Book Wrap Up: Hidden by Helen Frost

Guess who finished her second read of 2020?!

Yep, isss me!

Woo hoo!

As you can see, my reading year is off to a slow start, but I’ve gotta turn this this ship around, and fast, if I’m going to make it to my goal of either 15,000 pages read, or 50 books read.

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Right after I finished book number 2, I started my third book of the year, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are cemented in my mind as Holmes and Watson, so despite my best efforts, I keep imagining them as I read.

Now, let’s talk about what I actually read: Hidden by Helen Frost.

SYNOPSIS

Middle Grade Fiction | First Publushed: 2011

From GoodReads

When Wren Abbott and Darra Monson are eight years old, Darra’s father steals a minivan. He doesn’t know that Wren is hiding in the back. The hours and days that follow change the lives of both girls. Darra is left with a question that only Wren can answer. Wren has questions, too.

Years later, in a chance encounter at camp, the girls face each other for the first time. They can finally learn the truth—that is, if they’re willing to reveal to each other the stories that they’ve hidden for so long.

Told from alternating viewpoints, this novel-in-poems reveals the complexities of memory and the strength of a friendship that can overcome pain.

*****

FUN FACT: I ordered this book back on April 20, 2013. I finished this book on February 03, 2020: 20-freakin’-20! That’s 7 years it’s been sitting on my shelf, waiting to be read. I’m appalled! Best go see what else is lurking on my shelf from eras gone by. Aaah, I digress.

I don’t have a lot to say about this one guys, but here are my thoughts.

Ultimately, Hidden was a quick and easy read. I flew through it in a matter of days, but I could have just as easily finished it in one.

I enjoyed the camp as a setting, and how that environment contributed to the kids ability to be relaxed and uninhibited. The setting brought on a bit of nostalgia for me.

Unfortunately, I didn’t connect with the characters, so I never felt invested into the story. It’s like something was missing. Gravity? Depth? I’m sensing a theme in my personal reading tastes, because I had similar thoughts when I read this book and this one too.

Overall, it was an ok read, nothing to write home about, but not a terrible book by any means.

If this sounds like something you might enjoy, go ahead and read a few pages, see what other reviewers thought, or give it a shot.

If you go for it, I hope you like it immensely more than I did.

Well that’s it for me today guys, but I’d like to know –

  • What books have you finished so far this year?
  • Out of those, which ones (if any) do you recommend?
  • Oh, and have you read any of the Sherlock Holmes books? Ya like ’em or nah?

Until next time…

All the Best & Happy Reading!
~Ash

P.S. See here, here & here for Middle Grade books I’ve enjoyed.