Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus

RATING: 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑

Published: January 08, 2019

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Format: e-Book/audiobook

Pages: 329

 

 

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“…but if years of reading true-crime books and watching Dateline have taught me anything, it’s this: it’s always the boyfriend.”

SYNOPSIS:

Echo Ridge is small-town America. Ellery’s never been there, but she’s heard all about it. Her aunt went missing there at age seventeen. And only five years ago, a homecoming queen put the town on the map when she was killed. Now Ellery has to move there to live with a grandmother she barely knows.

The town is picture-perfect, but it’s hiding secrets. And before school even begins for Ellery, someone’s declared open season on homecoming, promising to make it as dangerous as it was five years ago. Then, almost as if to prove it, another girl goes missing.

Ellery knows all about secrets. Her mother has them; her grandmother does too. And the longer she’s in Echo Ridge, the clearer it becomes that everyone there is hiding something. The thing is, secrets are dangerous–and most people aren’t good at keeping them. Which is why in Echo Ridge, it’s safest to keep your secrets to yourself. 

 

 

THOUGHTS:

The synopsis of the book basically tells the story of Ellery and her twin brother as they go back to the small-town where their mother and her twin sister who has gone missing grew up. And just 5yrs before they came back to town, another girl has gone missing and then eventually found dead. And now, Ellery gets caught up in this mystery as the previous event that happens 5yrs ago is happening again and she is one of the target.

It’s promising, intriguing and mysterious at best. But did the actual plot leave up to it? NO. I was so disappointed with this book. I may have a higher expectation towards it because of the previous book that I have read from the same author. But still it was disappointing at best without the expectation.

To be honest, I did not care about the story or the characters. And it is very rare that such reaction would come up when I read a book, especially a mystery/thriller genre. If I did not like the characters, I tend to be intrigued with the actual mystery of the book. But for this, I don’t even care. I feel like the mystery has not been sold to me quite well that’s why I have no feelings whatsoever towards this book.

We are following a bunch of teenagers who are related, one way or another, to the people who were involved in the previous mysteries that happened in Echo Ridge. And let’s not forget the fact that they are outcasts in school. And as another girl disappears and people begun pointing their fingers, they found themselves investigating and forming conspiracy theories about who did it or if it were connected to the previous cases. But their only experience with crimes are the true crime novels that Ellery read. However, the good thing about it is we get to see how wrong they are with their theories as the identity of the culprit was revealed.

Another issue that I have about this book is the plot. There are a lot of things going on and a lot of mysteries happening at once. It makes me think that some scenes that happened in this book was just added to make the story more mysterious or complex when in fact it is quite simple. And I don’t like how the author ties up the story. I am okay with that plot twist (though it is not shocking or mind-blowing) but the other part that needs to be wrapped up are just oh-kay for me.

All in all, the story is not that bad because I read it quite fast. However, it is the kind of story that does not really stick and you wouldn’t really care about. I feel like this is one of those books that I will forget about in a week or two.

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So that’s all for this review! If you have read this book, let me know what you think.

Until next time!

Maria❤