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Seven for a Secret
Arriving at the small outport village of Cook's Cove on Newfoundland's west coast, Melinda embraces the closeness she shares with her two cousins, Kate, who lives in the city, and Rebecca, who lives with her strict mother, but when a stranger comes to town and asks Rebecca to go to Boston to explore her artistic abilities, Melinda is forced to make some difficult choices.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published July 10, 2001
23 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 27, 2021
Rating: 3.5
This is a lively and entertaining but imperfect young adult novel set in a 1960s Newfoundland outport near the Bay of Islands in the western part of the province. At the time the story opens, Cox’s Cove, population 400, is accessible only by ferry. This hamlet, where houses lack electricity and plumbing, is entirely cut off from the rest of the island during the winter. Every June for the last eight years, Kate Derby, one of three teenage cousins at the center of the story, arrives by ferry. She stays until September. As a child, Kate was sickly, and it was thought that the sea air would do her good. Now 15, she’s arrived for yet another season of wind and sunshine, skinny-dipping and berry picking with cousins Melinda and Rebecca. The girls are said to have been born within seven months of each other.
This is a summer of change for all of them. Melinda—the feisty, talkative narrator—is the cleverest girl at her tiny school. Her mother wants her to train as a nurse, like her intimidating aunt, Grace (Rebecca’s mother), but Melinda has her heart set on marrying Matt Lewis, who, at 22, is seven years older than she. He’s already given her a ring and has started building a home for the two, which he works at over the summer when he’s not away at his fishing camp. In Cook’s Cove, a 21-year-old woman is an “old maid”. It’s typical for girls to be married and having babies by the age of 16. (In 1960, the legal marriageable age for girls in Newfoundland was 12.)
As members of the respected, once-wealthy Derby family (which used to own a fleet of schooners), the three cousins are expected to do something more with their lives than the other girls from the Cove. Rebecca is a head-turner, a beautiful girl, who to this point has shown no interest in boys. She’s studious and artistic. Aunt Grace’s plan for her daughter is teachers’ college in St. Johns, the provincial capital. Kate, from Cornerbrook (the biggest town on the western side of the island), is also bright and bookish, entirely inattentive to her appearance, and set on attending university. She knows she’ll have to get a scholarship because her parents, who disapprove of higher education for girls, will certainly not foot the bill.
The story is set in motion by the arrival of a stranger, Mr. Franklin Harris, a wealthy banker, who’s come up from Boston on his yacht. He attends the Cove’s annual garden party, a kind of fun fair with stalls for selling baked goods and handicrafts. Funds raised go to the local Anglican church. Mr. Harris sees the deft sketches that Rebecca does of the locals for fifty cents a piece and speaks to her mother about his big bank’s association with an art college and its charitable support of the college’s program for budding young artists. He’d like to see Rebecca attend. It would all be fully financed, and Melinda could go along as well. Aunt Grace is mysteriously vehemently opposed. The three cousins cannot understand why: attending art school would be a dream come true for Rebecca.
Thinking they can get the ball rolling for Rebecca, they manage to locate the girl's birth certificate, which she needs in order to cross the border. (Aunt Grace has hidden it.) It turns out that Rebecca is a whole year older than she’s been made out to be. Grace has kept secrets, which Melinda manages to get to the bottom of before anyone else. Does she tell her cousin, Rebecca, these secrets, risk the reputation of the family and cause real hurt to some of its members, but possibly set Rebecca free from a limited life in this coastal community—or does Melinda keep the secrets? I won’t say what she decides to do, but it was not what I expected.
Sheppard’s novel provides a slice of life in a small Newfoundland outport. While such a place is not without its charm, there is certainly hardship here. Sheppard does not shy away from showing the alcoholism, domestic abuse, and child neglect--although she doesn't call them by those names. The sea, of course, claims the lives of many men, who fish for three seasons of the year and often work in lumbering during the winter. For women, there are multiple pregnancies and long, back-breaking shifts in the fish plant. During the winter, there’s often not enough to eat; people go hungry. There’s endless gossip, and, of course, secrets. (At one point in the book, Aunt Grace--as the local nurse--has the opportunity to expose to the authorities the domestic abuse that has taken the life of a young pregnant woman and her unborn child. She chooses not to. What happens in the Cove stays in the Cove. The code of silence is strong, and women are complicit.) Melinda learns more than her aunt’s secret in this story. She also finds out about her mother’s and her grandmother’s lives. Strangely or not, Melinda still wants to continue here. As the story ends, however, she wishes that any daughter she has will use the newly completed road as a route out, away from this place and into the wider world.
This is a lively and entertaining but imperfect young adult novel set in a 1960s Newfoundland outport near the Bay of Islands in the western part of the province. At the time the story opens, Cox’s Cove, population 400, is accessible only by ferry. This hamlet, where houses lack electricity and plumbing, is entirely cut off from the rest of the island during the winter. Every June for the last eight years, Kate Derby, one of three teenage cousins at the center of the story, arrives by ferry. She stays until September. As a child, Kate was sickly, and it was thought that the sea air would do her good. Now 15, she’s arrived for yet another season of wind and sunshine, skinny-dipping and berry picking with cousins Melinda and Rebecca. The girls are said to have been born within seven months of each other.
This is a summer of change for all of them. Melinda—the feisty, talkative narrator—is the cleverest girl at her tiny school. Her mother wants her to train as a nurse, like her intimidating aunt, Grace (Rebecca’s mother), but Melinda has her heart set on marrying Matt Lewis, who, at 22, is seven years older than she. He’s already given her a ring and has started building a home for the two, which he works at over the summer when he’s not away at his fishing camp. In Cook’s Cove, a 21-year-old woman is an “old maid”. It’s typical for girls to be married and having babies by the age of 16. (In 1960, the legal marriageable age for girls in Newfoundland was 12.)
As members of the respected, once-wealthy Derby family (which used to own a fleet of schooners), the three cousins are expected to do something more with their lives than the other girls from the Cove. Rebecca is a head-turner, a beautiful girl, who to this point has shown no interest in boys. She’s studious and artistic. Aunt Grace’s plan for her daughter is teachers’ college in St. Johns, the provincial capital. Kate, from Cornerbrook (the biggest town on the western side of the island), is also bright and bookish, entirely inattentive to her appearance, and set on attending university. She knows she’ll have to get a scholarship because her parents, who disapprove of higher education for girls, will certainly not foot the bill.
The story is set in motion by the arrival of a stranger, Mr. Franklin Harris, a wealthy banker, who’s come up from Boston on his yacht. He attends the Cove’s annual garden party, a kind of fun fair with stalls for selling baked goods and handicrafts. Funds raised go to the local Anglican church. Mr. Harris sees the deft sketches that Rebecca does of the locals for fifty cents a piece and speaks to her mother about his big bank’s association with an art college and its charitable support of the college’s program for budding young artists. He’d like to see Rebecca attend. It would all be fully financed, and Melinda could go along as well. Aunt Grace is mysteriously vehemently opposed. The three cousins cannot understand why: attending art school would be a dream come true for Rebecca.
Thinking they can get the ball rolling for Rebecca, they manage to locate the girl's birth certificate, which she needs in order to cross the border. (Aunt Grace has hidden it.) It turns out that Rebecca is a whole year older than she’s been made out to be. Grace has kept secrets, which Melinda manages to get to the bottom of before anyone else. Does she tell her cousin, Rebecca, these secrets, risk the reputation of the family and cause real hurt to some of its members, but possibly set Rebecca free from a limited life in this coastal community—or does Melinda keep the secrets? I won’t say what she decides to do, but it was not what I expected.
Sheppard’s novel provides a slice of life in a small Newfoundland outport. While such a place is not without its charm, there is certainly hardship here. Sheppard does not shy away from showing the alcoholism, domestic abuse, and child neglect--although she doesn't call them by those names. The sea, of course, claims the lives of many men, who fish for three seasons of the year and often work in lumbering during the winter. For women, there are multiple pregnancies and long, back-breaking shifts in the fish plant. During the winter, there’s often not enough to eat; people go hungry. There’s endless gossip, and, of course, secrets. (At one point in the book, Aunt Grace--as the local nurse--has the opportunity to expose to the authorities the domestic abuse that has taken the life of a young pregnant woman and her unborn child. She chooses not to. What happens in the Cove stays in the Cove. The code of silence is strong, and women are complicit.) Melinda learns more than her aunt’s secret in this story. She also finds out about her mother’s and her grandmother’s lives. Strangely or not, Melinda still wants to continue here. As the story ends, however, she wishes that any daughter she has will use the newly completed road as a route out, away from this place and into the wider world.
January 29, 2024
Only read it because of the local lore that it’s based on a true story- don’t know if it is or isn’t- loved the way it was written- the diction very characteristic of time and place- storyline was okay- humour, mystery, adventure or misadventure- just feels incomplete somehow…
February 11, 2024
Re-read this as an adult and appreciated it so much more than in my teen years.
October 31, 2013
Honest, lively, and bittersweet, this book is a perfect read for anyone interested in a tale of family secrets, love, mistakes, and the outport communities of Newfoundland.
Seven For A Secret is set in the 60's, and it manages to make its characters and culture seem both relatable and old-fashioned. You can't help but like the characters, even in their most unlikeable moments, and they are more than quaint, small-town characters; they have grit and strength and weaknesses that make them come alive. There is so much life and detail in this relatively short novel, you'll feel like you've lived through Melinda's experiences yourself, and that is the best praise a book can receive, in my opinion. This isn't a light book, but it's realistic in its darkness and though the ending may surprise you, I think it was the most honest ending I've ever read. The author didn't try to fool you or satisfy you with emptiness and problems easily solved and forgotten. Not everything has to be happy to be good, and this is especially true when it comes to books. This one will make you feel everything.
It would be especially fitting to read this in the summer, but anytime you can get your hands on it is a good time. I'm not sure if it's readily available to anyone outside of Atlantic Canada; you probably won't find it in your favorite bookstore. But you can find it on Amazon or any other online bookstore. And it's a treasure worth seeking.
Seven For A Secret is set in the 60's, and it manages to make its characters and culture seem both relatable and old-fashioned. You can't help but like the characters, even in their most unlikeable moments, and they are more than quaint, small-town characters; they have grit and strength and weaknesses that make them come alive. There is so much life and detail in this relatively short novel, you'll feel like you've lived through Melinda's experiences yourself, and that is the best praise a book can receive, in my opinion. This isn't a light book, but it's realistic in its darkness and though the ending may surprise you, I think it was the most honest ending I've ever read. The author didn't try to fool you or satisfy you with emptiness and problems easily solved and forgotten. Not everything has to be happy to be good, and this is especially true when it comes to books. This one will make you feel everything.
It would be especially fitting to read this in the summer, but anytime you can get your hands on it is a good time. I'm not sure if it's readily available to anyone outside of Atlantic Canada; you probably won't find it in your favorite bookstore. But you can find it on Amazon or any other online bookstore. And it's a treasure worth seeking.
October 1, 2012
another book that i felt sorry for while weeding the fiction section, because of it's hideously outdated cover. which is a shame, because it's a really great book! i loved the setting- cook's cove, newfoundland in the 1960s. 16 year old melinda lives in the tiny fishing village and spends the summers with her two same-aged cousins, kate & rebecca. melinda is trying to decide if she should quit high school and marry her boyfriend, or go to nursing school away from her family on the mainland. kate is a city girl falling in love with a cook's cove boy. and rebecca's life is turned upside-down when a mysterious strange comes to invite her to study art in boston. suddenly, melinda needs to decide which family secrets should be kept and which told.
i loved this. the ending isn't what i expected, but still made me happy. as an added kricket bonus, tuberculosis is mentioned (although not a central part of the plot.)
i loved this. the ending isn't what i expected, but still made me happy. as an added kricket bonus, tuberculosis is mentioned (although not a central part of the plot.)
January 24, 2014
I loved it. With the intertwining with family secrets and growing up in an era of the 60's three young women-teen cousins all have choices now that they have to live with. They learn that growing up doesn't mean that you will always have the answers to life.
It was an addicting kind of read. I found very hard to put down at times. Well worth the read.
Thanks to Ms. Sheppard for such a great story.
It was an addicting kind of read. I found very hard to put down at times. Well worth the read.
Thanks to Ms. Sheppard for such a great story.
November 13, 2009
It's been a long time since I read this book. All I remember was reading my first sex scene and, near the end, it was really starting to depress me. But I'm a pansy when it comes to books. I only like happy/funny ones usually. So, this may be to the taste of many other people.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews