Reviews tagging 'Death'

Such Charming Liars by Karen M. McManus

16 reviews

greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I guess when people are “tools,” all that matters is what they can do for you.

Karen McManus, the queen of young adult mysteries, is back with a mystery that is quite different from her other books. The whole plot isn’t wrapped around a murder. *gasp* Instead, we have an Ocean’s Eleven type book, which is really becoming my favorite type of mystery to read these days. 

Cast of Characters: 
  • Kat: a teenager who isn’t supposed to be following her mom’s last heist job but figured out a way to smuggle herself there regardless. 
  • Jamie: Kat’s mother who is a jewel thief but wants out. She agrees to do this last job and then she’s cleaning herself up.
  • Ross Sutherland: the billionaire who is having a birthday party. Scene of the jewel heist.
  • Luke: A con man who makes up sob stories about him and his “young” son to get money out of unsuspecting women. Has his romantic claws in Ross Sutherland’s daughter. Was married to Jamie for 48 hours.
  • Liam: Luke’s teenage son who hates everything about Luke but ends up at the birthday party of Ross Sutherland so he can meet the new woman his father is interested in.

All of these characters end up in the same location one weekend. When a member of the Sutherland family ends up dead, no one knows who to trust. Jamie is sick and Kat doesn’t know who she can trust and the only person she feels she can turn to is Liam. Can she trust him?

While this was different from McManus’ other mystery books, I did still enjoy it. As expected with McManus, there were plenty of twists and turns so I wasn’t sure how things were going to pan out. I personally also enjoyed there were only two POVs to keep track of - sometimes I can get lost when there’s more than three characters telling the story. For whatever reason in this story I couldn’t keep everyone’s names straight so I kept mixing up who was who. That definitely impacted my enjoyment of the book. I do think teenagers are going to enjoy this book!
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bookb1itch's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I read a review by a parent that talked about restricting access because of a graphic sex scene.  That scene didn't eventuate and I am happy not to 15+ this title.  this was up to McManus' usual standard and was a page-turning heist mystery.  Lots of fun with well-written characters.
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lea3141's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

   This is one of her better ones! I found it less predictable, but I'm sure some people saw the main villain coming, I didn't however. There were enough villains that it was hard to tell who was truly evil and who wasn't. 
   There was a diversity in sexuality, with one bi/pan character, and one gay main character. But no diversity in the race of the characters, who were all white.
    Overall, I found it enjoyable, though a bit darker than the author's other books. The MCs were likable but a lot of the lesser characters weren't. 


Narrator(s) Rating: 4.5 stars
   The narrators did an excellent job. They could have used a bit more vocal differences to characters for a 5-star rating. 
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creolelitbelle's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Kat and Liam are very entertaining, and I love Augustus interacting with their dynamic. For a while, pieces of the plans feel too convenient, but McManus ties it together in a believable way with the master reveal. The story leans almost too far into the trope of removing adults from the playing field. Without that removal, though, everything would happen too quickly and messes would not develop into the intricate excitement that overtakes Kat and Liam's lives. Learning at least partial fates of some players is great. I do wish the ending provided more than wonder at the fate of someone key to the whole puzzle and how Kat and Liam ultimately move on. They are teens who could be unclear on life anyway. 
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bella_cavicchi's review against another edition

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adventurous funny tense fast-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? No

4.0

Karen McManus writes, I read. Simple as that.
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