Content Warning: This section discusses childhood sexual assault and rape, ableism, and death.

Secrets are an important motif that helps to explain and enforce one of the themes within the novel, The Complexities of Family. Secrets play a significant role in shaping the characters and their relationships to one another, as well as reflecting the social issues they may face on a wider scale. Secrets are woven throughout the novel, and they serve to reveal harmful power dynamics, personal struggles, and their respective consequences.

Leila grows up in a home filled with secrets. From the moment of her birth, in which she is taken from her biological mother and given to her aunt to raise, truths are kept from her. Leila’s realization that her aunt is actually her mother signifies an important moment in her character development and shapes the way that she understands love in her future relationships. As a child, Leila is raped and sexually abused by her uncle, who convinces her to keep his actions a secret from the rest of her family. When Leila reveals to her family that she has been impregnated by her uncle, her father decides to keep this fact a secret from everyone else in the town, deciding to deal with the consequences within the family; Leila comes to realize that her father will always support her uncle over her and that he cares more about the opinions of their peers than the abuse she has endured.