You’ll Be the Death of Me – Blog Tour

A Ferris Bueller-esque murder mystery? Yes, please!

Title: You’ll Be the Death of Me
Author: Karen M. McManus
Genre: YA Mystery/Thriller  
Publication Date: November 30th, 2021
Ratings: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Goodreads Summary:

Ivy, Mateo, and Cal used to be close. Now all they have in common is Carlton High and the beginning of a very bad day.

Type A Ivy lost a student council election to the class clown, and now she has to face the school, humiliated. Heartthrob Mateo is burned out–he’s been working two jobs since his family’s business failed. And outsider Cal just got stood up…. again.

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 and go into the city. Just the three of them, like old times. Except they’ve barely left the parking lot before they run out of things to say…

Until they spot another Carlton High student skipping school–and follow him to the scene of his own murder. In one chance move, their day turns from dull to deadly. And it’s about to get worse.

It turns out Ivy, Mateo, and Cal still have some things in common. They all have a connection to the dead kid. And they’re all hiding something.

Now they’re all wondering–could it be that their chance reconnection wasn’t by chance after all?

From the author of One of Us Is Lying comes a brand-new pulse-pounding thriller. It’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off with murder when three old friends relive an epic ditch day, and it goes horribly–and fatally–wrong.

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I’m sorry to say that this is my least favorite of Karen M. McManus’s books. It lacked some of that oomph to make it a standout thriller. With the phrase “pulse-pounding thriller” in the synopsis, I was expecting a lot more. For a book that took place almost entirely in the span of one day, it sure did move slowly—especially in the first half. Once a plan started to form the story really did pick up, feeling more like a standard McManus book that we all know and love. It finally hit quite a crescendo with the climax and plot twist I didn’t see coming, but it was almost too little too late. I was really missing the romance and great character development that I expect from her books. Although this was a multi perspective book, I still felt like all I knew about our three main characters was very surface level. She definitely set herself up to continue her story with Cal, Mateo, and Ivy through their senior year and see what other mischief they might get themselves mixed up with.

Hopefully this is just blip in a long line of five star reads from McManus.

ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.