The Kari AnnAlysis

Allison Glenn is 21 years old. She has spent five years in prison for an unforgiveable act, but because of good behavior, doesn’t have to serve her full 1o-year prison sentence. Allison is trying to put her past in her past, but everyone that knows why Allison went to prison, makes sure she doesn’t forget. Luckily she finds a good job, but it may bring up more of her past than she is ready for at the time.

Allison’s sister Brynn hates waht her sister did. She lives with it every day. She sees that night every time she closes her eyes to go to sleep. All she wants to do is train her animals and forget her sister. But when Allison comes back to her life, the flood of emotions and anger is worse than ever.

Charm has a secret. She dropped off a baby at a firehouse when she was a teenager. It didn’t take her long to find the family the baby went to and now she goes to see him as much as she can. But dropping off the baby at the firehouse isn’t the only secret she is keeping.

Finally we have Clare. Clare is the adoptive by law, mother by love, mother to the young boy that Charm dropped off at the firehouse. She loves this little boy more than anything and will do anything to keep him safe. And when you hear the phrase, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you”, that’s a phrase that defines Clare and the knowing ends up being something that breaks her in the end.

Wow! I started this book with immediate anxiety. I wanted to know why Allison was in prison. I wanted to know what she did and how serious it was, obviously more than a B&E if she got 10 years. It took a little while for the story to unfold, but boy once it did, it took off like a wildfire. There was no turning back for the events to come out. It didn’t necessarily start slow, but once one secret came out, the rest had no hope of staying locked up. 

Gudenkauf alternates who is telling the story in each chapter. One chapter is in Allison’s perspective, the next in Brynn’s and so on. It takes each different perspective for a different secret to come out.

Let me tell you, the last day I was reading this book, I was hooked to say the least. I had an hour for lunch and less than 100 pages, but there was no way I was going back to my desk without finishing this book. Towards the end of the hour, I was in a race against time. I couldn’t put the book down, it got so intense that by the time I finished and got back to my desk, I was feeling a little more anxiety than when I was dying to know what Allison’s crime was.

This is one of those stories where at the beginning, you know that everyone is connected or they wouldn’t be telling the story together. You try to piece it together, because that’s why you read. You want to solve the mystery. But when it all comes together, you are left sitting with your mouth hanging open and scratching your head, “Oh, I should have thought of that.”

I absolutely loved this book. It wasn’t light and fluffy like most of my reads. It was very dark and a bit scary to think that humans can do the things that are done in this book, but it was also very real.

I give These Things Hidden 5 bookmarks.

ISBN: 9780778328797
Released: January 18, 2011
Author Website
Kari got this book from NetGalley

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