Book Review: The Secret Diary of Helen Blackstone
Book: The Secret Diary of Helen Blackstone (Prequel to the Secrets of Redemption series)
Author: Michele Pariza Wacek
Pages: 76
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
This novella takes place in 1929, the year that my grandmother was born, so it made visualizing the setting a bit difficult. To be honest, history was always my least liked subject in school and often I will pass over books if the story takes place any earlier than the 1970s. However, I decided to read this book for 3 reasons:
I’m new to all the literary terms and wasn’t sure what a novella really was.
The Kindle version was free and it’s hard for me to pass up free eBooks.
It’s the prequel to a 9 part book series and one of my reading challenges for 2024 is to complete two book series in their entirety. I decided that the Secrets of Redemption series would be my mystery/thriller series for 2024. I will speak more about my romance series choice in a future blog post.
I really enjoyed the diary entries within the story. I’m always a sucker for this in books because I’ve kept journals since the 4th grade. I feel like journals and diaries are the only place one is allowed complete freedom over their thoughts and the ability to truly express yourself.
The novella was well written even with my limited ability to visualize the time period. I read this at night after my daughter went to sleep and the “creep” factor was definitely there. I may have had to turn on a light and play jazz music in the background to ground me lol! If you ever watched Stephen King’s “Thinner” then you’ll know exactly where I’m coming from.
Another interesting point in the book was Helen’s relentless obligation to her family as a woman. Of course during the 1920’s this was to be expected but it really brought home just how ingrained this societal pressure still exists in 2024. It makes me wonder just how many more generations of women will suffer from this. I assume quite a bit more since it benefits those in power (a.k.a. men).
I only gave it 3 out of 5 stars because it lacked a “WOW” factor for me. There was nothing about it that encouraged me to recommend it to others. I also would have liked just a bit more background on James and Helen’s knowing of each other. I do look forward to reading the next book in the series, “It Began With a Lie,” and actually purchased the Kindle version for only 99 cents! Can’t wait to report back with an update!