TWO CAN KEEP A SECRET IF ONE IS DEAD BOOK REVIEW

Disclaimer: This review is spoiler free except for the parts labelled as spoiler
Book: Two Can Keep a Secret If One is Dead
Author: Karen McManus
Page Number: 323 Pages
Genre: Mystery
Rating: 3 / 5 stars

“Welcome to life in a small town. You’re only as good as the best thing your family’s done. Or the worst.”

Synopsis: Twins Ellery and Ezra recently move to a small town called Echo Ridge. This is no ordinary town… 20 years ago, Ellery’s aunt had disappeared. 5 years ago, homecoming queen Lacey Kilduff’s body was found. Both were two occurrences in which the perpetrator wasn’t caught. Then a month after Ellery moves in, another girl goes missing. Ellery, Ezra and their friends: Malcomn and Mia make it their mission to uncover the town’s secrets-and find who is behind these murders.

As soon as I picked up this book I got PLL vibes (Pretty Little Liars). The title is lyrics from the PLL theme song, the character Ezra in this book shares his name with a main PLL character and just like how “A” leaves cryptic messages for the Liars to decode, the murderer in this book leaves behind messages and little treats for the town as well. 

But that’s where the similarities end.

I love the show PLL so I went into the book excited only to come out feeling disappointed. It wasn’t downright terrible but it also wasn’t a particularly well written mystery that kept me on the edge of my toes either. I hadn’t expected too much out of this book in the first place since I didn’t love “One of Us is Lying”. (I felt like the secrets of each of the characters were revealed too early and it took away the mystery.) 
There were many things about Karen McManus’s second installment that made me feel disconnected from it. 

Here is what I didn’t like:

• Predictable Plot: All the “surprising”plot twists and turns that this book throws at us is very predictable. Except the ending, that was totally unexpected. 

SPOILERS: The part about Viv being the one spreading the homecoming threats so she could cook up a journalism story was so predictable and I called it halfway through the book. I also predicted the relationship between Daisy and Declan the moment Declan came into town. Right away, I had already thought of the conspiracy theory that Declan and Daisy had dated back when Lacy was still alive. 

• The Characters: I literally could not care about these characters. Malcomn and Ellery were ok, but Ezra and Mia were pointless filler characters that were very underdeveloped. Sidenote: I wish the twin bond between Ellery and Ezra was more developed because in the book, there surprisingly wasn’t as much interaction between the two as I would have liked.
• The Similar Character Povs: I love when an author gives us two povs from the main male character and the main female character! However, in this book Ellery and Malcomn’s voices were so similar it was hard to differentiate between the two povs. Sometimes I would be a quarter into Malcomn’s chapter and think it was Ellery speaking. I would have liked to see larger differentiation between the two characters and the way they thought.
• The Ending: (SPOILERS, READ AT OWN RISK!)

The ending was unexpected for sure but very random. At the end of the book I still had so many questions and the book just felt unresolved! 

• Where is Sarah’s body?
• Why would Peter (a mastermind who has kept his secret for over 20 years) suddenly become stupid and dump his reciept in a trashbin at Fright Farm where it could easily fall into the wrong hands instead of shredding the evidence?

My main problem with the ending is that the murderer (Peter) felt so random. It’s like the author chose anyone who we didn’t suspect at that point to be the murderer so the ending would be “unexpected”. I really would have liked to see Peter have a better motive and having a reason for killing the girls….. It would have made the ending have more resolution.

What I Did Like:

The Last Sentence: The only reason this book gets even three stars is because of the last sentence which has the perfect amount of creepy. 

Spoilers: “I thought she was your mother.” *Shudders*


“We’re finally figuring out that we haven’t been normal for years and it’s time to redefine the word.” 

Overall I thought this book was a nice, easy read where I could take a break from my usual heavy fantasy and read something lighter. I would recommend this book to people who love Karen McManus’s other books but I suggest going in with low expectations.

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Read Review for One of Us is Next

Read ACOSF Review