Reviews with content warning for Adult/minor relationship - You'll Be the Death of Me

Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

You'll Be the Death of Me, by Karen M. McManus

84 reviews

bzliz's review

mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

If you’ve read other books by Karen M McManus or Holly Jackson then you’ve basically read this also. It’s a quick read about a Type A high schooler attempting to solve a crime- which she is accused of committing- with two friends, with a smidge of light romance (despite having almost no chemistry). It could easily be a cut plot line from Riverdale but it’s a quick read and fast paced enough that you won’t stop to think about how a lot of it makes no sense until you’ve finished it.

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redwheeler721's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

2.5

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phantasmaboo's review against another edition

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mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

You’ll Be the Death of Me by Karen McManus follows three high school friends who skip school and witness the murder of one of their classmates. Slowly, they discover that their small town harbors dark secrets and that there are some people who cannot be trusted.

I thought the book was a solid young adult mystery/thriller experience. That being said, this book felt a bit forced compared to other books that I’ve read from McManus. The characters seemed to go out of their way to put themselves in the situations that they were in and because the threefold them are isolated for a good chunk of the book, there’s little opportunity for the reader to put the pieces together themselves.

I thought the ending was good, if not a bit rushed, but it wasn’t out of line for what I would expect from the genre. Overall, I give it 3 stars.

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etmetmetm's review

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emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

- Not in the same universe as One Of Us Is Lying or One Of Us Is Next, but has a very similar style
- Fast paced with high stakes

Spoiler

(the plot occurs over a single day)

- Conflict between characters without an obvious villain
- Emphasis on family relationships is equal/ more than that of romantic relationships

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deadgirlwalking23's review

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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mousmoulo's review against another edition

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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.

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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I wanted to read this book as I really enjoy Karen M. Manus’s writing style. I have read all the books in Karen’s collection expect for the newest one that was released this year. I liked this book but I wasn’t as thriller as I expected - I was expecting something like One of Us is Dead and it wasn’t.

This book is based on Ivy, Mateo and Cal. They used to be close back in middle school. 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. As least they didn’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 talk into the middle of a murder scene. Cal, Ivy, and Mateo all know the person lying on the ground of that building, and they need to come clean. This is a young adult mystery.

This book was a really quick read. But it didn’t feel like much of a thriller than I expected it to be for Karen’s work. I wanted the book to be longer and maybe more than a day thing. I feel like it could have been better if it was set over a longer period like One of Us is Dead. I just wanted more and it just didn’t deliver. I really loved her series and nothing has seemed to top that even with all the standalones. I was hoping for some more depth within these characters. The characters were fine but I just wanted more. I enjoyed the storyline and it was an okay and easy read.

Karen McManus will always be on my instant author buy list but I just want her to give us more.

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