Two Can Keep A Secret by Karen McManus

Series: N/A
# of Pages: 336
Publication: January 8th, 2019
Source: Library Copy
Genre: YA Mystery/Thriller
Goodreads | Amazon 

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.

When I first saw the cover for this novel, my mind immediately shifted to Pretty Little Liars because the theme song lyrics includes the line “two can keep a secret if one of them is dead.” It’s such an iconic line so I wasn’t surprised when McManus decided to use it as the title of her next mystery novel. Prior to this book, I already read McManus’ first novel One of Us is Lying (my review) which I thought was good outside of its problematic use of sexuality for plot advancement. I was truly curious about how she would develop a new YA mystery/thriller. Two Can Keep A Secret focuses on a set of twins, Ellery and her brother Ezra (this made me think about Pretty Little Liars even more) as they are forced to go to their mother’s home town of Echo Ridge to live with their grandmother as their mother completes rehab. Echo Ridge isn’t a normal town as it’s known for the beautiful young homecoming queens that go missing. One of those young lady’s includes Ellery’s aunt. As the twins become acclimated with the town, horrific messages start to appear again and threaten to kill another girl during this years homecoming. What I can say right off the bat is that the theme of killing homecoming queens is particularly generic; however, McManus does a phenomenal job keeping people on the edge of their seat. By no means are you aware of who is actually behind the killings and the threatening messages. She uses the character of Ellery (she’s obsessed with true crime) to lead the reader into suspecting a host of different characters. 

One of the major flaws of this book is the dual perspective narrative. The book is told in two voices, one belonging to Ellery and the other belongs to Malcolm, the brother of Declan. Declan was originally accused of murdering Lacy when Ellery’s mom left the town. The two perspectives sounds so similar that I had a difficult time differentiating between the chapters and often found myself flipping back and forth to remind myself of who was actually narrating the chapter. To have two voices that sounded so dramatically similar led me to believe that this book should have just been written from one perspective. It wasn’t necessary to capture the internal thoughts of each character because they hardly ever varied. I also felt as though the need for romance was unnecessary. I find that a lot of YA authors focus on adding romance to appeal to their customer base; however, I am also a firm believer that a good story can still appeal to a young adult consumer base even if it doesn’t include romance. 

Overall outside of these criticisms, I did enjoy the novel. McManus truly has a gift for not only writing a good thriller or mystery, but she does a great job of incorporating difficult topics such a relationships between parents, children, and grandparents. In this book, there is a clear rift in the maternal lineage of Ellery’s family. There’s a lack of communication and empathy that causes serious issues between Ellery and her mom. This is even evident in the relationship between Katrin and her non-existent mother. It brings forth the question of how children may be willing to protect their parents even when they know they are wrong. It’s a defense mechanism to protect and immortalize a relationship that is unhealthy. And it’s amazing that McManus forces the reader to understand that just because someone has given birth to a child doesn’t mean that they are truly fit to be a parent. Sometimes it takes other individuals to step up and raise that child and be the support system and family that they need. The writing was captivating, easy follow, and engaging and the last line of the novel did everything it needed to do to make my skin crawl. If you love mystery’s or thrillers I would definitely recommend checking this book out.