KEEP IT LIKE A SECRET

Close-knit siblings in small-town Ohio approach a crossroads when one turns 18.

For as long as Morgan, now nearly 13, can remember, he and big sister Claire have been inseparable. He’s been seeing less of her lately, though, since the friction between his restless, defiant sib and their mother has reached the point of screaming arguments and long absences. So, when she appears at his bedroom window one morning, days after a particularly violent fight, he seizes the chance to sneak out in hopes of persuading her to come home. Instead, they embark on a daylong odyssey that includes a trip down memory lane, visits to places that have become important to Claire (including the home of her girlfriend, Sasha), and affirmations of their long-established Sibling Code (which ensures they will keep no secrets, tell no lies, and always have each other’s back). Morgan comes to realize that Claire has been trying to prepare him for something unexpected. But along with winding up the suspense through significant flashbacks and encounters (plus, for comic relief, a long-promised, ill-fated driving lesson), Anderson offers nuanced explorations of a family with wide but perhaps in time healable cracks and of two young people whose distinct differences of outlook and personality are bridged by a powerful, loving bond. The siblings and their flawed but well-meaning parents are cued white; Sasha has “copper skin.”

An intensely felt tale of adolescents desperate for both stability and change.