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Review of The Secret Journal of Brett Colton by Kay Lynn Mangum

The Secret Journal of Brett Colton is a great book, and to that I can attest. It’s about a fifteen-year-old girl and her family, but don’t think this is a slice of life book. You better get your tissues ready because it’s a tear-jerker.

Kathrine Anne Colton—most call her Kathy—has hated her brother Brett for a long time, ever since she can remember, really. The reason why? She doesn’t remember him. Brett died of an incurable case of leukemia that his family couldn’t’ve prevented when Kathy was two years old. She’s tired of everyone playing him up and acting as if he was a saint or hero, but on her sixteenth birthday Kathy’s mother gives her a letter from Brett—just for her. The letter leads her to a journal that Brett had written from the time he had started getting sick.

During, and before, all of this, Kathy is tutoring a sophomore jock named Jason West. Later she finds that Jason is a Mormon, which is the religion Brett had been looking into during his sickness.

In the book (no spoilers) Kathy finds strength in her brother’s journal and learns to enjoy being around her family more. She also learns about faith and a little love in the process.

I LOVED-LOVED-LOVED this book. Read it in a day, actually. I had to close the book a few times because I couldn’t see through my tears. This book has a meaningful message about faith and how you should keep it, not just in the best of times, but also in the worst too. It’s a great family read and a book club read as well. Get a box of tissues if you’re a crier, because you’re going to.

The entries of Brett’s journal were kind-of hard to read sometimes. You know at the time that he dies, but he doesn’t. Brett gets so happy about going into remission, but comes out of it the next year and goes downhill. The only thing that keeps him happy in the time that he can’t even get out of bed is Kathy—or as he calls her ‘Kitty’—at one and two years old. Brett says that Kitty was the only reason he held on for so long.
<p style=”text-align: center;”>The book also deals with the family struggling to cope in the entries of Brett’s journal, and in Kathy’s time she only makes peace with Sam—her older sister—because of the Journal.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
FIVE STARS!!!</p>