Everyones Dirty Little Secrets

Ms Merkel once recalled her parents were nervous whenever she talked for too long on the phone.

Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu

The Stasi is listening and it's all being recorded,'' her mother said, according to one biography. Coincidentally, as the Merkel revelations raged, Russia was forced to deny Italian reports it had equipped USB flash drives and cables to charge the mobile phones given to foreign delegates to the G20 meeting at St Petersburg in September with technology to retrieve data from computers and telephones. Meanwhile, whistleblower Thomas Drake, a former senior executive at the NSA, told the ABC this week it was alarming that a nation would spy on those it considered an ally.

Since humans started building empires and information considered secret or confidential was obtained without permission, people have been calling military intelligence an oxymoron. But it took the British to turn spying into high romance. I'm not sure why Omololu decided to start with that shock and then use the rest of the book to try to convince her reader that Lucy isn't an unbelievably awful person. She gave herself quite an uphill battle.

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It's partway through the tour of the house that I started to understand, even if I never could imagine doing this myself. Maybe it was when Lucy found the hamster cage, or realized that her mother had given no more care and consideration to things that Lucy had made than to random pieces of garbage. There's also plenty of flashbacks that put her relationship with her mother into context.

Essentially, there isn't one, which is one of the saddest things about this book. Lucy's mother was definitely a compulsive hoarder, and she had come to the point that building walls of things around herself had cut her off from her family.

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Lucy believes that her mother loved her stuff more than she loved her, and because we never see inside her mother's mind, we don't know how true that is. And does it really matter if it isn't? It's what Lucy genuinely believes to be true, and she'll never know otherwise at this point. Lucy's apparent coldness is a defense she's built up over time. After reading this book, I visited the website Omololu mentions at the end of the book, Children of Hoarders , and wasn't surprised at how much Lucy sounded like the people on the site.

She did her homework. On the last few pages, Lucy makes a decision that, if I'd read it at the start of the book, would have seemed insane. But by the end, I was able to understand just how much she felt backed into a corner.

Not excuse or defend her actions, exactly, but I could understand. It was hard to read at times, but I'm very glad this book exists. Gawking at hoarders is almost a national pastime, but it's always from the perspective or an outsider. At best, there's some dwelling on the state of mind of the hoarder, but the effects on the others in the house aren't really talked about so much.

Feb 26, Alissa rated it it was amazing Shelves: Extremely graphic and highly disturbing, but a gripping page-turner nonetheless. Lucy's mom is a hoarder. Highly paranoid that she's going to need something someday, she never never throws anything away, never allows anyone to touch her so-called "treasures". Black Extremely graphic and highly disturbing, but a gripping page-turner nonetheless. Black mold edges the drapes of every window. The overpowering stench of rot permiates the air. The interior of the house is no better than a landfill.

This is the environment in which Lucy had spent most of her life. Deeply, almost guiltily ashamed of her mother and her homelife, Lucy does all she can to hide her living situation from classmates and neighbors. Even Lucy's best friend has never set foot in her house. Then one morning Lucy returns home to find her mother's dead body sprawled beneath a toppled stack of old magazines.

Instead of calling , Lucy decides to clean up the house.

everyone's dirty little secret

Her reasoning saving her family the embarassment the sight of all that filth will surely bring if made public is twisted, selfish, and almost as disturbing as her mother's reasoning for keeping every scrap of whatever that makes its way into the house. But as I continued deeper into the story, I began to sympathize with more and more with Lucy's plight.

As the day and the cleaning progress, Lucy uncovers lots of unexpected and unpleasent things: There were several places I phycsically cringed the maggots in the kitchen, discovering a long-dead hamster buried under the woodchips of a forgotten cage, to name a few. The ending of the story finds a desperate Lucy taking a page from her favorite Johnny Depp movie, Gilbert Grape, and setting the whole house on fire. She feels there is no other alternative. While this story was exceptionally creative and very well-written, it was also very difficult to read--to keep reading.

There were several times where I almost put the book down, unable to stomach the gravity of what Lucy was going through. In the end, I think the only thing that got me through was the same sort of morbid curiosity one gets when driving past a horrific accident on the roadway. You can't not gawk. I couldn't not finish the book.

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Still, I predict this one will win awards. I would like to stress that this book is NOT for younger readers. Those with a weak stomach who become grossed out easily may want to pick up something lighter. Feb 21, Agatha rated it did not like it. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.

To view it, click here. Young adult fiction about a girl whose mother is such an extreme hoarder, that she cannot ever invite any of her friends over. But wait, it gets better: Feb 03, J. Phillipps rated it it was amazing. I loved this book. Dirty Little Secrets tells the story of how Lucy, a high school junior, hides the family's hoarding secret from her friends, neighbors, and the "normal" world.

It has a great hook. We know in the first line that Lucy has a secret. Omololu doesn't lead the reader on for too long, and we find out the secret quickly. Then it's all about what Lucy has to go through to keep the secret hidden. I was impressed by the control of the pace. And I like a good pace. I can't stand books I loved this book. I can't stand books that spend two pages describing a room. Things move along quickly, and just as Lucy's starts to get a handle on one issue, another one pops up demanding her attention.

But the story had it's quiet moments too - moments when we'd see another side of Lucy's life - good and bad. There is a nice little romance cooking - I like a good romance - but it wasn't the main focus of the plot. I liked Lucy from page 1. She was smart and kind - but flawed - and she went through a gamut of emotions as she lied and schemed to keep her secret hidden.

For me, it was a fun read, an emotional read, and a very satisfying story well told. Dec 31, Kathy rated it really liked it Shelves: Dirty Little Secrets made me watch an episode of Hoaders just to see what a house like this might really be like. I've known "cluttery" people and my house is often messy but seeing what life for a hoarder and their children is like was eye-opening.

I may not be a hoarder but it wasn't hard to find several bags of items to giveaway. This book is heartbreaking but was really interesting to read. Watching Lucy attempt to clean up and sort Yikes. Watching Lucy attempt to clean up and sort through years of accumulated junk while sharing the secret story of her life made for a very interesting story. I'm not sure if a teenager would enjoy this book or not but I found it intriguing. Clean ironic since the subject matter is filthy Source: Jan 18, Khornberger rated it really liked it.

We have another book which falls under the category of shock title. It is, however, very appropriately named.

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Lucy is the youngest child of a hoarder. She is now living alone with her mother and has suffered the consequences for all of life that she can remember. She has had to forgo friends coming over, sleepovers, etc. Once, when Lucy was caught unaware, a friend entered her house and her reaction was to publicly humiliate Lucy. Lucy is now sixteen and works carefully to keep her few friends a We have another book which falls under the category of shock title.

Lucy is now sixteen and works carefully to keep her few friends away from her house. She returns home to a big surprise; her mom is dead under a stack of magazines and newspapers that fall upon her. Lucy spends much of the novel trying to cover up any evidence of hoarding so that the paramedics do not see the home and have the media get wind of the situation. At the beginning of the novel, the writing was somewhat basic as Lucy was with her friends the author is not the caliber of Sarah Dessen but teenagers will most likely forgive her and continue reading.

As soon as the author charts familiar territory hoarding - because she works with hoarders and children of hoarders the novel becomes really interesting and unique enough to read and not want to set down. Much of the novel covers the emotional aspects that a child of a hoarder encounters and is really interesting and well done. This is a good novel for teenagers to begin to understand the emotional impact various illnesses have upon individuals. View all 7 comments. Jan 15, E. Anderson rated it really liked it. I'll admit it -- I'm obsessed with the show Hoarders. I think part of me is always afraid that my pack-ratty-ness make me susceptible to that extreme.

Omololu gave me a real look at what it's like to grow up in a hoarding home. Lucy is a typical teen in most ways -- she goes to school, she has a best friend, she likes music and coffee I'll admit it -- I'm obsessed with the show Hoarders. Lucy is a typical teen in most ways -- she goes to school, she has a best friend, she likes music and coffee and has a crush on a boy. But what her friends don't know is that her house is full of stuff -- stuff that her mom has collected over years and years and refuses to throw away.

Her older brother and sister have both grown up and gone away, leaving Lucy alone with her mom, who has let the house get so bad that there is no longer hot water, let alone the smells coming from the kitchen. When Lucy comes home one day to find that the unthinkable has happened, she begins a mad dash to try and clean up the mess that her mother has spent years building before anyone can see what her life is really like.

While I felt the ending came to quickly sequel, please! Yes, I just invoked The Judy. Go find your local indie and pick up a copy ASAP. Oct 28, Melanie Goodman added it. It will take your heart and stomach on a journey for which neither could be adequately prepared. Dirty Little Secrets is an astonishing debut novel that paints the most realistic fictional portrait of hoarding I have ever seen. I rediscovered my love for fiction, and especially YA lit, a few years ago as a Psychology student. I had created an independent-study course for myself in which I was examining the portrayal of suicide in literature and film.

Throughout the process, I discovered that art can tell us just as much about the human mind as science, if not more. Dirty Little Secrets proves this to be true. If you want to understand the psychopathology of a hoarder and the impact it has on her family, I would argue that reading this book will tell you far more than the DSM.

Beyond the horrifyingly accurate representation of obsessive-compulsive hoarding, Omololu also manages to build a heart-wrenching story about friendship and love. Each of the minor characters felt just as three-dimensional as the main ones. May 05, Diane Ferbrache rated it liked it Shelves: She is careful making friends and never invites them into her house. In fact, no one except close family members is allowed inside. This is an interesting well written, suspense filled book. When she realizes that she cannot clean up in a timely manner, she burns the house down.

This ending is shocking and certainly questionable. There is no thought or consideration given to the consequences of these actions. Sep 20, Jennifer Wardrip rated it really liked it Shelves: Reviewed by Andrea for TeensReadToo. Omololu tells the story of sixteen-year-old Lucy's dirty secret - literally.

Lucy grew up in a house with a mother who was a hoarder. And she's had to keep it a secret because no one would understand the piles of trash in her house. She finally feels that she might have a chance at a "normal" life and even has a best friend and a boyfriend. But when something happens to threaten that, Lucy must make a decision that will change h Reviewed by Andrea for TeensReadToo. But when something happens to threaten that, Lucy must make a decision that will change her life forever. This story broke my heart. I had never heard of hoarders before. I can't imagine growing up in that environment.

It made me wonder if any of my students live like that. I'm not sure there is a way to know, unless the child tells you. I felt so bad for Lucy. All she wants is a normal teenage life. I could feel the stress and panic she was in while she was trying to clean up the house so that she could call an ambulance to come get her mom.

And the ending shocked me. I definitely didn't see it coming and it makes me wonder what happened to Lucy after the end of the story. This was definitely a sad but thought-provoking read, and one I highly recommend! Sep 27, Danya rated it liked it Shelves: Most of my Psychtember reviews will be formatted differently than my standard reviews, to reflect the mental health theme. I've structured things as though the book is the patient and I'm giving it an assessment. Each axis is an aspect of the book that I'll give my thoughts on characters, plot, etc. Then I may list some other books that this one "shares symptoms with" i.

The rating still reflects my overall view of the book, using my standard rating system. Characters Lucy's a sympathetic narrator with a lot of admirable qualities: But she's also obviously suffering from the effects of her mom's hoarding, paying the price with a limited social life and low self-esteem not to mention the house situation itself, which is a whole separate issue.

We're shown how much Lucy fears the stigma of living in such a house — she was called "Garbage Girl" and bullied before she transferred schools — and she must keep everyone at a distance. I don't blame her for feeling ashamed; I'm sure I would feel sick, mortified and stifled living the way she does. She has a pretty poor relationship with her mother, not surprisingly. I think I would have felt sympathy for the mother if in every way, except for the hoarding, she was a wonderful mom She's always yelling at Lucy and blaming her for everything, spending all of her kindness on her patients and treating her family like crap.

Since it's told from Lucy's perspective, I admit I couldn't feel a lot of sympathy for her mom, although I did feel a little sorry for her at one point when she starts crying, and it seems like she does get really stressed about her job. It's sad that she doesn't have a better relationship with her daughter, but I suspect that it's due to more than just the hoarding, since the mom seems to have other issues.

Dirty Little Secrets

The romance is cute — I really liked Josh, since he's so obviously into Lucy the coffee shop scene is adorable! His mom has problems too, which helped Lucy realize that she wasn't the only one with parents who have problems, but also that her mom's hoarding is different from more common disorders like an addiction. I liked Lucy's brother Phil and I wish she'd opened up to him, because he understood what it was like to live that way; it's a shame that he wasn't there for her.

As a story, though, it doesn't really work, because it doesn't have much of a plot. There are basically two major plot points one at the beginning, one at the end and the middle is all Lucy cleaning the house. We get flashbacks about the mom, Lucy's siblings, and what it was like living in this house, but it's very slow and lacks momentum. The fact that Lucy has a deadline helps a little, but seriously, she spends most of the book cleaning. If you are the kind of person who loves to have a huge mess to clean up, and that makes you happy, then you will love this book, because you can clean vicariously through Lucy.

There are a few gross scenes in here, so if maggots and the like make you squeamish, you might want to be aware of that before reading this one. I appreciated that Lucy took initiative, first with trying to clean the house up, and then with the final action she took to try to free herself although I don't necessarily agree with what she did, so I ended up feeling kind of mixed about this choice.

The ending was very abrupt, and I was left feeling somewhat dissatisfied; I wanted more resolution with Josh and Kaylee, Lucy's siblings' reaction, and just a glimpse of Lucy's future generally. Writing Style Some of the descriptions in here are quite appallingly disgusting which they should be, given that stuff is going bad , so the author does a good job with the grossing-out-the-reader side of things. Psychological Accuracy This is a very realistic portrayal of a girl who has lived for years with a mom who's a hoarder in a house that is completely suffocating her with stuff.

It's gotten to the point where things are molding and it's unlivable, really. There's a lot to do with the stigma of hoarding in here, and since stigma is a very important aspect of mental health I was pleased to see that brought in. It's called writing out of character or context. That is the fear that I have in coming out of the closet with my being semi-Dipper. Have I broken that golden rule? Yes, Shippers have broken that golden rule too. The point I'm trying to make is that both Shippers and Dippers started off on the same foot.

They both saw something out of nothing. They saw two attractive characters of opposite sex in extreme circumstance, who of which, also have excellent on-screen chemistry. As I look at the facts now. Being both a Dipper and a Shipper is at best, on the line. They are not with context, nor without. It is sometimes the idea that moves an author- the very potential that drives them. Being a Shipper is more accepted because it has seven years on the rival. If these two aspects were introduced at the same time, I can assure you they would be on equal ground.

Shippers I'm sure do now rejoice in their newfound freedom of "I told you so", but being a Dipper is not a lie. Retrieved from " https: