Hidden

One of the best novels I have read this year is Hidden by Helen Frost.  Not only does this novel contain a unique story, but also two different points of view, one structured like a poem, with fewer words and involving more thought, and the other written with detailed descriptions. Although Hidden is less than three hundred pages, Helen Frost did well in terms of keeping the reader focused on the main story. If this book was longer, I would have been easily bored.

The two main characters, Wren Abbott and Darra Manson, first meet in a rare way. The first chapter begins with eight-year old Wren waiting for her mother in the car and suddenly getting kidnapped by a stranger. At this point, the readers don’t know if the stranger is trying to steal the car, kidnap Wren, or both. Either way, it is revealed that she is taken to the garage of a stranger, who has a wife and child. As she overhears numerous conversations among them, Wren figures out that the stranger doesn’t know of her existence in the car and the wife strongly disagrees with him stealing cars. It is never told why the husband had stolen her mother’s car, but we know that taking Wren with him was accidental. As she tries to escape, she discovers that the daugher of this stranger, Darra Manson, is a similar age. She even has a feeling that Darra knows that she’s hiding somewhere. Remarkably, we figure out that Wren is right in the fourth chapter, written from Darra’s point of view.

Darra Manson had always loved her father although he would always ignore and hit her. She felt that the relationship between her parents was worsening by the day. As an innocent eight-year old girl, she didn’t understand why the same cars her father brought home would appear on the news. As she finds out that Wren is in the garage hiding somewhere, she decides to help her escape without her parents or Wren finding out. She does this by acting as if she’s giving food to her cat, but is actually feeding Wren. Even though she was young, Darra felt that whatever her father was doing was wrong. She was secretly helping the girl stuck in the garage mainly because she if she told someone about it, her father might get arrested. Things seem to go well until Wren finds a way to escape. The minute Darra finds out, the police take her father away and things get worse. Her mother divorces her father and takes Darra elsewhere.

There are two time periods in this novel. The first one is the week of the “kidnap” of Wren Abbott and the second takes place six years later at a summer camp. This would be extremely surprising and difficult for the two, but they try their best to hide from each other. However, just before the camp ends, Wren and Darra both believe that it’s time to talk about the incident after years of silence. It comes out that Wren had never told the police where Darra was because she knew that would ruin Darra’s life. The police had instead found the house and arrested Darra’s father. She had always hated Wren because she thought the police had been able to find her father because Wren had told them. The author never specifically explains why Darra’s father had stolen the car, but the readers realize that isn’t the main point of the story.

Reading Hidden, I had a chance to think if there is anyone in my life who I might have misunderstood. The two were courageous and mature in different ways. As the victim, Wren was brave to bring up the incident that happened to her eight years ago because it surely must have been a heavy subject. She must have had a therapist after the accident in order to make her trauma disappear. On the other hand, Darra was brave enough to talk about the subject and listen to everything Wren said because they were talking about her father. We all know that her father had done something wrong, but it would have been hard for Darra to face the fact that one of the most important people in her life was a criminal. It was fortunate that the two were able to dispel misunderstandings at the camp. Life must be much easier for both of them since their worst memory was now gone. Although I haven’t experienced anything as terrible as Wren did, it would be great to talk to someone I have misunderstood.