Review: Dirty Little Secrets - C.J. Omololu

Where I got it: Library
Rating: 4 stars 
Cover Rating: 5 stars (Very story fitting and the title draws you in) 
Genre: Young Adult 
Publication Date: February 2, 2010
Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers
Page Count: 210 p.

Lucy's mom has a problem, she can't stand to throw anything away. Lucy's sister and brother have long since moved out of the house and the junk has piled up into their rooms. Lucy can't have people over and can barely even walk through her house in order to get in or out. Everybody has dirty little secrets, and this is Lucy's. After she transferred to public school, Lucy got a friend named Kaylie. Kaylie didn't seem to pry too much and was a great friend. When Lucy comes home after at a night at Kaylie's to find something she never expected her life is turned upside down. Panic grows as it gets harder and harder to keep her mom's hoarding a secret. What Lucy needs is a miracle, she needs that right idea that will save her from drowning in the mess her mom has made.

This was a very interesting novel about a subject I have never read about. Maybe you've seen the TV show Hoarders? That's exactly what this book talks about. Lucy has to put up with her mom's obsessive collecting and her mom's rages when she excuses Lucy or others of stealing her "treasures". Lucy's mom is completely normal, as is their house, from the outside. Her mom works as a nurse and is a really nice friendly woman, who just happens to be hiding a disgusting secret. Lucy doesn't feel at home in her house. The bathroom and kitchen are pretty much unusable and the furnace is impossible to get to so she has no heat. This is a very eyeopening book into the minds of the children of hoarders. I'm sure quite a few kids have to go through this, maybe it's not as extreme in some cases but it's still sad. It's very upsetting when a young children is embarrassed of their home for a reason like this. C.J. Omololu brilliantly executed Lucy and all of her emotions and how she handled things. It's hard being the much younger sibling stuck with a mentally unstable parent. I think this was an excellent book to help kids learn about parents with mental disorders like hoarding and compulsive shopping. This was an excellent debut, very well written and I look forward to seeing what topic C.J. will tackle next.

First Line:
"Everyone has secrets."

Favorite Line:
"If only the house would disappear--vaporize into the night until there was nothing left but Teddy B. in my jacket and my memories locked safely away where nobody would ever see."