You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.84 AVERAGE
3.84 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Omg best Karen McManus book I've read in a while, sped through it as it had me hooked. I didn't guess the killer but I was close. This felt refreshingly different enough from her others for me to be excited by it, and it really did have me on the edge of my seat at times.
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
⚠️⚠️HUGE SPOILERSSSSSS⚠️⚠️
MAJOR SPOILERSSSS
LIKE REALLY REALLY BIG SPOILERSSS
Not going to lie I was a little bit disappointed in this book, don't get me wrong it was good but it was as good as I expected it to be because her One of Us is Lying series is one of my favorite mystery series and I was hoping for something like that. Let me start with Brynn; she is a interesting character. It didn't seem believable why a girl would immediately start talking normally again to a guy that she thought hated her after 4 years of not seeing each other. Like would anyone in their right mind actually do that. It doesn't really make sense to me. And Tripp always felt so out of it. Like he was always so disinterested in there conversations anyways, like girl, stop talking to him he clearly still doesn't like you and you don't like him either so what's happened here?? Also everything that Brynn says just comes out so cringy 😭😭. Since I listened to this as an audiobook maybe it was just Tripps voice actor that made everything she said sound so cringy but I don't know it was just not doing it for me. Moving on to the plot twists and stuff. I can see how Mason would be a great person for the reader to find was the one who was destroying all the Mr.Larkin pictures but it seemed a little too out of place. He only made a few appearances throughout the book which were very minor and he seemed like a very side character. He could've literally been just a random character added in for the sake of diversity which his character did feel like. The only time he really made an appearance that kinda foreshadowed was at the school assembly in the beginning of the book when he went pale at the sight of his own doing 🤦🏾♀️. Anyways, yea, I feel like the author just made him the person to be the big plot twist because he was just so random. And it didn't even feel crazy that Charlotte was the one who killed Mr.Larkin because it was written in the epilogue. Like we are supposed to at the falling action why are we still figuring out who the murderer is?? 😑. It was really underwhelming as well and I wish there was the moment where Brynn was looking through some documents or something and she realized that she missed some small detail that led her to Charlotte being the murder and it was super suspenseful and all. Ok but I did like the rest of the book, the chemistry between Tripp and Brynn was okay and how Charlotte and Shane kept Tripp with them so that he would never tell their secret and let him waste himself was good too to find that out. Overall, pretty disappointed in this book but I am still willing to read her other books because I have some hope for those.
MAJOR SPOILERSSSS
LIKE REALLY REALLY BIG SPOILERSSS
Not going to lie I was a little bit disappointed in this book, don't get me wrong it was good but it was as good as I expected it to be because her One of Us is Lying series is one of my favorite mystery series and I was hoping for something like that. Let me start with Brynn; she is a interesting character. It didn't seem believable why a girl would immediately start talking normally again to a guy that she thought hated her after 4 years of not seeing each other. Like would anyone in their right mind actually do that. It doesn't really make sense to me. And Tripp always felt so out of it. Like he was always so disinterested in there conversations anyways, like girl, stop talking to him he clearly still doesn't like you and you don't like him either so what's happened here?? Also everything that Brynn says just comes out so cringy 😭😭. Since I listened to this as an audiobook maybe it was just Tripps voice actor that made everything she said sound so cringy but I don't know it was just not doing it for me. Moving on to the plot twists and stuff. I can see how Mason would be a great person for the reader to find was the one who was destroying all the Mr.Larkin pictures but it seemed a little too out of place. He only made a few appearances throughout the book which were very minor and he seemed like a very side character. He could've literally been just a random character added in for the sake of diversity which his character did feel like. The only time he really made an appearance that kinda foreshadowed was at the school assembly in the beginning of the book when he went pale at the sight of his own doing 🤦🏾♀️. Anyways, yea, I feel like the author just made him the person to be the big plot twist because he was just so random. And it didn't even feel crazy that Charlotte was the one who killed Mr.Larkin because it was written in the epilogue. Like we are supposed to at the falling action why are we still figuring out who the murderer is?? 😑. It was really underwhelming as well and I wish there was the moment where Brynn was looking through some documents or something and she realized that she missed some small detail that led her to Charlotte being the murder and it was super suspenseful and all. Ok but I did like the rest of the book, the chemistry between Tripp and Brynn was okay and how Charlotte and Shane kept Tripp with them so that he would never tell their secret and let him waste himself was good too to find that out. Overall, pretty disappointed in this book but I am still willing to read her other books because I have some hope for those.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was really good! I didn’t expect the ending for sure. I’ll definitely read more by this author.
mysterious
medium-paced
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Read this book in two days. Karen McManus never fails to give me an interesting book that doesn’t ever become slow. Also the mentions of the other book characters and events were so cool!!!
I think the cover is misleading, as it did not depict the plot, but that's not the author's fault. I liked the split between now and four years ago, how things changed and what didn't. And the whole split between the scholarship kids and rich kids at this elite school - that was very Veronica Mars.
This review is lengthy and all over the place but I gotta get this out of my chest because I am DONE. I don’t know what kind of chokehold Karen McManus has on me, but the truth is I never truly liked any of her books and yet I always read the next one. The premises are always good and part of me just clings to the hope that one day she’ll deliver what she promises. After DNFing the tragedy that was You’ll Be The Death Of Me, I decided this would be my last shot and if it didn’t blow my socks off, I’d be done. Let’s just say I expected nothing and was still let down.
My first problem with this is how the characters are written. Not only do they talk in a way no one does in real life, they’re also supposed to be turning 18 in 2022, which means they were born in 2004, and yet they’re written like your middle aged mom trying to emulate a millenial. Responding to a text with GIFs? Your cellphone ringing out loud? That alone would send a gen-z teenager into a coma. Also none of them possessed enough of a personality to make me care.
Regarding the plot, it just followed the same formula as all her other books and therefore nothing about it surprised me. A couple different POVs, someone is hiding something, boy and girl without any chemistry have a romance that adds nothing to the plot, conflict, resolution, a bunch of twisty information dumped on you in the last 50 pages, the end. The sources of conflict are always unnecessary overreactions to something stupid, or nonsensical and avoidable miscommunications. It’s unrealistic and just overall lazy writing. Everything else is just kind of boring and predictable. “Okay but you’re generalizing all her books instead of reviewing this one in specific”, well that’s because I could copy paste this review under all of her books and it’d be true about all of them.
I usually try to not judge YA mysteries too harshly because I see them as a way to introduce younger readers to the genre, and they don’t need to be literary masterpieces to do that. That being said, I don’t think McManus can get away with it anymore. There are many YA mysteries out there that are still really good. Hers are not.
My first problem with this is how the characters are written. Not only do they talk in a way no one does in real life, they’re also supposed to be turning 18 in 2022, which means they were born in 2004, and yet they’re written like your middle aged mom trying to emulate a millenial. Responding to a text with GIFs? Your cellphone ringing out loud? That alone would send a gen-z teenager into a coma. Also none of them possessed enough of a personality to make me care.
Regarding the plot, it just followed the same formula as all her other books and therefore nothing about it surprised me. A couple different POVs, someone is hiding something, boy and girl without any chemistry have a romance that adds nothing to the plot, conflict, resolution, a bunch of twisty information dumped on you in the last 50 pages, the end. The sources of conflict are always unnecessary overreactions to something stupid, or nonsensical and avoidable miscommunications. It’s unrealistic and just overall lazy writing. Everything else is just kind of boring and predictable. “Okay but you’re generalizing all her books instead of reviewing this one in specific”, well that’s because I could copy paste this review under all of her books and it’d be true about all of them.
I usually try to not judge YA mysteries too harshly because I see them as a way to introduce younger readers to the genre, and they don’t need to be literary masterpieces to do that. That being said, I don’t think McManus can get away with it anymore. There are many YA mysteries out there that are still really good. Hers are not.
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Karen McManus is brilliant at using the exact same formula for every book - even so far as mentioning her other books in this one!
She writes a compelling story - one that you can't put down. But also one where there are TOO many red herrings and the answer felt a little Scooby-Doo with all the "No! It's this person!" "Nope! It's this one!" mask pulling off. I liked the story - hated the ending.
She writes a compelling story - one that you can't put down. But also one where there are TOO many red herrings and the answer felt a little Scooby-Doo with all the "No! It's this person!" "Nope! It's this one!" mask pulling off. I liked the story - hated the ending.