Two Can Keep a Secret
by Karen M. McManus
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.
(cover image and synopsis lifted from Goodreads)
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication date: January 8th 2019
Source/Format: eARC/Netgalley
Purchase links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | Book Depository
Trigger warning/s:
My Rating: ★★★★☆
My Thoughts:
Wow, this is a solid YA mystery.
By now, I think I have read enough YA mystery to know the good from the bad. So better believe me hon, when I say that “Two Can Keep a Secret” is spot on a good mystery. I like most how it built up the mystery around the missing girls of the town through the lens of a teenage true crime enthusiast, Ellery. Imagine if you read lots of true crime and you moved into a town where a crime happened, meet the people involved in the case, and witness another girl go missing right under your nose, wouldn’t you want to do something? Wouldn’t you do a bit of snooping around? Or wouldn’t you at least make your own opinions about who the suspects are?
Ellery has a lot of questions that eventually become the reader’s questions. And she has speculations that become the reader’s speculations as well. Ellery’s decision to put the pieces of the puzzle together lead her to a disorienting discovery that no amount of reading true crime can prepare her for.
Pure and precious main characters.
The book is alternately narrated by Ellery and Malcolm. Malcolm is the younger brother of Declan, the prime suspect to his girlfriend Lacey’s murder five years ago. Both Ellery and Malcolm are too pure and vanilla-flavored for my taste, tho. This is something not really negative about them, but more like my personal preference with my YA mystery characters. Ellery and Malcolm are likable characters but I like my YA mystery teens with flaws and dubious morals. The quartet of the author’s debut book, “One of Us is Lying” is one perfect ensemble of what I want in my YA mystery: they are cheaters and cowards and one is literally a criminal. Sure, there are shady characters here like Malcolm’s older bro Declan and Lacey’s bestfriend Daisy but they are side characters and they are adult characters. I felt that Ellery and Malcolm are devoid of dark sides is all I’m saying. Again, this is just a matter of personal preference and I am sure a lot of other readers would be willing to build forts to protect these two precious cinnamon rolls.
Another thing that I will note is that I wish there’s more of Ezra, Ellery’s twin bro and Mia, Malcolm’s BFF. Another book blogger, Athena @ The Night Faerie share this same sentiment with me in her review. It is but a minor gripe from both of us because overall, the book is a satisfying mystery with a satisfyingly chilling ending.
The chilling ending is chilling.
I will keep this very vague. Our protagonists has a life and death confrontation with the baddie, whose villainy is so low key that I bet only a few could guess rightly the identity. The last few chapters are intense and I felt that Ellery and Malcolm are really in extreme danger. And just when I thought that it’s okay to relax, came those last six words of revelation that gripped me with mixed feelings of sadness and spine tingling.
“Two Can Keep a Secret” is a well done YA mystery with a chilling ending, narrated by two likable teens. This comes highly recommended.
Ellery Corcoran and Ezra Corcoran - half white on their mother's side and possibly half Latinx on their father's side. The twins are described with dark eyes and dark hair. Ezra is openly queer.
Malcolm Kelly - described with unruly dark hair.
Mia Kwon - Malcolm's BFF. She is Korean-American. Her physical description is hair buzzed short on one side and dark hair streaked with red on the other. Mia is bisexual.
Lacey Kilduff - the murdered girl five years ago. Physically described as blonde.
Katrin Nilsson - Malcolm's new stepsister, described as blonde.
Brooke Bennet - Katrin's BFF, described with long brown pony tail, hazel eyes.
Viv Cantrell - Katrin's other BFF, described as a redhead.
