Title: You’ll Be the Death of Me
Author: Karen M. McManus
Publication Date: December 2, 2021 (UK) November 30, 2021 (CAN/USA)
Genre: YA Mystery
Number of Pages: 400
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.
Review: Thank you to The Write Reads for organizing and inviting me to participate in this blog tour. Thank you to Penguin for providing me with an advanced copy of this book through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
This is my second Karen M. McManus book, and it certainly will not be my last. You’ll Be the Death of Me follows three teens, Ivy, Mateo, and Cal, who, in an attempt to recreate their best day ever, they end up living through their worst day ever. This Ferris Buller’s Day Off-inspired story features a mysterious death, a complicated web of drugs, and enough twists and turns to keep you guessing to the very last page.
The first thing I want to talk about is the characters in this book. It’s been a very long time since I last watched Ferris Buller’s Day Off, so I can’t make a character comparison between the two, but I feel like there are parallels. Ivy is your typical type-A character. She’s driven, organized, a problem solver, and feels like she’s never enough. Mateo is burned out because he’s been dealing with the fallout of multiple family crises. Finally, Cal is a forgettable outsider, dealing with relationship problems and trying to hold onto something. These characters used to be friends in middle school, but then they drifted apart in high school. Personally, I didn’t find any of the characters particularly memorable, but I thought they made a great trio.
I loved the mystery in this book. It was full of twists and turns, and it kept me guessing to the very last page. I loved reading about the characters stumbling upon clues, piecing everything together, and using their skills and experiences to help put everything together. I don’t want to say much more about the mystery because I don’t want to spoil anything, and a lot of the reveals are quite great to read. I also liked that as the characters travelled around, trying to piece together the clues, they pieced together what went wrong with their friendship.
Overall, this was an exciting book to read. It had twists and turns, and it was the kind of book that made you want to keep reading.
Rating: 4 Stars!