambling summary, if you enjoy thrillers with unreliable narrators and a page-turning plot, I really do not think you will be disappointed by this one.