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A review by jolietjane
Keep This to Yourself by Tom Ryan
4.0
A lot of thrillers tackle that subject of "what do you really know about the people from your town?" Your friends? Your neighbors? Who are they when nobody else is around to judge them? What secrets to they keep close to their hearts?
TLDR TROPES:
- Own voices queer thriller
- Who done it style
- Easy read
- Soft boy MC
- M/M romance
- tons of twists and turns.
Keep This to Yourself is a YA mystery thriller that takes place a year after an unknown serial killer has taken the lives of several people in a small town. Mac's close friend Connor was one of them. When Mac finds an old letter from his friend, he realizes that he may have been close to catching the killer before his death. Mac decides to pick up where Connor left off and uncover the identity of the killer.
I fell for the tricks of "Keep This to Yourself" a few times. Tom Ryan drops a ton of macguffins and some of them really did a number on me when I experienced this book- so right there, this is a great mystery. Its twisty, turny, and atmospheric, an adventure through a small town left damaged by a painful past.
The characters were all decent and defined if not a bit stereotypical- but I do think they existed primarily to drive home a mystery. There s a bit of romance as well, but the book mostly veers away from teen drama to focus very specifically on solving the mystery. If you like your teen thrillers more investigatory and less about the character drama, I think this is a great pick.
My single issue with Keep this to Yourself is that it takes a second to take off- there's a little bit of time taken at the beginning to establish a setting, and while it isn't inherently boring, I wasn't as interested in the day to day lives of Mac or his friends. Once we get past this though, the book really takes off and focuses on what it does best- being a spooky and intriguing mystery.
This is a great book for fans of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder and similar more mature-themed mature sleuth stories, and its a very quick read.
TLDR TROPES:
- Own voices queer thriller
- Who done it style
- Easy read
- Soft boy MC
- M/M romance
- tons of twists and turns.
Keep This to Yourself is a YA mystery thriller that takes place a year after an unknown serial killer has taken the lives of several people in a small town. Mac's close friend Connor was one of them. When Mac finds an old letter from his friend, he realizes that he may have been close to catching the killer before his death. Mac decides to pick up where Connor left off and uncover the identity of the killer.
I fell for the tricks of "Keep This to Yourself" a few times. Tom Ryan drops a ton of macguffins and some of them really did a number on me when I experienced this book- so right there, this is a great mystery. Its twisty, turny, and atmospheric, an adventure through a small town left damaged by a painful past.
The characters were all decent and defined if not a bit stereotypical- but I do think they existed primarily to drive home a mystery. There s a bit of romance as well, but the book mostly veers away from teen drama to focus very specifically on solving the mystery. If you like your teen thrillers more investigatory and less about the character drama, I think this is a great pick.
My single issue with Keep this to Yourself is that it takes a second to take off- there's a little bit of time taken at the beginning to establish a setting, and while it isn't inherently boring, I wasn't as interested in the day to day lives of Mac or his friends. Once we get past this though, the book really takes off and focuses on what it does best- being a spooky and intriguing mystery.
This is a great book for fans of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder and similar more mature-themed mature sleuth stories, and its a very quick read.