Dirty Little Secrets by C. J. Omololu

Everyone has secrets. Some are just bigger and dirtier than others.

When sixteen-year-old Lucy was in elementary school one of her friends found out her family’s secret and told the entire class. Lucy was humiliated and suffered the taunts and name calling by her classmates until her mother agreed to send her to a new school. Ever since then, Lucy has fought hard to keep anyone from finding out about her mother’s extreme hoarding. She never invites friends over for fear that will not want to be her friend anymore for living in a house that is cluttered from floor to ceiling with junk. She can barley move around due to the tall stacks of newspapers, piles of clothes and garbage strewn about. When her mother dies unexpectedly, Lucy must figure out a way to keep her living conditions private. There is no way she wants her friends, neighbors and especially the media to know her dirty little secret.

This is a timely book about a subject that is getting a lot of attention due the popular reality television shows “Hoarders” and ”Hoarding.” Readers will be immediately drawn into this story as they sympathize with Lucy and her drastic efforts to keep others from seeing how horrible her house is. Omololu’s descriptive writing helps you to easily imagine how awful the house must smell and how horrific the sight of mold and mountains of junk would look like. Dirty Little Secrets provides great insight into the issue of hoarding and how it affects families and is not one to be missed.