The Secret Year

Julia is from the rich crowd on Black Mountain while Colt lives “in a house with [his] father’s junked cars all over the yard.” For a year they meet secretly for sex and intense conversation by the river between them, until Julia is killed in a car crash. Colt navigates his grief privately until Julia’s brother, Michael, gives him Julia’s journal. Debut author Hubbard effectively intermingles Colt’s memories, Julia’s secret letters to Colt, and the present, as Colt falls into a relationship with a friend, deals with the aftermath of his brother’s coming out, and falls in love again. The journal, as well as hints of the fight Colt and Julia had their last night together, create hooks that draw in the reader, but it’s the smooth pacing and well-drawn characters that elevate the book. The community’s class animosity is realistic and stark but, as in life, is never fully resolved. When Michael gives Julia’s poems about Colt to the student literary journal, Colt and Julia’s secret is finally revealed. It’s a moving portrait of grief and the sharp societal lines that divide. Ages 12–up. (Jan.)