Reviews

Secret Keeper
by Mitali Perkins
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It’s always refreshing to come across a YA novel where the protagonist is not a blue-eyed blonde from suburbia. In Mitali Perkins’ novel Secret Keeper not only is the lead character, Asha,  not blonde, but she lives in Delhi (and later Calcutta).

Asha is a tomboyish young teenager, doted upon by her father, and feeling constrained by the new requirement that she learn to be a proper young lady, when she’d rather play tennis with the boys - and win. Her one confident is her ever-present diary, the kind with a lock and key, replaced every year by her father, so when she fills one she can move on to the next. In her writing, she is brutally honest, claiming that Secret Keepers must always speak the truth.

The novel is set in the India of the mid-1970’s, when the economy was in turmoil, and the culture in a state of flux. Perkins does a good job of using real history as the backdrop for her story, and the characters she’s created, Asha, her older sister Reet, their mother, and the rest of their family, who take them in when Asha’s father leaves to find an engineering job in America, all leap off the pages. In most scenes, you can hear the music of Bengali accents, and the swishing of the cloth of brightly colored saris.

While Secret Keeper is, in many ways, a classic coming-of-age story, the setting and the culture bring something new to the familiar formula, and the book is compelling enough for adults to read as well as the younger readers being targeted.

Mitali Perkins’ other work includes Rickshaw Girl which also explores Bengali culture, albeit for a younger audience.

Melissa A. Bartell earns her living by writing articles for an SEO marketing firm, and dabbles in essays and fiction on the side. She lives near Dallas, TX with her husband, two dogs, and more computers than anyone really needs. She is the Managing Editor here at All Things Girl. Find out more about her on our About Page. You can also find her at her website and various other places around the ‘net.

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