Want to Know a Secret?

Julie is a point-of-view character and the primary protagonist in the novel. She is April’s neighbor and the person that April considers to be her best friend. She has a husband, Keith, and two sons, Tristan and Leo. She used to be a prosecutor for the District Attorney’s office in Manhattan, but she quit her job when she married Keith and moved to the suburbs. She is strict, authoritative, and organized when it comes to the neighborhood Homeowner’s Association and her role as president of the local school PTA.

Despite being the novel’s protagonist, Julie also takes on an antagonist role in the text and functions as a foil to April. She becomes obsessed with harassing April, attempting to make her pay for killing Courtney, and putting her mom in a care facility. She sends her threatening text messages, ruins her social status, and attempts to get April’s husband to leave her when April cheats on him. Despite this, Julie is seen as the hero in the story, as her actions lead to April’s arrest and incarceration.

Julie is a dynamic character who changes throughout the text, as she finally acknowledges that she is unhappy in her marriage and the suburbs. When she first discovers that Keith is cheating on her, she is entirely unphased. She notes how it has happened before and then texts the woman back and does not even bring it up to Keith. She also laments the fact that, after she quits her job, her entire life revolves around the other women in the community and their gossip. However, after she uncovers the truth about April and gets her arrested, she chooses to leave her husband and her life in the suburbs. At the end of the novel, she plans to sell her house and move back to Manhattan with her children, ultimately to find work again as a prosecutor.

Maria is April and Julie’s new neighbor that moves in at the beginning of the text. April describes her as “a woman in her early thirties with olive skin and dark brown hair,” with “a plain face” but dimples that “give her a sweet, friendly appearance” (20). She is married to Sean and raises her stepson, Owen, after Owen’s mother died of breast cancer shortly after he was born. Unlike most of the women in her new community, Maria is not a stay-at-home mom; she has a job working as the manager of the clothing store Helena’s.

Throughout much of the novel, Maria is believed to be the person responsible for stalking and harassing April. McFadden uses the first-person point of view from April’s perspective to create suspicion surrounding Maria, her arrival in the community, and her actions toward April. However, she turns out to be a red herring, as she knows nothing of Julie’s burner phone or her actions throughout the text. Despite this, Maria is not entirely innocent. When she finds out that Carrie’s husband leaves her for the babysitter, Maria plants a necklace on her in the store and causes her to be arrested. These actions emphasize the duality that exists within everyone in the text, as there is some degree of culpability and “bad” within all of them, leaving not even Maria as entirely innocent.

Elliot is April’s husband and Bobby’s father. He is a lawyer, and the narrative describes him as one of the most handsome fathers in the neighborhood. He and April have a strained marriage, as he spends the entirety of nearly every day at work and has been unfaithful to her multiple times in the past. April is bothered by the fact that Elliot spends very little time with their son, Bobby, and largely neglects parenting him. Elliot has an affair with his secretary, Courtney, which leads to April killing her after she discovers it. He then impregnates his new secretary, Brianna. Despite this, he is insistent that he wants to remain with April, doing everything he can to repair their marriage. Although this is initially perceived as his desire to keep his marriage intact, the narrative also implies that he is afraid of April, knowing that she was responsible for Courtney’s death.

April and Elliot’s lifestyle supports the theme of Public Appearance Versus Private Persona. Through April’s perspective, the reader is led to believe that Elliot is a successful lawyer and that his family is wealthy. Although April acknowledges that they cannot afford some of the things she wants, she nonetheless gives the impression that they have more than enough money. She also strives to project the image that they have a happy marriage, doing her best to hide Elliot’s affairs as well as her own. However, through Julie’s perspective, the narrative reveals that Elliot has not found as much success as he wanted as a lawyer. After his affair with Courtney and her death, the partners at his firm refused to promote him, preventing him from advancing within his law firm. Despite this, Elliot and April still strive to project the appearance of happiness and success, keeping their marriage together even as they become unhappy.

Sean is Maria’s husband and Owen’s father. He is described as strong and handsome, as both April and Julie acknowledge their physical attraction to him. April also discusses how good of a father he is, as he constantly spends time with Owen and even allows Bobby to join them when they play soccer. Additionally, unlike most of the fathers in the community, he expresses his desire to become involved in Owen’s school and the PTA. He started and runs his own contracting business, which led to his financial success.

Sean serves as a foil to the other men in the community, specifically Elliot. He is wealthy through physical labor and his blue-collar job, unlike their careers as attorneys and corporate managers. His desire to go to the PTA meeting and his interest in Owen’s soccer shocks both April and Julie, as it is so atypical of the men in their community. This contrast serves to emphasize the emptiness of the suburban community that is the setting for the novel. Most of the families there lack any true interest in their neighborhood or even their children’s lives, instead doing what is expected of them as good housewives and fathers who provide for their families.