Disclaimer: I received this e-book from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.
Book: You’ll Be The Death of Me
Author: Karen M. McManus
Book Series: Standalone
Rating: 4/5
Diversity: Puerto Rican main character, Queer characters mentioned
Recommended For…: young adult readers, mystery, thriller
Publication Date: November 30, 2021
Genre: YA Mystery Thriller
Recommended Age: 16+ (violence, death, parental death mentioned, language, drugs, drug use mentioned, underage alcohol consumption, underage relationship with teacher/child grooming, and romance)
Explanation of CWs: There is violence and death and it’s central to the plot, as is drugs and drug usage. Most of the drugs mentioned are pills. There is a parental death mentioned briefly. There are some curse words in the book. There is scenes that show underage alcohol consumption. There are scenes that show an underage relationship with a teacher (senior in high school) and show the child being groomed. The relationship isn’t neatly resolved as well. There are some small romance scenes shown.
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pages: 336
Synopsis: Ivy, Mateo, and Cal used to be close. Now all they have in common is Carlton High and the beginning of a very bad day.
Type A Ivy lost a student council election to the class clown, and now she has to face the school, humiliated. Heartthrob Mateo is burned out–he’s been working two jobs since his family’s business failed. And outsider Cal just got stood up…. again.
So when Cal pulls into campus late for class and runs into Ivy and Mateo, it seems like the perfect opportunity to turn a bad day around. They’ll ditch and go into the city. Just the three of them, like old times. Except they’ve barely left the parking lot before they run out of things to say…
Until they spot another Carlton High student skipping school–and follow him to the scene of his own murder. In one chance move, their day turns from dull to deadly. And it’s about to get worse.
It turns out Ivy, Mateo, and Cal still have some things in common. They all have a connection to the dead kid. And they’re all hiding something.
Now they’re all wondering–could it be that their chance reconnection wasn’t by chance after all?
Review: I really liked this book for the most part! I thought that it was well plotted and it kept me guessing until the end. The book did well to develop the characters and I liked the use of the multiple POVs. It’s a fairly standard Karen McManus book, so if you liked the other ones then you’ll like this one as well. It follows the same formula layout and is entertaining til the end.
The only issue I had with the book is that the ending was fairly swift and confusing. The book didn’t resolve a few plot points as neatly as it could have, including the inappropriate relationship (read: child grooming).The ending was a bit messier than I would have liked it to be and didn’t feel as complete as the other books of hers did.
Verdict: It was good!
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