Overall, Secrets So Deep was a decent, if mediocre, YA paranormal mystery. The author has a talent for building atmosphere and bringing a dark and dream-like mood to the story which makes her books stand out. However, I felt the mystery was fairly predictable and the character interactions and relationships were lacking.
Without outright spoiling it, the mystery surrounding the death of Avril's mother is predictable not just because of the intentional trail of clues left by the author, but also because most of the other potential 'suspects' don't get enough focus or development to have any chance of being major players in the mystery. This didn't bother me too much, but if you're looking for a more complex mystery this might not be it for you. The paranormal elements were also very disconnected from the central mystery, serving more as set dressing than something to be explored or linked to Avril and her mother's death.
The relationships between characters fell flat as most of the focus was on Avril and Cole's romance to the detriment of the other relationships. To start with, Cole and Avril's relationship was... fine. It moved very quickly and had the insta-love/fated lovers quality that I find somewhat eye-rolling, especially between two teenagers. But the characters did have some genuine connection and were there for each other when they were struggling, so overall it was not bad, but not amazing either. However, Avril's supposed friendships were more poorly written. Avril states repeatedly that Lex, one of the other actors, is her best friend, that she's never had a friend like him before, but the book never really shows this. They share relatively few scenes and don't have much on-page friendship development. Not to mention, it's strange how little concern these people who supposedly care for Avril show as she's hallucinating, passing out in front of them, and going through so many difficult emotions regarding her mother. It feels like the other characters were forgotten about aside from inconsequential mentions. The same can be said for Avril's relationship with her father. I wish we'd gotten to see anything at all about what the events of the story would mean for their relationship. Finding out the truth behind his wife's murder has got mean something to her father and for their relationship, but we never get any follow up on that at all.
Without outright spoiling it, the mystery surrounding the death of Avril's mother is predictable not just because of the intentional trail of clues left by the author, but also because most of the other potential 'suspects' don't get enough focus or development to have any chance of being major players in the mystery. This didn't bother me too much, but if you're looking for a more complex mystery this might not be it for you. The paranormal elements were also very disconnected from the central mystery, serving more as set dressing than something to be explored or linked to Avril and her mother's death.
The relationships between characters fell flat as most of the focus was on Avril and Cole's romance to the detriment of the other relationships. To start with, Cole and Avril's relationship was... fine. It moved very quickly and had the insta-love/fated lovers quality that I find somewhat eye-rolling, especially between two teenagers. But the characters did have some genuine connection and were there for each other when they were struggling, so overall it was not bad, but not amazing either. However, Avril's supposed friendships were more poorly written. Avril states repeatedly that Lex, one of the other actors, is her best friend, that she's never had a friend like him before, but the book never really shows this. They share relatively few scenes and don't have much on-page friendship development. Not to mention, it's strange how little concern these people who supposedly care for Avril show as she's hallucinating, passing out in front of them, and going through so many difficult emotions regarding her mother. It feels like the other characters were forgotten about aside from inconsequential mentions. The same can be said for Avril's relationship with her father. I wish we'd gotten to see anything at all about what the events of the story would mean for their relationship. Finding out the truth behind his wife's murder has got mean something to her father and for their relationship, but we never get any follow up on that at all.