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Change is never easy—and it’s even harder when you’re hit by several big changes all at once. That’s the case for the main character in Lea Geller’s The Truth and Other Hidden Things. And as she struggles to adjust, she ends up keeping a big secret from her family.
The story moves out of Manhattan with struggling writer Bells Walker and her family. On the same day that her husband, Harry, discovers that he’s been denied tenure, Bells discovers that she’s pregnant—a big (and not entirely joyous) surprise for Bells, Harry, and their two teenage children. When Harry finds a new job in a college outside the city, Bells is determined to start over. But, surrounded by posh, overachieving moms and young hipsters who relocated from the big city, Bells feels out of her league—so she turns to a secret blog to dish the dirt on their new home.
Bells definitely struggles with all of these changes—and it’s even worse because the rest of the family seems to settle right in. The kids have their new friends and their new activities at school, and Harry has his new colleagues and his newfound love of farm stands. Middle aged and pregnant and far from the town’s typically overachieving mother, Bells just feels left out. It’s something that almost every one of us has felt at some point, and it makes her a relatable character. The blog, then, is her way to vent about everything that frustrates her. It’s the one thing she can call her own—even if she can’t talk to her family about it.
Of course, as you might expect, things quickly spiral out of control. The blog goes from a trial piece to an overnight success—and Bells feels the pressure to get more traffic and more comments and more success by being snarkier and digging even more dirt. And the more controversial the column becomes, the more it threatens her family’s new life out of the city. As it continues, Bells gradually shifts from likable and relatable to desperate and even immature. She becomes obsessed with the other mothers, eager to paint them in a bad light. That increasing ugliness makes it harder to like her. And when it all comes to an end, so little of the drama feels resolved.
We’ve all had those feelings of frustration—of not fitting in. But this story takes those feelings and shows how people can use them to hurt themselves and others. There are certainly lessons to be learned from Bells—but the journey is sometimes cringe worthy.
Listen to the review on Shelf Discovery:
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