I am delighted to share my review today for You’ll Be the Death of Me by Karen M McManus. I read this one at the beginning of January and have only now got around to writing this post up. But, I have finally caught up with the review backlog now.

From the author of One of Us Is Lying comes a brand new pulse-pounding thriller. When three old friends re-live an epic ditch day, it goes horribly-and deadly-wrong.

Ivy, Mateo, and Cal used to be close. Back in middle school they were best friends. So, when Cal pulls into campus late for class, and runs into Ivy and Mateo, it seems like the perfect opportunity to turn a bad day around. They’ll ditch school and go into the city. Just the three of them, like old times. Why did they stop hanging out, anyway?

As soon as they pull out of the parking lot Cal knows why. Ivy’s already freaking out about missing class, and heartthrob Mateo is asleep in the backseat, too cool to even pretend like he wants to be there. The truth is they have nothing in common anymore.

At least they don’t until they run into the fourth student ditching school that day. Brian “Boney” Mahoney is supposed to be accepting his newly won office of class president. Which is why Ivy follows him into an empty building, only to walk into the middle of a murder scene. Cal, Ivy, and Mateo all know the person lying on the ground of that building, and now they need to come clean. They’re all hiding something. And maybe their chance reconnection wasn’t by chance after all. 

MY REVIEW

This is the second book I have read by this author and it is another very twisted and intriguing read. Three friends decide to try and recreate a day from years ago, it was a day they all adored. Now they are older and decide to take the day off from college and hang out. The last thing they expect to find in an art studio is one of their classmates dead!

This is a story that I did initially find slower, to begin with, the author takes time bringing the characters of Cal, Matteo and Ivy together, but once she does she then begins to add subtle twists that gradually develop into something a lot bigger as the story develops.

Rather than going to the police, the three teens run. It makes sense to them because the police arrive just as they discover the body and one of them has a reason for not being friendly towards the victim.

This is a story that gradually grew on me, the author kept adding more twists and characters as deepening the plot. It definitely has that YA feel to it especially as it is students of a US college system. There are various references to college life and I do think the thought processes of those involved felt right as I read this.

I did enjoy the latter third of the book as things suddenly started to connect, the last quarter definitely sped up to a faster pace. This is when various things landed and I found myself suddenly seeing the bigger picture. A mystery that is not as simple as I first thought it may be kept me reading to discover the truth.

This is a crime mystery that is aimed at Young Adult readers, while it is not a thriller as such there is plenty of intrigue. It is one that I would happily recommend. 

Many thanks for reading my post, a like or share would be amazing 🙂 xx