"Who we are is defined by what we do and why we do it."
Reviewed by Sabrina Marino
Posted January 6, 2011
Women's Fiction | Mystery
Allison Glenn lives the perfect life. She is the perfect
student, the perfect daughter, the perfect athlete, but is
she the perfect sister? When Allison's sister, Brynn, was
younger, Allison was her hero. But as the girls grew into
teenagers and Allison spent more time out of the house with
her friends and at school events, Brynn felt lost. Allison,
for the first time, felt free from the many pressures on
her when she met a young man and fell in love. She lost her
virginity to him, but soon realized all her plans to leave
the small town she grew up in were falling apart the more
time she spent with her boyfriend. So she did what she had
to do. She broke it off and went back to studying for her
college entrance exams. A pregnancy that was hidden from everyone, including her
family, is the turning point for this perfect teenager who
loses everything she had ever dreamed of the night she
gives birth. But Brynn is there for her when she needs her
the most. Before the night is over, an infant daughter is found dead
in the river, Allison spends days in the hospital
recovering from blood loss, then is taken into custody
where she confesses to killing her newborn baby. After five years in prison, Allison is let out on parole to
a halfway house in her home town. Her parents have wiped
her out of their lives and her sister, who is now living
with their grandmother, will not speak to her. She is able
to get a job at a bookstore and works for a woman who has a
five-year-old adopted boy, Joshua. Charm Tullia lives with her step-father who is dying from
cancer. Five years earlier she held a newborn baby in her
arms and cared for him for almost a month before having to
choose between caring for her dying stepfather or caring
for the baby. At 15, she couldn't do both, so she took the
baby to a safe drop zone and left him. Now she watches him
grow up each time she goes to the bookstore. One fateful night and one perfect girl's actions tie all
these people together in a way that changes their lives
forever. THESE THINGS HIDDEN is a story of a girl's fall from grace.
The pressures on a teenager can have dramatic results and a
sister's love may not be enough. Heather Gudenkauf
has captured heart-wrenching emotion and spilled it out on
the pages of her moving novel, which will touch you and
leave you bleeding for the characters in THESE THINGS
HIDDEN. A remarkable story.
SUMMARY
Heather Gudenkauf, acclaimed author of the New York Times
bestseller The Weight of Silence, returns with a
provacative, powerful and deeply moving novel about one
little boy and the women who love him. When teenager Allison Glenn is sent to prison for a
heinous crime, she leaves behind forever her reputation as
Linden Falls' golden girl. Her parents deny the existence
of their once-perfect child. Her former friends exult her
in her downfall. Her sister, Brynn, faces the whispered
rumors every day in the hallways of their small Iowa high
school. It's Brynn - shy, quiet Brynn - who carries the
burden of what really happened that night. All she wants
is to forget Allison and the past that haunts her. But then Allison is released to a halfway house, and is
more determined than ever to speak with her estranged
sister. Now their legacy of secrets is focused on one little boy.
And if the truth is revealed, the consequences will be
unimaginable for the adoptive mother who loves him, the
girl who tried to protect him and the two sisters who hold
the key to all that is hidden.
ExcerptI set the receiver back into its cradle, all the while
knowing that Olene is watching me carefully with her quick,
birdlike eyes. Once I get settled and find a job, one of
the first things I’m going to buy is a cell phone so I can
have a little privacy when I talk. I’m sure my parents
would buy me a phone, but I don’t want my first interaction
with them to be about money. Besides, I want to show them
that I’m
going to be okay, that I can take care of myself. I
wonder if they are thinking about me right now. Secretly, I
had hoped they would have been parked in front of Gertrude
House to welcome me when I arrived.
Olene must be psychic, because she says, "Many of the
residents have cell phones, but we have guidelines here
that phones need to be turned off while doing chores or
when we are having group sessions. We want to respect
others’ need for quiet." Olene picks up where she left off
with the tour. She leads me through the kitchen, where we
will take turns making dinner, and to an octagonal room
with a ceiling that extends bove the second floor. This is
where the residents watch television. A gray-haired woman
wearing a waitress uniform is dozing on a sofa and a young,
petite, dark-skinned woman is holding a toddler on her lap
and singing softly to him in Spanish. The television is
tuned to a soap opera, the volume muted.
"This is Flora and her son, Manalo," Olene says in a
whisper.
"And that’s Martha." Olene waves a hand toward the
slumbering woman. Flora’s eyes narrow into suspicious slits
and she gathers Manalo more closely to her. The little boy
waves a chubby hand at us and grins.
"Nice to meet you," I say.
Flora speaks rapidly to Olene in Spanish, her tone tight
and hostile, and Olene responds back in Spanish, as well. I
have the feeling that Olene is going to have to do a lot of
talking to calm the other residents of Gertrude House when
it comes to me.
"Let’s go on upstairs and I’ll show you your room,"
Olene says, taking me by the elbow and steering me from the
television room to the spiral staircase that leads to the
bedrooms. I can feel Flora’s eyes on my back as I follow
Olene up the steps. I’ve been here for all of twenty
minutes and everyone already seems to know who I am and
what I’ve done. I know I shouldn’t let it bother me so
much, I had to deal with the same things in jail, but this
seems different somehow.
"The expectation is that everyone takes an active role
in the upkeep of the house," Olene says, and I can see this
is true. There isn’t a speck of dust anywhere and the
floors gleam. Olene gently knocks on a closed door before
opening it to reveal a small room with bunk beds and two
small dressers. The beds are made up with blue and white
floral comforters and thick, soft pillows. Another rush of
exhaustion overtakes me and I want to go lie down. The
walls are painted sky-blue and there are crisp, white
curtains covering the windows. It’s a very peaceful room.
"Your roommate, Bea, is at work right now. She’ll be
home in a few hours. Why don’t you unpack your things, get
settled and I’ll come back in a little while and we can
finish the orientation."
I look at the bunk beds and hesitate, wondering which
one is mine.
"You get the bottom bed," Olene says. "Bea likes to
sleep on the top bunk—she says
that the bottom bed makes her feel claustrophobic."
Olene pats me on the arm as she moves to leave the room.
"Olene," I say. She turns back to me, and I’m stricken
by how kind her worn face is. "Thank you."
"You’re welcome." She smiles. "Get a little rest and
holler if you need anything."
My few belongings fit into one drawer of my bureau with
room to spare. In a way, Gertrude House reminds me of the
summer camp I attended when I was eleven. I share a room
with bunk beds and, from what Olene has said, we follow a
very specific schedule that is posted in the main gathering
area. From the moment we wake up at five-thirty to lights
out at ten-thirty, our day is filled with chores, and group
sessions on everything from managing finances to anger
management to mastering interview skills.
I sit on the lower bunk and bounce a bit. The springs
are firm but giving. This feels like a real bed, not like
Cravenville’s hard, institutional slab, with rough,
scratchy sheets that smelled of bleach. I lift a fluffy
pillow and bury my nose in it. It smells of lavender and I
feel tears prick at my eyes. Maybe it won’t be so bad here.
It couldn’t be any worse than jail. Maybe the other girls
will learn to like me. Maybe my parents will forget about
what the neighbors think and welcome me as their daughter
again. And maybe, just maybe, Brynn will forgive me.
I inhale deeply one more time and lower the pillow from
my face and that’s when I see it. Its blank eyes stare up
at me and its smudged plastic face is frozen in a half
smile. I pick up the baby doll. It’s old and battered and
looks like it came out of a Dumpster. Across the doll’s
bare chest is one word, slashed in black permanent marker,
a word that I now know will follow me everywhere, no matter
where I go. Killer.
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