Lindsay Smith’s SEKRET is a marvelous debut that skillfully fuses page-turning tension with hauntingly beautiful language in an unforgettable setting.
Set in Soviet-era Moscow and Berlin, SEKRET follows seventeen-year-old Yulia – forced to work for the KGB as part of an elite group of psychic teenage spies trying to prevent the Americans from gaining the upper hand in the space race. Only Yulia’s not convinced the Americans are truly the enemy. Smith infuses the novel with a sense of creeping unease and justified paranoia. Any misstep on Yulia’s part could mean her mother’s or her autistic little brother’s death. Her every move is monitored by armed KGB guards. Her friends can read her mind without her permission. Her love interest can literally invade her dreams.
Smith’s twisty plot is chock-full of surprises and shocking reveals. Who’s the real enemy? It’s hard to say, but she creates a terrifying villain in Yulia’s cruel handler, Rostov, who’s what’s known as a “scrubber†– his thoughts are surrounded by painful static and he can erase memories or control another’s mind at will. There’s a love interest – a certain scene that takes place in a secret room and involves a bootlegged Beatles album made me swoon– but can Yulia trust even Valentin? He is a boy who "cocks a smile on his face like a loaded gun" after all. (And that’s one of the many sentences I stopped to savor and reread. ) Soviet Russia has never seemed so frightening – or so fascinating.
Jessica Spotswood is the author of the two titles in the Cahill Witch Chronicles, Born Wicked and Star Cursed.