Hidden Truth: Familiar strengths and flaws

Hidden Truth by Dawn Cook

Hidden Truth (2002) is the second book in Dawn Cook’s TRUTH series. It picks up a few weeks after the events of First Truth (which you definitely need to read first) and mostly continues the same formula: a small cast, a secluded mountain setting, some very fuzzy magic, and — because it’s a YA story — the requisite love triangle.

I was hoping we’d finally get some new scenery in this novel, but nope — we’re still stuck in Bailic’s mountain hold. Bailic, a cartoonishly evil villain, is becoming increasingly unhinged as he desperately tries to teach Strell — the sweet piper and one of Alissa’s love interests — how to use magic so he can open the Book of Truth. Bailic plans to use its knowledge to raise an undead army and install himself as protector of the neighboring clans. (There has got to be an easier way to build your brand.)

The problem, of course, is that Strell isn’t the magician — Alissa is. She can read the book and feels inexorably drawn to it, but if Bailic finds out, he’ll force her to use it for his big world-domination scheme. While Alissa plays dumb, she secretly learns magic by listening to Strell’s lessons with Bailic, and she’s also being taught magic and history by the shapeshifter she calls Useless.

A new character is Warden Lodish, whose tragic backstory we learned in the previous book. He is now a revenant from the city of the aforementioned undead army. He has a mysterious connection to Alissa that we don’t yet understand. He’s also in love with her (of course), rounding out the triangle… (It occurs to me that “rounding out the triangle” isn’t a very effective metaphor, but you get the picture.) Alissa and Strell are in love, but they both know it’s doomed — she’s tied to the hold, and he can’t stay. Also: there’s a Pottery Scene. Ew.

Readers looking for a complex and interesting magic system won’t find it here. It feels vague, ungrounded, and hand-wavy. It’s full of terms like Field, Source, Resonance, Patterns, and Tracings, and there are nods to real physics concepts like light, mass, and energy, but it never coheres into anything with clear rules, logic, or structure. It’s difficult to tell how anything works or why certain outcomes occur.

The plot advances steadily. I appreciate that Cook has a plan unfolding over the series, but the foreshadowing is noticeable, making some of the plot twists easy to predict.

If you enjoyed First Truth, you’ll probably enjoy Hidden Truth, too. The tone, pacing, and characters are consistent, and the plot moves forward. I bought the entire series on Audible, so I’ll finish it. The audiobook is narrated by Marguerite Gavin, who reads with good pacing and clarity, though some of her male voices are a bit unpleasant — which is particularly unfortunate when most of the characters are male.