Paul Yee,
The Secret Keepers
Tradewind Books, 2011.

Rating: E

When the massive earthquake of 1906 hits San Francisco, fifteen-year-old Jackson Leong gets caught up in a world of ghosts and must solve the mysteries surrounding the hauntings to protect his family and friends. Although he has never told anyone, Jack has "yin-yang eyes" and he can see the ghosts of some of the earthquake victims, including his older brother Lincoln. The earthquake dislodged other spirits as well, and Jack must use his gift to help the ghost of a young woman in order to stop her from haunting his family’s nickelodeon and ruining the business.

Set in the rich landscape of San Francisco’s Chinatown in the early 1900s, the history and diverse culture of the Chinese-American population are vividly brought to life for the reader and are integral to the story. The characters are complex, believable and multilayered, and refuse to paint a stereotype of Chinese-Americans. Although the tense relationship between the Chinatown inhabitants and the rest of San Francisco is not the primary focus of the novel, Yee makes it clear that racism was very much a part of the lives of the Chinese-Americans and it is an undercurrent and constant threat in Jack’s world.

Overall, with The Secret Keepers, Yee has created another rich North American/Chinese ghost story to thrill his readers.

Thematic Links: American History; Chinese Immigrants in North America; Natural Disasters

Beth Wilcox
Vol. 17, number 1
October 2011

*Rating System:
E - Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
G - Good, even great at times, generally useful!
A - Average, all right, has its applications.
P - Problematic, puzzling, poorly presented.