What do people do when they’re trapped in a bad situation with only one option to get out? Hope the book ends soon.

That’s not the answer Kimberla Lawson Roby’s protagonist looks for in A Deep Dark Secret, but it’s the one that will seem the best to the reader by the end of the novella.

A Deep Dark Secret centers on 12-year-old Jillian Maxwell, an All-American child living in a dream world — except, of course, for that titular secret. Jillian’s stepfather, Marcus, began molesting her when she was 5.

The story contained in A Deep Dark Secret’s pages is one that needs to be told, because it hardly ever is by victims who suffer in real life. Roby handles it well in some respects, giving the reader a glimpse into this horror while avoiding shock value for the sake of shock value.

But where the plot at times shines, the writing does not. In Jillian and her friends, Roby has created a cast of 12-year-olds who talk more like the 30-somethings of “Sex and the City.” Perhaps this can be attributed to children growing up at a far younger age than they should — especially in the face of molestation — but Roby’s characters come off more as 30-year-olds trying to play 12, not the other way around.

The prose of the book, on the other hand, appears the exact opposite. The third-person narration throughout reads more like the voice of a 12-year-old than the dialogue does, especially with casual references to things like how much the protagonist loves “That’s So Raven.” The juxtaposition of the two — an adult’s dialogue and a child’s prose — makes for a stunted read, when the two should be in opposite roles.

Even the plot eventually turns sour. The events of this story probably would not have held up for the length of a novel, so Roby made a good decision in keeping it brief. However, it seems like it’s still too long. A Deep Dark Secret reads like a short story that has overstepped its word count.

Jillian spends most of the novella trying to think of ways out of her dire situation, like killing herself or telling her mother or grandparents. However, she always resigns herself to her fate, whether through her stepfather’s threats or outside pressures. While this is certainly a good example of the victim/aggressor dynamic at play in such situations, Roby’s prose does not sustain it all that well. As Jillian accepts her plight over and over again, the story drags on, and becomes too repetitive.

Conversely, it isn’t until the last page of the penultimate chapter that the novella reaches its climax, which happens in far too short of a time to truly complete the tale. After that, in the final chapter and epilogue, the story is wrapped quickly and tidily, neater than even the corniest “very special” episode of “Degrassi: The Next Generation.” Everything in the end of the book happens too fast, especially when compared with the plodding narrative that marks the rest.

While the story told in A Deep Dark Secret may be a worthwhile one, and Roby’s personal remarks at the end of the book do those who suffer such trauma a good service, the narrative itself doesn’t do the complex situation justice, and it makes for an agonizing read.