You’ll Be The Death of Me Review
Hi friends! It’s been a quiet week so far, thanks to a public holiday. It’s finally time for me to post my You’ll Be The Death of Me Review. I’ve been sitting on it for a while, but here it is!
Elevator Pitch
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off meets murder. If you love true crime, this is for you. I recommend this book for younger readers or readers who want to get into the thriller genre.
About You’ll Be The Death of Me
Title: You’ll Be The Death of Me
Author: Karen M. McManus
Rating: 3.5 Stars
CAWPILE: 6.8/10
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Content Warnings: Cheating, death, drug use, violence, murder, racism, student/teacher relationship
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Date Published: December 2nd 2021
Goodreads Description: Ivy, Mateo, and Cal used to be close. Back in middle school they were best friends. 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.
At least they don’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 walk into the middle of a murder scene. Cal, Ivy, and Mateo all know the person lying on the ground of that building, and now they need to come clean. They’re all hiding something. And maybe their chance reconnection wasn’t by chance after all.
I received a review copy from Penguin Random House SA. All opinions are my own.
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You’ll Be The Death of Me Review
Characters – 6/10
This is my 5th Karen McManus book and I have to admit I had high hopes for it. The last book of hers I read was The Cousins and it disappointed me a bit. However, You’ll Be the Death of Me was a step up from The Cousins. That being said, I still feel like this book is very middle of the road for McManus. While I was reading this book, I was also flying through the One of Us is Lying TV series. That just reminded me how good One of Us is Lying was, and how the rest of her books all seem a bit derivative of that first success.
Ivy in this book was basically Bronwyn, while Cal and Matao didn’t feel like two separate and distinct people. They all felt like imitations of the original Bayview Four, and they didn’t keep my interest for long. Most of the time I couldn’t distinguish between their POVs, and often got them mixed up. McManus needs some new, fresh characters.
Atmosphere – 7/10
You’ll Be the Death of Me takes place over the course of one day, which to be fair seems a bit unrealistic. It didn’t add much to the tension either and also made it feel like we didn’t spend enough time with the characters. She could have let them suffer a bit more lol.
Writing – 8/10
McManus’ writing isn’t bad by any means, I just think the “high schoolers get involved in murder” thing is becoming old. I’d love to see her write something different or take on a new challenge.
Plot – 7/10
You’ll Be the Death of Me is essentially Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which I don’t have a problem with. It was a pretty straightforward murder story, but somehow it felt rushed? We don’t spend enough time with the characters, we don’t have enough time to doubt them or really get into the mystery. This book would have benefitted from a few more pages.
Intrigue – 7/10
I will admit that I was intrigued by the plot. I just wish the other elements were equally as interesting. While the murder was pretty straightforward, I still enjoyed the snooping around and watching the characters put the pieces together.
Logic – 6/10
My biggest question in all of this is, where is the police? And that’s always the thing that gets me. I know in this teen murder book there has to be some suspension of belief, but the police just being entirely absent for this book had me a little sceptical. The “person who has no business solving a murder solves a murder” mystery trope isn’t my favourite, but in teen books I can let it slide. For the most part anyway.
Enjoyment – 7/10
Overall I enjoyed this book. I think it ranks above The Cousins, but I’m not sure it’s too far above it. Maybe I’ll do a tier ranking of all of these books at some point.
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Unfortunate that this book wasn’t that good for you. I haven’t read The Cousins myself and I doubt i’ll pick up this one either as I’m moving away from YA, but maybe someday who knows.