What My Mother Doesn't Know

In her first book, the autobiographical Stop Pretending, Sones included some poems about her first love. She recalls, ‘I had such a good time writing about those feelings of overwhelming passion that I knew I wanted to delve into them more deeply.’ This is what she has set out to achieve in the fictional What My Mother Doesn’t Know. The story charts Sophie’s emotional journey towards an epiphany – when she becomes conscious of a distinction between love and lust.

Sones’ verse form produces some poetic moments where the fusion of form and content works extremely well; however, I felt this was inconsistent. Sophie’s wisdom and reflective capacity is remarkable rather than typical of most 15-year-olds but perhaps that is the point.