Book Blurb:
TWO CAN KEEP A SECRET by Karen McManus
Pub. Date: January 8, 2019
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Formats: Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook
Pages: 336
Echo Ridge is small-town America. Ellery's never been there, but she's heard all about it. Her aunt went missing there at age seventeen. And only five years ago, a homecoming queen put the town on the map when she was killed. Now Ellery has to move there to live with a grandmother she barely knows.
The town is picture-perfect, but it's hiding secrets. And before school even begins for Ellery, someone's declared open season on homecoming, promising to make it as dangerous as it was five years ago. Then, almost as if to prove it, another girl goes missing.
Ellery knows all about secrets. Her mother has them; her grandmother does too. And the longer she's in Echo Ridge, the clearer it becomes that everyone there is hiding something. The thing is, secrets are dangerous--and most people aren't good at keeping them. Which is why in Echo Ridge, it's safest to keep your secrets to yourself.
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My Review:
5 Out of 5 Stars
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Teen--
Ellery and her twin brother Ezra are forced to move to the small town of Echo Ridge for their senior year of high school, the same town their mother escaped and never wanted to return to. Now they are living with their estranged grandmother while their mother is in rehab, but it seems like there is a lot simmering under the surface of the town. Threats keep showing up, hinting that another girl will go missing, living up to the past- and Ellery could be in danger.
This, folks, is no sophomore slump book! I loved Two Can Keep A Secret, maybe even more than Karen's first book (sorry, One Of Us Was Lying was good, don't get me wrong!) but I was so wrapped up in the mystery and characters with Two Can Keep A Secret that I was not sure how to function in real life until I got to the end and unmasked the killer. I am pretty sure that YA mysteries are one of my favorite genres to read because the suspense, the realness of the crimes, the jacked up situations, the guessing of who is the correct suspect...basically everything about them appeals to me and Two Can Keep was another prime example of why this genre is the best. A town that has a murder-themed amusement park should be a dead (ha, you like that?) giveaway that something terrible lurks in town. As per the rule, this will be a pretty short review (for me- I do like to ramble so deal with it) because I do not want to slip and spill any detail and potentially be spoilery.
I should probably preface this by saying...I think about crime a lot. Like, an abnormal amount. I get that. It's sort of a problem. So you have to take what I say with a grain of salt, because I'm just this...naturally suspicious person, I guess.
Told through two narrators eyes, Ellery the new girl who has tons of dark family history in town, and Malcolm the outcast who tries to keep his head down and survive his family name. I loved Ellery's intense-crime-investigation-mind and how everyone could be a suspect in some crime to her! It was like watching those true crime shows but in fast forward, how she kept coming up with theories and motives for people, even when she was so off base it was interesting. Her upbringing, the unsolved/unspoken nature of her aunt's disappearance and her reading hobbies makes for a great basis for crime obsession- and geez, it doesn't hurt that the town has a murder theme park, I mean really who does that. Malcolm was such a sweet, kind character, yet I kept wondering if evil could be brewing under the surface (Ellery might have been rubbing off on me!). He kept finding himself in the middle of mess after mess and it make me start to question what he was really doing.
And yes, a clown museum is creepy- I don't care who is asking!
Karen does a fantastic job of presenting the reader with multiple options for suspects, keeping me on my toes and I love all the misdirection. I was 85% confident I knew who the killer was but I can honestly say that I was pleased to be wrong (now don't get my Mom started because she said she knew right from the beginning but doubted herself the whole way- and was yet still correct). So regardless of who you suspect, know that you will get a great mystery with tons of twists and surprising turns that will keep even the most astute mystery fan guessing (at least for motivations). I can't wait to see what messed up mystery Karen will provide for us next.
Author Bio:
As a kid I used to write books when I was supposed to be playing outside, and not much has changed. I'm a marketing and communications professional who also writes Young Adult contemporary and fantasy fiction in Cambridge, MA.
When not writing or working I love to travel, and along with my nine-year old son I've ridden horses in Colombia and bicycles through Paris. A member of SCBWI, I hold a bachelor’s degree in English from the College of the Holy Cross and a master’s degree in Journalism from Northeastern University. Which I have never, ever used professionally.
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1/1/2019- Lifestyle of Me- Review
1/2/2019- Paper Reader- Review
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Review tour provided by Rockstar Book Tours
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