Can You Keep a Secret? A Review of Karen M McManus’s Two Can Keep a Secret

Wowzers. What a book.

I want to start out by saying that I had my fingers super tightly crossed in hopes that I’d receive an ARC of Two Can Keep a Secret: I loved One of Us is Lying, so the idea of not having to wait to read Karen M. McManus’s next book was very exciting. When I got approved, I couldn’t wait to read this text, and I am so, so glad I got the chance. So thank you Net Galley for this thrilling ARC!

There is a lot going on in this book: absent parents, overall family disfunction, being the new kids, a teacher mysteriously killed in the opening.... a lot going on. At first, you kind of feel like it might be too much: how is this reasonably short YA book going to tackle all these themes and plot threads in this text? Well, it does. It’s a deeply satisfying book with a (sighhhhhhhh of delight) deeply satisfying ending. And I’m so glad because satisfying endings have really been missing from my life lately. 

Okay, so basically this is the book: Ellery and Ezra, fraternal twins, are sent to live with their grandma in their mom’s home town after their mom is sent to court ordered rehab; the night they arrive in their new town, they happen upon the town’s most popular teacher, killed by a hit and run. 

I will say the hit and run plot line is my least favorite because, while it is tied up eventually, it’s abandoned very early and not really mentioned. While I do get that this is addressed by the characters in the book and they discuss why it’s abandoned, it’s still lacks believability to me. Even after threatening messages show up throughout the town, I think a small town would still mourn/discuss/investigate the loss of a beloved teacher.

Don’t let that dissuade you from reading, though, because I think most things work. Ellery and Malcolm, a local teen, share the job of telling the story and both characters are likeable and have easy voices to read (even if Ellery does have that one annoying trait). My only complaint there is that, of the two twins, Ezra was much more interesting to me and I would have almost rather it be told from his perspective than Ellery’s, but I still think it was the right choice from a literary standpoint. Because of Ellery’s personality, her voice telling the story brings everything much more full circle.

Let me tell you about the ending without spoilers. Okay, I know I’ve touched on it already, but let me ask: any Gilmore Girls fans in the house? Remember all the build up over those “last four words?” And how disappointing they were? This book ends on a reveal and it’s not disappointing at all. It isn’t five words and they feels great to read. So read it!!

5/5