Book: You'll Be the Death of Me by Karen M. McManus
Read From: 4th January - 7th January 2022
Rating: 2/5 stars
Summary: Ivy, Mateo and Cal used to be best friends in middle school. When Cal pulls into campus late for class and runs into Ivy and Mateo, they decide to ditch school, just like old times. But they’re not the only ones skipping school that day. When the trio spot classmate Brian ‘Boney’ Mahoney acting suspiciously downtown, they follow him into an empty building, and walk straight into a murder scene. Now their day of freedom has turned deadly, it’s only a matter of time before the truth comes out...
I think it’s probably appropriate to preface this 2 star review with a little disclaimer that I actually did have a good time reading this, which usually isn’t the case with the books I dish out a 2 star rating for. It’s also important that I recognise this YA thriller isn’t for 20 year old me. Whilst I tend to really enjoy young adult books, the shock factor in thrillers for younger audiences is inevitably going to be on the unrealistic side because of who they’re targeted at. And this was probably one of my main issues with this book, which is why I feel a little unfair but I would be doing a lot of other books I’ve rated 3 stars a disservice by categorising You'll Be The Death Of Me in the same league.
Despite the above, this book was bloody well addictive. Even though I couldn’t fully get behind the route the plot was taking, it didn’t discourage me from wanting to find out what happened in any way. Yes, I was a little disappointed by some of the big reveals but I definitely didn’t see them coming and for me that’s definitely a bonus.
For the most part, I enjoyed the characters and thought their attitudes and personalities were a realistic portrayal of this book’s target audience - as such, it’s obvious why this book is popular. The one thing I didn’t particularly like was the romance, I didn’t feel as though the characters had any real chemistry and so it almost felt like it was just thrown in for the sake of it. As individuals though, the characters were great (aside from Ivy, I definitely grew to dislike her particularly as more secrets were revealed)!
I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this specific book, I think I’ve read a lot better mystery novels in the YA category from both McManus herself and from the likes of Holly Jackson with her A Good Girls Guide to Murder series. Despite my general dislike for this book I’m fully prepared to admit that it was a page turner and based on her addictive writing alone, I’m definitely not prepared to give up on McManus’ novels just yet.