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A review by mousmoulo
You'll Be the Death of Me by Karen M. McManus
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
disclaimer: this book was mandatory reading for a class. if it hadn't been, i would've dnf-ed it 1/4 of the way in, if i'd even picked it up at all. so overly negative review ahead, because i found the book genuinely insufferable and yet i didn't really have the option to stop reading, so i powered through it and now i'm unreasonably angry at it. sorry i guess?
pros: it was fast-paced and only a little over 300 pages so i got it over with pretty fast (thank god). some characters were tolerable towards the end. the purple pages are pretty.
cons... welp
in short: the plot was weak, the mystery (which was the most interesting thing about the book) was pushed to the background for the sake of the pettiest, most stupid teenage drama i've read in years, the build-up was hardly worth it, nothing made sense, nearly every single character was the worst human being, and the romance was boring and had no reason to be there at all except push the aforementioned teenage drama.
special shout-out: ivy, being a horrible person that is forgiven by everybody and somehow presented as a sort of hero in the end, has to be the worst character i've read in a book in a very long time. half the reason why it was so insufferable to read was her.
i read ‘two can keep a secret’ earlier this year and i found it okay, but i was right back then when i decided that mcmanus is just not for me (whoever said that reading one of her books is like you've basically read all of them was right). this was just painful to get through and i'm just SO glad it's over.
if you enjoy this author's books... go for it i guess? also if you're into drama. definitely if you're into drama.
there's some recency bias going on here because i was forced to read this against my will and it irritated me to hell and back (obviously lol). maybe at some point in the future i'll be able to think about this without wanting to throw punches, but until then here's a rant.
pros: it was fast-paced and only a little over 300 pages so i got it over with pretty fast (thank god). some characters were tolerable towards the end. the purple pages are pretty.
cons... welp
in short: the plot was weak, the mystery (which was the most interesting thing about the book) was pushed to the background for the sake of the pettiest, most stupid teenage drama i've read in years, the build-up was hardly worth it, nothing made sense, nearly every single character was the worst human being, and the romance was boring and had no reason to be there at all except push the aforementioned teenage drama.
special shout-out: ivy, being a horrible person that is forgiven by everybody and somehow presented as a sort of hero in the end, has to be the worst character i've read in a book in a very long time. half the reason why it was so insufferable to read was her.
i read ‘two can keep a secret’ earlier this year and i found it okay, but i was right back then when i decided that mcmanus is just not for me (whoever said that reading one of her books is like you've basically read all of them was right). this was just painful to get through and i'm just SO glad it's over.
if you enjoy this author's books... go for it i guess? also if you're into drama. definitely if you're into drama.
there's some recency bias going on here because i was forced to read this against my will and it irritated me to hell and back (obviously lol). maybe at some point in the future i'll be able to think about this without wanting to throw punches, but until then here's a rant.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, and Adult/minor relationship