Reviews

Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus

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k_atherineg3's review against another edition

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3.0

sometimes a girl just needs a mediocre ya thriller to get out of a rereading phase yk

eponineeurydice's review against another edition

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3.0

Loow 3 stars. Dang... I really really hoped that I'd liked this. But most of the time, mysteries just aren't for me. Will that make me stop reading them? NOPE! Still, I wish that I'd liked this more, because the beginning was so promising and it had the potential to be so much more! But it ultimately fell flat for me and I wish it hadn't. Ah well! You can't win em all, and I'm honestly too exhausted to go into details, but I really just expected more from the plot twist but to me it felt like the most boring outcome! I don't know what it is about mysteries that rarely work for me, but I do hope that I get a higher rating from McManus eventually! (I doubt it a little bit lol.) LThe beggining was great and exciting, and then it just left me confused but not in a good way!

ali_miranda's review against another edition

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3.0

Actually a 3.5/5

All throughout the book, I was completely thrilled about what might happen, I must say. I liked it, yes. However, I don't reckon it's an actual good book in some of its terms.

Most of the characters are plain and have no development at all, being just simple stereotypes that, having read myself "One of us is lying", I believe the author loves. The geeky-ish, murder-lover girl, the popular homecoming queen, the badboy, the nerd and I could continue over and over for centuries. I could not really sympathize with any of them simply because they are shallow and simple (like my writing in English, sorry xD). Also, that "romance"??? Are you serious? There was not a single feeling between this two characters and every reader of this book knows?

The plot wasn't that good either. There are lots of questions that remain unanswered or are given a lame response. E. g.: why not cancel the homecoming dance from the beginning? Because:

" "I'd be happier if they cancelled homecoming altogether. Why give whoever is behind this more ammunition?"

"Well, the opposite of that argument is, why give them more power" "

Hell, no! They were literally threatening people with MURDER. A police officer wouldn't say that!

To end up with, I believe the author read too much review between her first book and this one and tried to solve some of the mistakes she was told. I've noticed this overall in terms of race and LGBT representation. Well, she messed it all up with minorities everywhere. Don't get me wrong, as a bisexual girl I obviously believe there should be representation in books (there is in real life, why not in literature?). The part when I come to disagree is when this representation is forced up just to give yourself a medal for being the most woke writer. It comes to a point where it is simply not realistic for an Asian bisexual girl to be friends with a Latino gay boy in a very small town. These two characters I'm talking about don't even play an important role in the plot. They're there just to meet a series of places for minorities, who are treated just like objects to make a book centered in white straight people more inclusive. Just, no please.

Altogether, I really enjoyed the book. It was fast-paced and really entertaining. I would recommend it to disconnect from reality for a while, but, if you are expecting that GREAT teen mystery story you were looking for, I must say this isn't your novel.

bribwriter's review against another edition

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2.0

(1.5)

I have beef with this book and let me tell you why.

While I LOVE mysteries and the YA genre, this just made me a lil angry. I thought this was an amalgamation of bad cliches and trying to sound like a book it’s not. There were SO many characters to remember which I don’t think works for a murder thriller whatever bc it’s the importance of each character that matters especially when plot twists are revealed.

I thought Ellory’s character was stale and trying to be Pip from AGGGTM and also a little bit of nancy drew and it didn’t hit. Ellory just likes criminal stuff and challenging her mind. she should not have been in this novel. I think Malcom - who is a clear character and who I adore - should have been an mc and mia also. She had personality and color and I adored her.

I had no idea the main characters were of hispanic descent (trust me if i’m wrong). I also thinkKaren was trying to put diversity in her novel and just sprinkled shit in there to make us say “oh, diverse” but this read so white so it didn’t even matter.

The reveal pissed me off bc I don’t think anything built to that. I don’t think it hit as it should have and the ending went so fast. SO FAST. The ending reveals are what makes it for me. Like this was such a cheap ass ending. So unbelievable.

Also, the last chapter? I think the book built up so much in regard to Sarah and NEVER saying her body was found so it gave hope just for that to not be the case? Cheap asf ending too & idk why Ellory didn’t tell Rodriguez? That would have given everyone fucking closure. She was just like mmm let me take this to the grave. Like for what??

The storyline about their ambiguous father was stupid. Hated that. Hated when they mentioned their mom bc it was such a weak plot line.

No point in them being twins bc why? He barely shows up in the novel anyway. It’s just Ellory & Malcolm. Also, this relationship was forced asf bc they had nothing in common.

I could go on and on. This was poorly paced and poorly done.

letslearnsum's review against another edition

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3.25

Another solid book from Karen! I wasn’t as invested in the characters this time but I wasn’t expecting the plot twist so it was still enjoyable overall