Two Can Keep a Secret

I loved McManus' debut novel 'One of us is lying', and was really pleased to see another book from her. This one suffers from being a second book more than anything -- it is just a bit rushed, the characters are just a bit less relatable than those in the first, the plot is just a tad off at times. And most of these things are ones that I probably wouldn't have noticed to the same level if I hadn't loved the first one so much.

Another issue for me is that this story spends the whole time hinting that the next shoe is going to drop. At the beginning of the story there are two murdered young women, but both of these deaths are in the past. There is also a death early on, but it doesn't match the pattern; that plus deliberate plot elements show more wind up the feeling that someone is going to die, and that the protagonist is going to end up in some kind of trouble.

It does manage to be one of those lovely 'in a small town, everyone has secrets' stories. And unlike, say, many Agatha Christie novels, I actually found a lot of those secrets to be quite plausible.

Sadly, it doesn't manage to avoid some of the tropes of the serial killer sub-genre, in which dead young women are arranged as props. This is particularly noticeable because all the viewpoint characters were closely linked to one of the two dead. The young women might not be there for the main male character's emotional arc, but there are certainly echoes of that type of writing.

In terms of content warnings - it needs them, but they are also spoilers for the story. show less

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

Floored by One of Us Is Lying, I was all for reading this one as part of a group read and because I could finally land my hands on a copy. I wasn't in the mood to spend the high e-book price, but the woes of the life of a reader sometimes. Not to rant, but also the life of an author since I get the economy woes in this field.

Anyway, off-topic aside, this little thriller is certainly worth a read. Small town dysfunction, twin bonding, mystery and crime, unconventional mothers, intelligent teenage leads. The author bounced between two point of views well without it becomes frustration or shallow. She did this while managing show more to create strong side-characters who stood on their own as interesting without needing their own chapters in their own viewpoints.

Ellery is awesome - she's a little sarcastic, she's confident enough to survive high school newness, she's loyal, and she's addicted to true crime stories. Her twin brother Ezra plays enjoyable roles and I enjoyed the bond of the twins, and how it relates to another set of twins mentioned earlier in the story.

Malcolm may have been my favorite viewpoint because he was in such a crappy situation but struggling to still stay on his feet. Between the odd family angles, his brother back in town, his reputation at school, his dependent mother, he was well-done.

The suspect isn't a shock. We have enough culprits in the pot to suspect, so the issue isn't that she didn't give enough possibilities, it just wasn't a shock. The twist was there and it was well-done, but it wasn't as much of a stand-out. I enjoyed her first book better because of the journey being more intricately layered and fascinatingly twisted, but this one still keeps you reading thanks to McManus's well-done writing style and characterization skills. show less

Ellery and her twin brother, Ezra, have heard all about the small town their mother grew up in and was desperate to escape from, but they've never been there. Their aunt went missing when she was seventeen. And five years ago, a homecoming queen was murdered there. Now they have to live in this town with a grandmother they hardly know. As soon as they arrive, bad things begin to happen. And another girl goes missing. It seems to Ellery that everyone in the small town of Echo Ridge is hiding something, and most people aren't good at keeping secrets.

I loved One of Us Is Lying so I couldn't wait to get my hands on this one. I devoured this book. It was so easy to get lost in the story and I could not turn the pages fast enough. Very show more suspenseful, full of twists and turns. I thought I had everything figured out but I was quite happy when I learned I was totally wrong. This was just so fun to read, it was always one thing after another but it never felt like it was too much or that things were crazy just for the sake of being crazy. I loved it SO MUCH! show less

Last year, I read [b: One of Us is Lying|32571395|One of Us Is Lying|Karen M. McManus|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1490084494s/32571395.jpg|49825436]. I ended up liking it so much it made it onto my top ten books of 2018 list at #9. When I heard that [a: Karen M. McManus|15127507|Karen M. McManus|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1527617930p2/15127507.jpg] was writing another YA book involving a mystery and some soapy drama, I immediately put it on my TBR list. And honestly, I liked it even more than One of Us is Lying.


I was not expecting that. Mind BLOWN.

Plot- Ellery and her twin brother Ezra unexpectedly stay in their mother Sadie's childhood town, Echo Ridge, after Sadie ends up in rehab. On their way to their way to show more their grandmother's home, a body is discovered in the middle of the road. The body is one of the most beloved teachers from the nearby high school. Then, threats start showing up around town. Threats against Ellery and two girls at the nearby high school. When one of the girls disappears, the small town is shaken. This isn't the first time something tragic has happened to a girl in Echo Ridge. Five years ago, the Homecoming Queen was murdered. When their mother was 16, her twin sister Sarah went missing. Ellery, who is obsessed with true crime due to the disappearance of her aunt, starts unraveling what happened. She befriends Malcolm, the younger brother of the prime suspect in the murder five years ago. Together, they both start unraveling what happened with each tragic event and work through their own family traumas.

The story is told from Ellery and Malcolm's POVs, alternating between them from chapter to chapter. Much like One of Us is Lying, Karen M. McManus makes each narrator believable. She has a knack for alternating between each narrative well and I thoroughly enjoyed them both. I also enjoyed all the characters in Echo Ridge. Each character played their part well, whether you were supposed to root for or be creeped out by them.

The mysteries at the heart of the story were well executed too. The twists were believable and caught me by surprise, something that isn't easy. The town of Echo Ridge felt like it could've been a non-supernatural neighbor of Twin Peaks.

The part I enjoyed the most, however, was reading about how all the families and characters affected by the tragic events that befell each girl. Reading about Sadie fleeing from Echo Ridge and how Ellery and Ezra live in Sarah's shadow, how Malcolm and his mother still live in Echo Ridge, but without Malcolm's brother, and the Homecoming Queen's family handling it the best (IMO) was fascinating. It brought this story up from One of Us is Lying. The sadness surrounding each family and learning about how each family deals (or doesn't deal) with the trauma made this story special.

If you're looking for a YA thriller with some dramatic elements and shows families dealing with traumatic events or "what happens after the story ends?", then I highly recommend Two Can Keep a Secret. I can't wait to see what Karen M. McManus does next. show less

I was going to give it a 3.5 because I wasn't satisfied with whatever was happening and I needed more. But then there was one sentence in the end - 6 words and my heart is still beating really fast, 30 mins after I've put down the book. That sentence made me rate the book 5. Brilliant writing. I wish Karen McManus never stops writing.

...the second [photo] I pull out --grainy and much older, of two identical teenage girls with long, curly hair like mine, dressed in '90s grungewear. One of them is smiling brightly, the other looks annoyed. My mother and her twin sister, Sarah. They were seventeen then, seniors at Echo Ridge High like Ezra and I are about to be. A few weeks after the photo was taken, Sarah disappeared.
It's been twenty-three years and no one knows what happened to her. Or maybe it'd be more accurate to say that if anybody does know, they're not telling.

Ellery Corchoran and her twin brother Ezra are starting their senior year of high school in their mother's hometown because she's in rehab. They've never even been to Echo Ridge before, never visited the show more grandmother who they'll be living with, but Ellery knows all about Echo Ridge. Eighteen years after her aunt disappeared, another girl was found dead on the grounds of the unfortunately named "Murdertown" amusement park. Neither crime was ever solved, but Ellery is obsessed with the cases and other true crime stories. From the moment she enters Echo Ridge, Ellery finds herself in the midst of murder mysteries, past and present, playing girl detective before she becomes another victim.

I really enjoyed [b:One of Us Is Lying|32571395|One of Us Is Lying (One of Us is Lying, #1)|Karen M. McManus|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1490084494l/32571395._SY75_.jpg|49825436] (which served its purpose at the end of an illness/reading slump), but this one was missing a certain something. While it was a quick, fun read, I never forgot that I was reading YA -- a little too much telling rather than showing, a choppiness to the prose, characters who overuse and sometimes are clichés. show less

After being really impressed by this author's debut ([b:One of Us Is Lying|32571395|One of Us Is Lying|Karen M. McManus|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1490084494s/32571395.jpg|49825436]), I've been eagerly awaiting TWO CAN KEEP A SECRET. YA Mystery/Thriller is probably my favorite type of book to read. There's something about following along on a high stakes mystery and trying to unravel all the clues that makes reading fun for me. I'm just really happy to have a new author come along and write YA Mysteries that weave a web like these ones have.

The story: When their mother goes to rehab, twins, Ellery & Ezra, return to the town she grew up in (and ran away from). Echo Ridge is a small town with a tragic history-- a tragic history show more that just happened to touch the twins' family. When their mother was a teen (right after she was crowned homecoming queen), her twin sister went missing and was never found. 5 years ago, the homecoming queen was killed. Now, another girl (one nominated for homecoming queen) is missing.

This book started out not that fun for me. There are a lot of characters and suspects that span 3 eras and I was having a hard time remembering who was who and sorting out if any of them were important. I guess having a large cast probably makes it harder to figure out the mystery in the long run, but there is definitely a thing as too many names being thrown at you.

Once I sorted out who exactly all these 999 people were and what they meant to the story, the book got good. Ellery wasn't my favorite main character, but she was the Nancy Drew of this story, so I was interested in how she was going to work the whole thing out. I liked her relationship with her brother and the friends she made when she moves into town.

My fave part: the Homecoming aspect!! It was straight out of a teen slasher movie, and I was all about it.

I definitely thought this was a stronger book than One of Us is Lying. It was a lot more complex, and the mystery was even tougher to figure out. This met my expectations (which were pretty large), therefore I will be recommending this book-- and reading all of McManus's books from here on out!!

OVERALL: A complex mystery in a genre that desperately needs them!! Once I sorted out who allllll the different people in this book were, it got addicting and TENSE. I loved the town of Echo Ridge and the homecoming queen angle. This book is just begging to be made into the next big teen slasher movie.

My Blog:
Pink Polka Dot Books
show less