Keeping You a Secret by Julie Anne Peters

After that the writer finds self-acknowledgement, escaping blood family, and then coming out as the negotiation of coming out process. By using close reading method, the writer of this study finds out many things such as identity confusion, lover’s trauma, and heteronormativity in school, homophobic mother become the factors that prevent Holland to come out as a lesbian.

Sedgwick and Coming Out Process by Robert A. Study tries to analyze the factors that prevent Holland to come out as a lesbian and Holland’s negotiation of coming out by using The Epistemology of the Closet theory by Eve K.

Holland discovers herself as a lesbian and experience homophobic attitude addressed to her. Ages 14-up.This study elaborates the complexity of coming out process trough the character of a high school teenager named Holland Jaeger as the main character in the novel entitled Keeping You a Secret by Julie Anne Peters.

Readers will appreciate Holland's new ability to live free of others' expectations-and they may learn a great deal about the spectrum of reactions a teen can face in coming out-but the messages here seem to take precedence over plot. Secondary story lines, such as Holland's abrupt discovery of her artistic ability, and her budding friendship with Faith, whom she originally judged harshly, feel contrived. Holland's adjustment to her new sexuality after she first kisses Cece seems too sudden, and while Peters foreshadows her mother's intolerance in some ways (she throws out a T-shirt belonging to Holland's goth stepsister, Faith), her reaction when Holland confesses comes across as extreme. Holland is thankful she 'risked change' despite the serious consequences: not only does her mother throw her out of the house, but Cece is keeping something from her. The instant spark between them leads to flirtation, then to an intense relationship.

Holland is juggling a tough school schedule, responsibilities as student council president, college applications, a serious boyfriend and a meddling mom when open lesbian Cece transfers to her school. Peters ( Define 'Normal') raises important points about the ramifications of coming out, but covers so much territory that her plotting suffers. When popular high school senior Holland discovers that 'the man of her dreams is a girl,' she faces homophobia at school and, most painfully, at home.