The Things We Wish Were True by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen

Title: The Things We Wish Were True

Author: Marybeth Mayhew Whalen

Pub Date: September 1st, 2016

My Rating: ★★★☆☆

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Synopis from Goodreads:

In an idyllic small-town neighborhood, a near tragedy triggers a series of dark revelations.

From the outside, Sycamore Glen, North Carolina, might look like the perfect all-American neighborhood. But behind the white picket fences lies a web of secrets that reach from house to house.

Up and down the streets, neighbors quietly bear the weight of their own pasts—until an accident at the community pool upsets the delicate equilibrium. And when tragic circumstances compel a woman to return to Sycamore Glen after years of self-imposed banishment, the tangle of the neighbors’ intertwined lives begins to unravel.

During the course of a sweltering summer, long-buried secrets are revealed, and the neighbors learn that it’s impossible to really know those closest to us. But is it impossible to love and forgive them?

Story full of secrets that flourished during summer in a neighborhood. Secrets that finally came up and saw a light. Story about a tragedy that brought strangers together.

It was a very enjoyable read. It is presented through multiple perspectives and it worked very well for this story. It was fascinating to learn about one’s actions and how those actions affected someone, how someone could unknowing alert some neighbor because this neighbor knows some secrets that change the way you look at things. What I enjoyed and I think was unique about this story is that one of the perspectives is told in the first person by a child. I believe that the author did a very good job of showing us the adult world through the eyes of a child.

I think some secrets weren’t very relevant to the story. And even though those revelations were objectively of more weight, I didn’t care about them as much as I cared about more personal secrets that were hinted through the story and made me curious.

This book definitely will be good for a book club. There are even discussion questions at the end if ARC I got – hopefully, those are also included in the finished copy. There is a lot of subtle subjects in the story that could lead to an interesting discussion.

I enjoyed reading about those characters and learning more about them. But I won’t remember this story for long. It didn’t affect me, I didn’t relate, and I will forget. But it’s a good book that I don’t regret spending my time with. I think that I’d like the book more if I actually had any experience of living in such tight neighborhood or if I was older and had a family of my own.