Deep Secret by Berlie Doherty

by Berlie Doherty

Deep in a Derbyshire valley live two girls, twins, so alike they seem like one person, even their family can’t tell them apart. But tragedy is waiting.When the valley is sold to be flooded for a huge dam, the villagers are forced to leave their homes. Deep secrets are uncovered. New characters enter their lives and desires. Love and grief come to the surface.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Childrens, Historical Fiction

Paperback

First published November 27, 2003

About the author

Berlie Doherty née Hollingsworth is an English novelist, poet, playwright and screenwriter. She is best known for children's books, for which she has twice won the Carnegie Medal.She has also written novels for adults, plays for theatre and radio, television series and libretti for children's opera.

Reviews

[Namita · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book in 7th maybe 8th grade. It was my first introduction to a young adult romance that wasn’t emotionally frivolous. It was incredibly moving and the fact that I am writing about it more than a decade later when I can’t remember the plot, struggling with words to describe how much this book meant to me at the time and the fact that I am revisiting it now just because it fleetingly crossed my mind says enough about how amazing it is. I don’t know if it was a best seller or faired well at the time, or even if the author is a famous one (will check that now), but this book held a place in my heart that I still like to visit.

[Hayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is set in a small village that lies at the bottom of a valley. They are a community lost in time. The men and women fill stereotypical roles and young people are expected to find love, marry, and settle down.

Twins Medline and Grace share an unbreakable bond. They are so alike even their mother occasionally mistakes one for the other. When tragedy strikes the town is beside itself with grief. This is compounded with news that the valley is to be flooded and turned into a reservoir. These two incidents shake the town to a point where its secrets start spilling out.

It’s not hard to see why Berlie Doherty has won the Carnegie Medal twice. Deep Secret is filled with sentences that could be straight from the lines of a poem. It’s a deeply moving book with characters that are rich and alive. You feel a sense of community, like you are a part of their town, and want to fight alongside them. The flooding of the village is taken from the true story of the creation of the Ladybower Reservoir. Doherty was fascinated by the destruction of a town, and with it, the history of its inhabitants.

This is a hard book to review without giving anything away (there is a big ‘wow I didn’t see that coming moment’ quite early on), so I will just say that Doherty explores identity in a very interesting way. The story looks at the identity of individuals and of the village as a whole. Madeline and Grace are characters that you fall in love with and it’s fascinating to look inside the bond only twins can share.

My only criticism is that I think it went on a little too long. I didn’t mind the length of the actual book but more the time span. I felt I was starting to tire of the characters a little and felt the pace had slowed. I enjoyed the first two thirds the most. In saying that, this is really only a small criticism, and I love this book so much I finished it in two days.

[Josie · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I go to a library with no plan of what I want to read I just go to the teenage section and pick out a book that I'm drawn to - sounds weird but that's how it is. This book was one of them, and I'm so glad it was (I trust my own judgement when it comes to books :P!).

This book had me in tears pretty much from beginning to end. Identical twins. One dies and the other pretends to be them because they don't want them to be dead and the only person who knows is a blind man. The village is going to be underwater soon though so can the surviving twin get through and over her twin's death enough to move on.

I have to admit when I read this book I hated the ending. Both twins loved the same guy Colin, and Colin always loved the twin who survived (but they didn't know that at the time). the twins made a promise that they would either both marry Colin or neither of them would...and yet Maddy - the surviving twin - married Colin at the end. I thought she was completely betraying Grace - the dead twin. But then I talked to a friend who has a twin, and she said that if she died and her sister was still alive she'd want her sister to be happy, no matter what. I still don't really like the ending of this book, but I understand it better now!

I'd recommend this book to anyone. It's sad, but it's fantastic!

[Elisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember I took this book out of the library when I was in year six at primary school, and re read it about 7 times throughout the year! I can't entirely remember the plot but I do remember that it was an incredible book that moved me to tears, and that I enjoyed very much!

[Naadhira Zahari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deep Secret is a story about a village that will go through a big change. They had to live with what has been brought upon them, accept it and ultimately move on. Some of them took it easy while there are others who took it hard which is understandable since it is their home, for their entire lives. This book is a story of groundbreaking events, of alterations from the past to the future and finally burying all the history with the river that will inevitably drown it all. 

Despite the synopsis that only mentioned and highlights on the twins, Madeleine and Grace, this book was also about everyone in this village. The twins' family, the Vicar's family, Elspeth and her family, Oliver, Seth, Aunt Susan, the people working on the construction site and absolutely everyone else. That these people are undoubtedly important as they were part of this story and what made this story alive with their hums and tuts along the way.

This book took place over years about the people of Birchen who live and move on about to their brand new lives. It was about grief, longing and also love. That everything takes time and that the heart will heal itself over time. That soon all will be better again and its time to finally bury all the feelings down and under the river.

It took me quite some time to realise the meaning behind the title of the book. The way I interpret it, it was like a metaphor that everyone has secrets, dark and deep hidden beneath you and that one day, someday, you should throw it all away into the void. As for the case for this book, throw it all away as the river plunge down across the valley and over the village of Birchen. Its deep and powerful yet simply beautiful.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do find it hard to believe that a novel as eerie and moving as this, about the flooding of a tiny, beloved village in Derbyshire to make way for a modern dam and reservoir, and about the mature grief felt by young Madeleine after the loss of her twin sister, should be missed out on by the majority of adults simply because it is labelled as 'young adult'. The fate of the valley and the changing definitions of land ownership interests me most and makes the novel stand out. In contrast, the parts involving characters’ relationships to each other are believable and relatable, but not ground-breaking in their originality. The blind Seth, who becomes Madeleine’s closest friend and confidant, is the most striking persona for me, becoming the valley’s prophet Tiresias. However, possibly the saddest thing of all is how quickly the feudal way of life is forgotten after the valley is flooded; witness the unceremonious death of the past, and the murderers who got away with it, the novel seems to sigh.

Read more at:
http://emilykmorrison.wordpress.com/2...

[Stone Rouffignac · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was completely taken aback by this book – it was not what I expected. I had anticipated a Young Adult novel featuring identical twin girls, with all the opportunities for confusion that could bring. Instead, I found myself reading an historical novel, but set in what is, for me, the recent past, because it was around the time of my own birth. That fact alone caught my attention as I realised I could be the contemporary of the young children in the story.
Nor was the book really about twins. Instead it was about one twin and her interaction with all the other inhabitants of the valley, and of a way of life about to be lost forever. And it was so sad.
Towards the end there were happy moments too. Happiness and sadness intertwined. Deep Secret is one of the most emotionally-charged books I have read in a long time, and I thoroughly recommend it.

[Georgina Ball · Rating 3 out of 5]

Initially this book confused the hell out of me. I had no idea when or where this was set, and was expecting it to be set in modern times by the cover but it wasn't. Once I got over the intial confusion the book was quite book. It followed several different people, all from the same village in a valley, which made it interesting as you got various people's point of view. It made you feel part of the story. The things which happened were lossely based on real events and it's quite interesting really. The plot was OK, a little dull and I expected a bit more from the blurb. I can't say it was evoked emotions of any kind in any part of the book which was a little disappointing. An OK book but not one that I'll probably remember reading in a couple of weeks.

[Eliza · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good book, set in England in 1946 about a pair of twins and one of them dies. Then the Government forces them to move out of their valley. The story was about grief, memories, and moving on. I liked it.

[Elsbeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really amazing book!

[Emily Blunden · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absorbing story, with depth and literary style.

[Lianne Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have long been fascinated by the idea of drowned valleys making way for reservoirs and a quick search for fiction based on the flooded village at the Ladybower reservoir in Derbyshire brought this YA novel to my attention. It took a while to gain my interest with scene setting and the slow introduction of characters and at first I was not impressed with the depiction of the twins at the centre of the story. However, the gradual realisation of what each household was going to lose by the take over of their homes and livelihood drew me in. Berlie’s description of the natural world is spellbinding and makes its gradual destruction all the more poignant. It is not a black and white account- friendships and rivalries occur between the village and the construction workers, and the need for work on both sides is made clear. There is some beautiful imagery and a poignant poetic detail in the stained glass window dedicated to the lost twin remaining in the drowned church tower.

[NotAnotherEmptySkull · Rating 1 out of 5]

☆1/1.5 Stars☆

NOTES & THOUGHTS
• Interesting idea.
• Not my usual genre(s) of choice.
• It wasn't as emotional as it seemed it would be.
• Themes of grief, loss, losing yourself and change.
• It had potential, but sadly it didn't come out that well.

I LOVED
• The ideas.
• The themes within the book.
• The potential that the book had.

I DIDN'T LOVE
• The emotional lack.
• That the book didn't live up to its potential.
• That most of the characters were quite annoying.
• That the book was slow going, and almost "boring" in places.
• That the book was almost confusing - jumping quite quickly between character Point of view without a clearly laid our character change.

[BookLoverLily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grace tragically dies and Madeleine pretends it is her that died. Elspeth marrieds Ben. Maddelein and Grace are identical twins. You can’t tell each other apart except for the hair ribbon, but Seth, a blind man knows. A new boy in town named Oliver also dies(how:) Colin ran away and caught up with Oliver who recently left town. They are stalked by bandits and Oliver has a fight with them. Both sides of are tied. All dies.

[Pouline · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first read this, I thought it was a bit slow and figured I wouldn’t pick it up again—so I gave it away. Now, months later, I find myself missing it. There was something about the mood and atmosphere that stuck with me. I didn’t realize how much I appreciated it until it was gone.

[Tina · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay. I liked the book, but when I read it I wasn't 'wow', if you know the feeling (of course you know, I'm on the booklovers page).

[Anna Maven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did. Enjoyable read.

[Emma]

I think this book was a big old case of 'don't judge the book by its cover'. However,I do not mean that in a good way.

Let's play a game. Here is a copy of the blurb from the back of this book (with the pretty, girly cover featured above).

"Madeleine and Grace, the mirror image twins. Oliver, the handsome traveller. Colin, the steady student, and Seth, the blind man. A cast of powerful characters uncover disturbing secrets when the building of a mighty dam drowns a beautiful village. Love, death, attempted murder, grief and happiness - and emotional journey of discovery."

Based on that description and the cover, I thought I was all set to be pushed into a quiet modern town scenario, with weird love triangle scenarios, etc etc. Oh and there's mention of a dam bursting. That's interesting.

What we actually get? Plonked in the middle of circa 1946 post WW2 little farming village, where all the girls are gossiping about who wants to marry who and who they want to marry. And trust me, you don't start to catch on until later that that's where we are. I had no idea what was going on, and it was actually really boring.

I don't know... I just wasn't in the mood for this. From the cover and the blurb, I expected a somewhat 'easy' read. My brain is fried and I don't have time for old-timey village talk and women worrying about who they will marry. I wanted something else based on the blurb and the cover.

Oh well.
No rating. It wouldn't be fair, because if I actually knew what the book was going to be about, I guess I would have liked it better, but instead I felt lied to in a way.

[Melainebooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'ai mis beaucoup de temps à lire ce livre. J'ai du faire des pauses non que l'histoire soit mauvaise mais parce qu'elle est pesante. Un voile semble être en permanence au dessus du roman et cela m'a mise mal à l'aise.
L'histoire des jumelles qui ne sont plus qu'une à cause de la mort de Grace et dont Madeleine (l'autre jumelle) prend l'identité car elle ne peut pas admettre la mort de sa soeur et le village qui va être noyé sous les flots de la construction d'un nouveau barrage, tout ça fait un excellent roman d'après-guerre en Angleterre.

[Apps *ąþþℓεş щïŧɧ şþℓεεŋ ïş şҩųïşɧγ* · Rating 1 out of 5]

purely horrible book. no one in his right sense would read it more than 40 pages!!!!

twins who stick to each other so much that when one dies the other (the one alive)says she is the one who died and the dead one is her,and their mother hreself dosen't know which is the dead one..........phu i could puke

[Daisy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very sad, amusing and confusing at the same time!

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok je...dosta dječja, ali ok, zanimljiva i tužna, rasplakala me.

[Marion Aranjo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the story and the characters.

[Thi N. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sad but wonderful1

[Narissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book. A bit confusing.....

[Mietta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love read in less than a day!