Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - No One Can Know

If Kate Alice Marshall writes a book, I will be reading it.

No One Can Know follows three sisters who return to their childhood home-the place where their parents were murdered and where they promised each other “no one can know”. The novel jumps between past and present from each sisters POV to trace the evens of what really happened that night. With a town that blames the sisters for the death, Marshall adds plenty of twists that keep you second guessing the truth. Although the book is based on a gruesome murder, it follows the larger issue of child abuse and it’s affects.

Interesting, quick ready to keep you entertained.

I suggest reading the CW before jumping in.

Content Warnings

depmythmoon's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

“You lose a dream and it starts to hurt to remember you ever had it.”

This book takes what would you do for the ones you love to a whole new level.

The story was told via a then and now timeline (which I used an unfortunate number of tabs to annotate), and it was interesting to slowly figure out who committed the 2 murders. I will say, the author does keep the reader waiting and questioning things until the very end. Too many times throughout the book, I found myself throwing out wild accusations between the sisters and others to the point I gave up trying to see where this book was going. The reveal ended up being both expected and unexpected in a way that left me feeling bested. I like it.

Ms. Marshall, the author, did a great job at creating characters that were layered and complicated. Being able to see how each layer was revealed as the story went on was enjoyable, and it made me feel like I didn’t really know any of them in a way that worked. It’s interesting to see how the sisters’ personalities shifted from then compared to now. It’s almost like they adopted each others personalities as a way to cope and rebrand themselves after their parents’ deaths. The parents… now they were just terrible and sick in such a careful way that I found myself disgusted with them at times… or pretty much every time they were mentioned. The abuse they put these girls through is something no one should have to experience, and it makes sense how the girls ended up the way they are. It leaves the reader wondering whether or not their death was for the best. I’m not one to judge whether or not someone deserves life or not… but I’ll say that the world did not lose anything with their deaths; I’ll be honest.

What did kind of frustrate me was how some questions remained unanswered to the very end. They’re not truly focused on and don’t impact the main plot that’s being told much, but I would have liked to know the answers regardless. The father had some deeper layers than being a terrible father, and I would have liked to know more about the secrets he was keeping. Also, the development between Emma and Gabriel didn’t feel fully developed as a subplot. They have a complicated past, sure, but how they move forward given this past felt a little… off.

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tufriel's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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nika_nix's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.5

This is insanely readable and the sisters keeping secrets no matter what was really interesting to read about. I devoured this book and even though there wasn't anything new and unique about this thriller, I think it was done so well and I really enjoyed both the past and the present storyline, it kept me at the edge of my seat the entire time. Kate Alice Marshall is becoming one of my new favorite thriller authors and I'm so here for it!

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hanj12's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

3.5/5 ⭐️

First off, I want to preface this by acknowledging that I won an ARC of this book from a Goodreads giveaway, which I am very appreciative of.

Please read the content warnings before reading this book.

Reading this book took a little bit to get into for me. And that could be for a multitude of reasons. First off, I am a slow reader. Second, I am a mood reader. If something doesn’t peak my interest within 50 pages at any given moment, I put it down until I feel like reading it again. This happened here. Once I picked it back up, I went through it pretty quickly. But I can still acknowledge that this is not my favorite Kate Alice Marshall book I have read. That title would go to These Fleeting Shadows.

However, if you look for any of these following aspects in your books I would say give it a try.

- Multiple narrators
- Unreliable narrators
- Twists and turns that make you wonder until the last second
- Contemporary mysteries
- Murder Mysteries

I already know the next person I am letting read this book. I know it will be right up her alley.

Content Warnings

melissatrew's review against another edition

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dark sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

”Who am I? I am a secret, she thinks, every part of me concealed. Someday she will show them who she truly is.”

No one can know, and I still don’t.

Content Warnings

laurrelise's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-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

3.5

This book had way too much happen at the end. I felt that there were way too many false leads and unnecessary twists. I certainly didn’t know what was going to happen at any given moment, but not in a good way. Everything was “resolved” very quickly and left me not even knowing exactly what happened. I had to read the last chapter twice just to make sure I had the right facts in order. I didn’t particularly care about or like any of the characters.

That being said, this book was still okay. I probably wouldn’t recommend it to anyone I know, but it was not a total waste of my time.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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kylieqrada's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Kate Alice Marshall really writes the perfect thrillers for me. The trope combos and writing style are exactly what I'm looking for in the genre. I didn't love this one quite as much as What Lies in the Woods, but I still ate it up.

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