Review | Two Can Keep a Secret by Karen M. McManus

Hello, fellow readers! I really enjoyed McManus’ One of Us is Lying in 2018, so I was excited to find out she was releasing another book in 2019 called Two Can Keep a Secret. There was a bit of confusion over the title of this books because it almost sounds like a sequel, especially since the covers have the same feel to them. This is not a sequel or companion to One of Us is Lying, and I think it is the weaker book of the two.

Description: Ellery and her twin brother, Ezra, move in with their grandmother in the small town of Echo Ridge. Their mother’s twin, Sarah, went missing when the girls were in high school. Five years ago, the homecoming queen was murdered, bringing back bad memories of what had happened to Sarah. Soon after Ellery’s arrival, another girl goes missing, and Ellery is determined to figure out who is behind the disappearances.

What I Liked:  The last line of the book is pretty chilling. Other than that, nothing stands out about this book.

What I Didn’t Like: Too many characters! Aside from Ellery, Ezra, and Malcolm, I never really understood who anyone else was most of the time. I also never felt suspicious of any of the characters because there just wasn’t any tension or buildup in the story for me.

I love scary movies set at theme parks, so I was really excited to see there was one in the town. I didn’t think the amusement park was used nearly enough in the plot though. Of course, there were several chapters towards the end where I just had the book playing and would only listen halfway because that’s how little I cared at that point in the story.

Final Thoughts: I gave this book a generous three star rating. I don’t think it worked well as an audiobook for me because there were way too many characters thrown at us in the beginning, and I never really connected to them. This was an obligatory finish because I had made it to the last two hours of the audiobook and didn’t want to quit, but I truly did not care about the ending one way or the other.

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