Wednesday, December 8, 2021

You'll Be the Death of Me

 

Ivy, Mateo, and Cal used to be close. Now all they have in common is Carlton High and the beginning of a very bad day. Type A Ivy lost a student council election to the class clown, and now she has to face the school, humiliated. Heartthrob Mateo is burned out from working two jobs since his family’s business failed. And outsider Cal just got stood up . . . again. 

 

So when the three unexpectedly run into each other, they decide to avoid their problems by ditching. Just the three of them, like old times. Except they’ve barely left the parking lot before they run out of things to say. . . 

 

. . . until they spot another Carlton High student skipping school—and follow him to the scene of his own murder. In one chance move, their day turns from dull to deadly. And it’s about to get worse. It turns out Ivy, Mateo, and Cal still have some things in common...like a connection to the dead kid. And they’re all hiding something. 

 

Could it be that their chance reconnection wasn’t by chance after all?


Book source ~ Tour
YA | Mystery
30 November 2021
330 Pages

My Rating ~ 4 bites


Ivy, Mateo, and Cal became fast friends in middle school when they skipped a lecture while on a class trip in Boston. After wandering around for several hours they returned to find no one had even missed them. WUT?! That is…appalling. But the incredibly lax attitude and irresponsibleness of the chaperones aren’t what this story is about. It’s about how, after their trio broke up and went their separate ways, they suddenly have aligned one day in their Senior year and decide to attempt a repeat of The Best Day Ever. Only, it doesn’t turn out to be. Best, that is. More like the Absolutely Worst Day Ever.


I’m still flabbergasted about how they took off during a field trip in middle school and no one even noticed! In any case, skipping a day as a Senior is much more appropriate. Except this particular day turns out to be a no good horribly bad day. When they see a classmate in Boston, who should be in school making an acceptance speech for Class President (that he won over Ivy), they decide to follow him and see what he’s up to. And what he was up to was no good that gets him murdered. Now, the friends are determined to find out what the hell happened and it’s a day of harring off to chase leads, avoiding authorities, and staying silent to everyone trying to find out where they are.


I’ll admit, it took me quite some time to unravel the mystery surrounding Boney’s death. In fact, I didn’t make a connection until just before the Big Reveal. Kudos to the author for keeping me chasing my tail. However, I just want to slap the three of them for running around playing detective when they should have just come clean to the police. But I do get why they didn’t and there’d be no story if they had. Still…slap slap slap to the backs of three heads. Finally, I didn’t like the ending. It was too…well, just too much to believe. And too lip curling. And convenient. But anyway, it’s still a pretty great read. If you like a good young adult twisty mystery then you should definitely give this one a go.




Karen M. McManus is a #1 New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling author of young adult thrillers. Her work, which includes the One of Us Is Lying series, Two Can Keep a Secret, The Cousins, and You'll Be the Death of Me, has been translated into more than 40 languages worldwide. Karen lives in Massachusetts and holds a master's degree in Journalism from Northeastern University, which she mostly uses to draft fake news stories for her novels.




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