Book Review - Buried truth

Buried Truth by Brenda Maxfield

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Hillary is a new girl in school, and Margaret, or Mags as her friends call her, quickly learns that Hillary is her enemy for some unknown reason. Mags is an outwardly cheerful girl who chases causes, like save the whales. She really likes Andrew, even though her best friend warns her away from him because everyone knows he’s a bad boy.
Mags thinks she sees something more in him, something that makes him more than just another cause. She wants to help him, even after he chooses Hillary over her. Hillary does more than just take Andrew. She repeatedly spoils Mags’ work, upstages her, and steals her best friend. In fact, Hillary so easily turns Mags’ friends against her that I was left wondering how close they had ever really been.
Mags doesn’t know how to fight back, because in spite of her cheerful exterior, she has her own inner demons. The story repeatedly goes over this problem of something in her past that is hurting her, without telling us what she had done.

“…my guilt had become an unrelenting monster, tearing at my mind and heart until sometimes I couldn’t breathe.”

By the time the reason for her guilt was revealed, I was expecting a mountain. Instead I found something that happened when she was eight, something that felt very typical of that age group. I didn’t get how it haunted her so badly for almost ten years. The long build-up over the horrible secret act that ended up feeling to minor made the ending fall flat for me.

I will say I found Hillary one of the more interesting characters in the book. She is intelligent, resourceful, a really good villain. I enjoyed waiting for her next move.

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