"The Woods" is a suspense fiction written by American novelist Harlan Coben. It is a novel which talks about keeping secrets.
Every character in "The Woods" keeps one or more secrets for certain purposes. For example, the main character- Paul, who is a prosecutor that is responsible for crime investigation. However, Paul hid an important clue of a two dead and two missing case to protect his beloved girlfriend, even his sister was one of the missing people. In addition, a husband in the story killed his wife secretly and peached his mother in law's crime. All his behavior was only to protect his family. Moreover, a father concealed the truth of a homicide, and even killed someone for keeping the secret. The only reason that he committed a crime is to protect his daughter.
In the name of protecting someone, many people keep secrets, or even lie to each other. Nevertheless, this story makes me rethink that is it good to behave in this way or not? Keeping a secret is to defend the truth for our own, but it may be a deceit for others. A not well hidden secret is just like an uncovered deceit, which is more heartbreaking than the secret or deceit itself, for it makes people discover that how fragile and vulnerable their relationship is.
After reading "The Woods", I understand that every one in the world has his or hers own secrets, and it is impossible to make a no secret world. That being the case, the things we have to learn is to be considerate to each other's secret instead of trying to uncover it, and respect other's reason for keeping the secret.
