Dazzled by Books

"The Secrets of Lake Road" by Karen Katchur was a story full of secrets. These secrets tended to affect everyone, not only the family that is involved. This story focused on 12-year-old Caroline and her family. Caroline and her family go out to the lake for family vacation however somehow Caroline's mom always finds a way to leave. Caroline doesn't have a good relationship with her mom at all. She wants to have a good relationship with her but her mom is always holding back.

Jo, Caroline's mom spent a summer at the lake that had changed everything for her. Jo was dating a guy named Billy and they were madly in love. Billy drowned in the lake that summer. Jo has always been haunted by the guilt of what happened the night Billy drowned. When Sara goes missing, it brings so many haunting memories to the forefront of Jo's mind. Then everything begins to change and the mystery of the lake starts to become more clear.

The story was so-so for me. I think the lessons that each person learns is very touching but I had a hard time with the story because it wasn't written very well. The pace was extremely slow and it dragged on in a few parts. I think the story being written in alternating points of views helped a lot because it was able to round out the story for the reader. The characters were very hard to love. I feel like the majority of the characters were extremely flat and uninteresting. The plot of the story to figure out what truly happened to Billy is the most interesting part of the story. I think the plot and mystery were great but the characters and writing were very much lacking. Hopefully this will be improved in the future.