Two Can Keep A Secret

I started with Karen M. McManus's "Two Can Keep A Secret" out of her three (four in December) YA psychological thrillers.

SO. FUCKING. GOOD.
No wonder why people are calling her the new YA Scream Queen (can't remember where I read that, but it's more than true).

["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."]

There's always this suspension of disbelief that goes on when you read a YA/Middle Grade novel and the narrator/main character is the one who goes into hard-core-detective-mode and ultimately solves the crime/murder...even though the police couldn't. This is how TCKAS starts off...and then there's a great twist (only minor spoiler) where Ellery is just...continuously surprised by how her theories plan out (or don't?).

And like always, there's this plot twist that you don't see coming. AND then there's a secondary plot twist that like left me feeling SHOOK and feeling sick to my stomach and desperately wanting a sequel.

Trigger Warnings (ones that don't out-right give away the climax/murderer): Bullying, Terror, Murder, Runaway, Violence, Blackmail, Underaged sex, Alcoholism, Drug Abuse, Mental Illnesses, etc

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