Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - Two can keep a secret

Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Two can keep a secret by Karen M. McManus

7 reviews

danilo_syrtis's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

[Fair warning: This review contains some (major) spoilers that I will tag as such.]

When their mother has to go into rehab, twins Ezra and Ellery have to move in with their grandmother – in a town where their aunt went missing 20 years ago. Not even home from the airport, they find the body of who would have been one of their teachers – a victim of a hit-and-run. But soon, the tragic death gets overshadowed by creepy messages appearing at school events, alluding to a murder from a few years back and threatening this year’s homecoming court …

As is the case with many of Karen McManus’s books, I read this one for the second time recently and liked it a lot!

At this point, I think it is obligatory for me to mention how much I love the style of the UK paperback covers. While I think that the actual illustration does not really fit the story in this book’s case, it at least gives off the mysterious vibe that the story goes for. It is also really beautiful in its own right, and I like how a new color is introduced for the title and the sprayed edges (although it is a bit similar to the color chosen for One Of Us Is Next, which is a little sad since at this point, there are enough colors left so that the books could be completely different from one another).

I really enjoyed the main mystery

or rather, the main mysteries

. It is especially interesting to me since there is not one central incident that everything revolves around, but there are many twists, one after the other, and almost every one of them gets its time to be the focus of the main characters’ interest (and, I guess, police investigation).

For example, for the first few chapters, I thought that the challenge would be to see how the death of the teacher is linked to the threatening messages. I did not really think someone else would go missing, and I was also surprised by who went missing, since the book’s description focuses on the town losing its homecoming queens – which, to be fair, mischaracterizes the first disappearance, too.

It is also fascinating to see which events and details are coincidences and which are explicitly linked to each other in the end (and how everything is still loosely connected, even if it is only implicitly).

For example, I never really questioned that the messages had something to do with the murderer, especially after Brooke disappears. It was interesting to see that this is very much a coincidence, at least as long as it is Viv responsible for the messages. Then again, there is an implicit connection, since it is not unreasonable to think that Viv got some inspiration from the local reporter who got her unexpected breakthrough by reporting on Lacey’s murder, and the same murderer is responsible both for that and for Brooke’s murder.

The ending is pretty satisfying – the main questions all get their answers, but there is still room for interpretation.

I am especially fascinated by the implications of Sadie having been Peter's real target instead of Sarah. Does that mean that she, too, had a secret relationship with him? Or was his MO different back then, since she would have been – presumably – his first victim? Which also brings up the question of whether Sadie really had her first time with Vance or whether she simply reframed it after the fact as a way of dealing with the grooming/abuse she went through. Which, in turn, could be connected to her issues as an adult, some of which contribute directly to what is going on with her in the book itself. I also wonder if Peter actually planned to kill Sadie back in 1996 or if he was just desperate when he realized he picked up the wrong twin who could now potentially talk about what was going on between Sadie and him … These things are interesting, if horrifying, to think about (and I admit, I am quite curious to see whether there are fanfictions being written about this).)

Looking at the characters, I am especially impressed by the subtle characterization that is easy to miss, yet very telling if readers catch it.

One of my favorite examples is Malcolm thinking about the living room or the TV in his newish home as "the Nilsson’s", which creates a distance between himself and his stepfamily – it underlines how he does not really feel at home, although he does not express this feeling to other people.

To me, it also felt really refreshing to see characters and their theories being taken seriously when appropriate, but also sometimes being wrong, with all the consequences that I would expect in the real world.

For example, it is nice that Ryan takes the clues that Ellery brings him seriously as long as they are actually helpful for the police investigation, but he is also firm – yet not unkind – in his attempts to make her stop investigating on her own and potentially getting herself into dangerous situations. It is also nice to see that the actual investigators are not completely incompetent or fooled by a mastermind serial killer into baselessly suspecting an obviously innocent teenager.

But as always, not everything about this book is perfect.

I think the biggest problem I have is that some plot points are too unbelievable for me. I mean, obviously some suspension of disbelief is required for me to accept that the exact teenagers who need to come together to solve some mysteries actually become friends and then accidentally stumble upon all the required clues, and that is totally fine. It comes with the genre. But details that turn out to be pointless and also unbelievable annoy me, and there are some of them in this book.

The worst offender, in my eyes, is the fact that the school never cancels homecoming, even with one of the most popular teachers dying, creepy threatening messages appearing at school events, and one of the threatened girls disappearing after a party. It is especially annoying since nothing really happens that would have made it necessary to let homecoming take place.

Another little thing is the switching POV. I understand why Karen McManus chooses to show different characters' perspectives, and I totally get that the stories she apparently wants to tell do not involve readers questioning in the back of their minds whether some seemingly trustworthy characters who are crucial in solving the mystery because of the information they bring to the table are actually not that trustworthy at all, but it is a little sad to see that there is the potential for some additional tension without it ever getting used.

There is also the question of character development, which I think is hard to answer with regards to this particular book. Some character development absolutely takes place, but it feels as though that is mostly the case for side characters.

For example, Sadie seems to learn to take accountability and accept that she has to work on herself and her problems, which is something that she does not do in the beginning.

Looking at the main characters on the other hand, it does not feel as though they really changed in the end. There are some things that are different about their perspective and hopes, but most of those changes seem very minor to me.

For example, Ellery contemplates going to college and becoming a lawyer, something that – as she states – never seemed realistic and therefore worthy of thinking about before. But since that does not really seem to impact her in any way – and readers also never really learn what she planned to do before this became a possibility –, it feels very inconsequential.

All in all, even though there are some minor problems/annoyances, I would absolutely recommend this book!

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mahie_09goel's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

*Spoiler Alert*
The fact that the story moves quickly makes it interesting. I don't know why, but the reveal didn't strike me as much as I thought it would because somewhere, I had my doubts about the killer being Peter in the middle of the story; or maybe because Peter wasn't exactly portrayed as an innocent guy, so when he turned out to be the killer, it felt like "yeah makes sense". However, I still enjoyed reading the book because the characters felt nice, and the plot built up pretty quickly, which is why I found myself going back to the story again and again. I also loved the tensions created within the book by the threats, the news, and parts in the later half where, as a reader, you would feel like a random person in the same town experiencing the things happening around you, in a way making you feel included.
So, overall, it was a definitely a fun read!

Content Warnings

paronomaniac's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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nagaakil's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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sherlene_06's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

This like the 'One of Us is Lying' series was an easy read. The flow was smooth and the plot twists were unpredictable. But McManus could have increased the tenseness a little more in the last act because I didn't find it all that satisfying. Although a little flimsy, the conclusion wasn't too horrible. The book's final sentence had such a shockingly unexpected conclusion. At first, it wasn't very apparent, but once I got it, it was good enough to state that Karen McManus is a plot-twist genius.

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mia_stew's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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joan_salder's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

First of all, this was 'the best book' of all Karen books I have read till now (only 2). The ending is mysterious, but the last sentence brings up a lot of thoughts to our mind.

It brought up the thought of Sarah sleeping with Peter, because that is the only way he would think of Ellery to be her daughter. Secondly, Sarah knew something which Sadie didn't and that is her and Peter's relationship, because if it was only homecoming queens getting kidnapped and murdered then there is no chance that Sarah might have suffered, because Sadie was the homecoming queen. I am literally so sorry to the characters I suspected because they were not guilty and I just had crazy thoughts. So, well, that is literally it.

I loved the plot set up and everything. I even liked Ryan Rodriguez and Ezra and Malcolm and Declan. Of course who doesn't. But beware of the choices you make...

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