This YA mystery/thriller had me questioning myself (and the narrator!) til the very end.

This story grips you immediately as you learn of Terra's terrifying and traumatic experience of being trapped in a well. Then you learn no one seems to believe her--and you're not sure what to think either.

I requested this from NetGalley based on the gripping synopsis. I didn't know there was a book earlier this year (Jane Anonymous), that ties in elements to this book, but I don't think too much was missing beyond that.

For me, I thought this fell short in terms of character connection. Terra's got a HEARTBREAKING backstory and yet I found myself shaking my head at many of her actions. There seem to be gaps in her narration and you are left feeling like you're missing something. It felt like the believability of Tessa weighed on me and that held me back a bit from being truly invested.

However, it was a pageturner for sure and jumping between the THEN and NOW was engaging. For me, it was a 3.5, rounded up to a 4 because I think some of the issues here were on my end and not the author's. Would love to chat with someone about this when it comes out in 2021!

Thank you to NetGalley, Wednesday Books and St. Martin's Press for an ARC in advance of my honest review.

Terra spent four days trapped in a covered well, desperately trying to figure out a way to get out. She finally makes it, but no one believes her story because of her troubled past. The well can't be found, there is nothing to support her story of being kidnapped and thrown in the well.
The story is told in a then and now mode, which was a little confusing.
She finds an online forum, Jane Anonymous, where victims can share their stories and get the support they need. She finds a kindred soul on their, Peyton, and they also meet on a separate, private room on the site to talk.
The past and present intertwine with many riveting questions that you want answers to ~ I was never sure of what was real and what was imagined. A good read, and thanks to #NetGalley, the publisher and the author for my copy of The Last Secret You'll Ever Keep.

Laurie Stolarz is an amazing author, her writing is captivating and her character development is outstanding. I loved the dual perspective (past and present) and couldn't put the book down once it was picked up. I can't wait for her next novel to come out so I can devour that one as well.

Eighteen-year-old Terra’s life has been in a constant downward spiral since a house fire killed her parents. She survived the fire but deals with soul-crushing survivor guilt. She now lives with her aunt, her mother’s sister, but the relationship is rocky at best.
She doesn’t have any real friends, and when the one she thinks she can count on leaves for college, Terra is all alone. Terra is now living with her terror, as well as her aunt’s, the police, and the town’s doubt. You see, Terra was abducted and spent four days trying to escape her unknown captor. But there is no evidence, and soon concern turns to disbelief. The worst part, Terra doubts herself.
The only place where she finds support is in an online survivor group, Jane Anonymous. Everyone there has been traumatized, and it is the one place that makes Terra feel like she is not crazy. When one of the members, Peyton disappears, it seems that Terra is the only person concerned, and the only person willing to do whatever it takes to find Peyton.
The similarities between Peyton and Terra’s abductions are striking, so much so that Terra starts to believe they may have both been taken by the same man. But can you really trust someone you only know online? Terra is about to find out, and perhaps we will learn whether she is an unreliable narrator or the perfect victim.
Trying to decide if Terra was delusional or if there was something sinister going on, made this a hard to put aside read. I was not expecting that ending at all, so my spidey sense was certainly fooled. A great plot that pulled me right in.

This is a case of ‘it's not you, it's me.’

One of my most hated tropes is ‘unreliable narrator,’ usually because the MC is untrustworthy due to a negative reason (i.e. alcoholism, mental illness, etc). So this immediately started off on the wrong foot when Terra (in)conveniently skips her medication the night she gets abducted. It's just really lazy in terms of writing and plot, not to mention extremely harmful to those battling mental illnesses, insinuating that they can't be believed.

All in all, not a book for me.

Edit - After reading this, I found out the story is loosely tied to the author's previous book, ‘Jane Anonymous,’ which sounds a little better, in my opinion. I wish I would have read that one first.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview The Last Secret You'll ever Keep by Laurie Stolarz. This is more of a young adult novel so forgive me that I just couldn't get into it.
This is written in a way to keep the reader confused and off balance, and that is good. In fairness, i am not the audience for this book, but it will satisfy those who like the genre.
2.5 stars.

A cat and mouse game where the mouse doesn't know she is being chased by the cat. A bit slow at first with a lot of moving stories, Terra is at the heart of this tale. Be patient and you will be rewarded with a great conclusion. The epilogue was the icing on the cake.

Thanks to Netglley and Martin Press for ARC.

Interesting but not fully engaging enough to keep me entertained.


I would recommend this to someome who has a few free hours to read through quickly.

The last secret you’ll ever keep is an incredible read with so many twist and turns ! The one part literally had my mouth drooling open because you never see it coming and who doesn’t love a book where you can’t figure out who done it ? I found this book to be an easy read which I finished in a night ! Looking forward to reading more by this author !

I am such a sucker for YA teen girl murder books. The beginning sucked me right in and I wish it stayed that way.
Be warned though, if you have fears associated with being held against your will and enclosed spaces, read at your own risk.
This story of survival is well told and gives a voice to the voiceless. (and everyone deserves their own Garrett)

Terra is an eighteen-year-old who has already survived one tragedy - the house fire which resulted in the loss of both her parents. When Terra attends a college party one night, she tries to follow all the rules her parents set forth years before - including not to take drinks from strangers and not to get into cars with strangers. But what about the situations her parents didn’t prepare her for? Told in alternating time periods - during/after her captivity and “now” - six months later, this story is incredibly suspenseful as Terra tries to figure out what has happened and what is happening.

The Last Secret You’ll Ever Keep was a great psychological thriller - I spent most of time trying to “guess” who took Terra - and if she was even taken or if it was all in her head. This is a great YA novel that upper high school/college students (even adults who like the YA genre) would enjoy. It reminded me a little bit of both Room and Dear Child but more YA centered.

I absolutely love anything that Laurie Faria Stolarz writes and this was a fantastic book! I would suggest reading "Jane Anonymous" first, only to understand the context behind the website the kidnapped victim logs onto. For fans of kidnapping stories-this one if for you! Thankful to NetGalley for allowing me to read a copy of this book.

This is going to be pretty short, since no matter how many times I picked up this book I was never able to finish it. I tried multiple times to read this title, but it was never able to capture my attention and keep me invested in the plot, characters or the story.
I liked the premise and how this is a stand-alone, but still in the Jane Anonymous world, but it just failed to deliver for me. It might be because I prefer my thriller/crime books to me more gritty and less “maybe-maybe not”, but this book was not for me.
I did appreciate that there was a site for survivors to tell their stories and help one another, but I also felt the main character less than reliable and not particularly interesting. Maybe you’ll greatly love this book, but for me it was a DNF.

A mystery thriller that pulls you in right away but then seems to slack off a little as the main character is basically telling the story and it gets a little confusing time wise. Terra has gone through two dramas, a house fire where only she survived and an abduction that no one now believes happened as no evidence can be found. She's a very confused and mentally ill in dealing with trying to find evidence. Her aunt isn't supportive and her only support seems to come from an online chatroom of victims, on which is her abductor. Twist in the end makes it worth the read.

She's eighteen and people think she's crazy. She knows she was kidnapped and held In a deep well for four days. Nobody believes her. The well hasn't been found. The book that was in the well with her has apparently never been written, even though she had read the book many times.
So many questions and not an answer to any of them.
Interesting, thought provoking read.

A twisted thriller that keeps you guessing until the end. What happens when you’re the only one who believes your trauma?

The main character, Terra, experiences not one but two traumatic events. She reaches out to an online help group for souls such as herself to share her feelings and  support from likewise victims. Maybe I am being too critical about the character, but doesn’t everyone know not to believe what you read and the feedback from these websites? I was yelling at her to exit the website as I was reading the back and forth texts in the story In spite of her traumatic history she certainly didn’t have many people in her corner and so was forced to look elsewhere for support ( the web page). But I couldn’t see her character in the final chapters thinking so clearly as to get OUT of the next violation as her behavior was so bizarre and out of her mental control. I did continue reading the book in spite of all my reservations and it certainly provided an interesting turn of events with the confessions of some of the characters.

I had completely forgotten about the wonderful world of Netgalley until the other day. What is Netgalley? Well, it's a website that lets you read electronic ARC (advanced reader copies) for free, as long as you review them on their website (and in theory, on your own). You are not guarenteed to read each and every book that you request, but you are able to read a lot of them.

My most recent fine was "The Last Secret You'll Ever Keep" by Laurie Faria Stolarz


["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?"]

It was really good. Definitely a little traumatizing. And a lot confusing (though that could be mostly a craft choice due to the narrative being 1st person and the narrator being unreliable due to her trauma).

And, like any perfectly orchestrated (YA) psychological thriller, there was a really great plot twist (or a few) that kind of blew me away. I'm pretty darn skeptical and can be good at pointing out different twists, but I really, really didn't see that one coming.

Trigger Warnings: suicidal thoughts, murder, death threats, violence, psychological torture, death, starvation, medicalization/institutionalization

#thelastsecretyoulleverkeep #lauriefariastolarz #netgalley #psychologicalthriller #books #bookstagram #bookphotography #ilovebooks

This book started out so strong and I was actually sucked in and ready to embark on her journey with her. I'll admit the premise of the book was very enticing and I was captured in the first few chapters...after that it gets kind of bumpy and very confusing.

Trying to keep up with an unreliable main character was difficult, but not impossible. I would have preferred to have an alternating point of view from a side character. Just a way to see outside of the main character to try and build our own timeline. We weren't able to access the whole situation which led to some moments of .... okay and that matters, why? Then you find out those very FEW mentions were important.

Too much emphasis on specific details while other scenes lacked detail all around. With a heavier hand in editing this story could have been so much better.

Thank you netgalley and publisher for providing an eARC

Special thanks to NetGalley and St.Martin for providing me with ARC.

I loved this book and the story well written, i am not a big fan of YA but this one is different. This is the first novel by Laurie but will not be the last.