Megan E. Freeman’s debut novel in verse, Away, grips readers with dread and awe until the very last page. The novel is spectacular, following a young girl whose family neglects her. Readers can and should devour it in a single sitting. The suspense of the unknown threat and the desperate need to figure out what it is pull you in. It’s a book readers are unlikely to forget, so much so that they will happily consume all of Megan E. Freeman’s other works. This includes her young adult debut, The Secret to Belonging.
Unlike Away, The Secret to Belonging is not a survival story. Instead it is a young adult novel in verse packed with as much resonance and rawness as her debut. The book follows an unnamed teenager who escapes a fraught family situation and embarks on an exchange journey in Norway. What follows is a beautiful and unflinching story about the toll of addiction, the courage it takes to embark on a journey of self-discovery, and how self-preservation is often about finding a new place to belong.
We spoke to Megan E. Freeman about how she approached this release separately from her middle grade novels, how she tackled such difficult themes in novel in verse, and what she hopes readers take away from the book.
The Secret to Belonging is your young adult novel debut. Did your approach to writing this book differ from your middle grade novels?
I don’t actually think too much about category as I’m writing. I try to be true to the story that wants to be told. Later I consult with my agent and editor to confirm where it belongs in the market. And if anything, writing YA is slightly easier because I don’t have to take care of the reader in the same way. With middle grade, I’m always cognizant of young readers who might need certain topics handled with care. Knowing this book was for a slightly more mature audience, I felt free to let the story take me wherever it wanted to go.
Do you think the topics and themes that you tackle work especially well in the novel in verse format?
One of the things I love about human beings is that when ordinary language is insufficient to capture complex ideas, we turn to metaphor and figurative language. So when we come to a novel in verse, we are already comfortable with the tools of poetry, even if we aren’t always aware of using them. And at its most simple, verse is about distillation. We carve away the fat and muscle cushioning an idea to burrow down to the bones and the marrow. Challenging topics often have a lot of cushion around them, so writing in verse lends itself beautifully to excavating those complex ideas that ordinary language might feel inadequate to express.
You chose to tell this story in the second person. Readers never even learn the name of our narrator. But we learn so much about her throughout the course of the book. What’s one thing you hope readers learn from your protagonist’s story?
The choice to write in the second person “you” voice really came through a process of experimentation. I like to push the boundaries of my creative comfort zones, and I had written in both first- and third-person voice in other books. In early drafts of The Secret to Belonging, I played with first and second-person, but ultimately I liked second-person better, especially in present tense. It felt both intimate and distancing, and it forced the reader into a kind of empathetic alliance with the main character.
And as far as learning something goes, I don’t really have a specific agenda for any of my books, other than to hope the stories will resonate with readers and inspire them to keep reading. If someone finishes my books and can’t wait to go read another one, then I’m happy.
Since the poems in the book are so punchy and short, every detail is chosen with care. Is there anything you cut to tighten the story and establish the rhythm of the poems flow?
I didn’t cut any plot points or scenes, but the process of revising verse is necessarily about paring down and distilling every idea to its essence. Every word, punctuation mark, line break, and stanza is tested. Some lines or words are cut. Some are replaced with stronger words. Nothing is left unexamined and every single mark on the page has to justify itself it it’s going to remain.
What are some of your favorite novels in verse? Would you recommend them to readers who enjoyed The Secret to Belonging?
I always love and recommend Joy McCullough’s work, especially Blood, Water, Paint, and her new memoir-in-verse, Suffer a Witch. I also love Karen Hesse’s classic Out of the Dust, which was the first verse novel I ever read. Everything Elizabeth Acevedo writes is breathtaking. And I think readers who enjoy The Secret to Belonging will love Kaitlyn San Miguel’s forthcoming debut verse novel, Project Juni, which comes out in March 2027.
The Secret to Belonging is available now in hardcover, audiobook, and e-book.
Brianna Robinson is a book publicist and Sarah Lawrence College alum. She lives in New York with too many books and two enthusiastic dachshunds. You can find her on twitter @blrobins2.
