Review: The Secrets We Bury - Stacie Ramey

Review: The Secrets We Bury - Stacie Ramey - March 2018

I had seen a review of this author's book The Sister Pact and decided to check out the other books that were available on the Libby App. This one's cover caught my attention. The Secrets We Bury by Stacie Ramey has a male lead which was different for me as tend to read books with female leads. The other thing that caught my attention was the fact that the main character Dylan is neurodivergent and on the spectrum. His dad has died and he feels that his family blames him, they also want to send him to a new school. This causes Dylan to run away from home and as he's only 17, he is still considered a minor so technically he is on the run. He decides after some consideration that a place his family will never find him is on the Appalachian Trail as by the time he finishes it, it will be past his 18th birthday and he will be safe from his family. For Dylan, he has never done a lot of hiking - so this is also a big deal. Along the trail, he will meet a few people from a group of young guys doing the trail for the second or third time, an older guy named Rain Man aka Gary is walking the trail for the last time as it's the anniversary of his wife's death and he is ready to join her and Ghost aka Sophie whose mother died six months ago.  Dylan, Sophie, and Gary are all on their journeys of grief and finding ways to move on. Can the three of them save each other from demise caused by their own hands and in doing so, help one another to find a healthy way to handle grief rather than burying secrets in the ground? The other thing that I did love about this book and as a former children's librarian was that Dylan's trail name was Wild Thing based on the children's book Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak in which the main character Max runs away from his mum which was similar to Dylan's current situation. The Secrets We Bury by Stacie Ramey was a good fast-paced read and a great read if you have suffered grief or the loss of a loved one in the past.

 
Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34137615-the-secrets-we-bury