Cal, Ivy and Mateo, three former friends, end up skipping school together in a bout of nostalgia. What they don't reckon upon is ending up in the middle of a murder investigation where one of them is the lead suspect. It's up to the three of them to find the actual killer before the day is over.

You'll Be The Death Of Me is a gripping YA mystery, with a good dose of teen angst and romance thrown in for good measure.

I'm a bit of a fan of Karen M McManus having read. One of us is lying and One of us is next, so I was eager to see what this standalone thriller would be like.

To be honest, the whole Ferris Bueller's Day Off tagline almost put me off, I have never watched that movie and never want to (Matthew Broderick's face annoys me for no good reason) but I'm glad I ignored that voice and gave this book a go. I ended up devouring this book in two sittings which I haven't done in a long time!

The story is told from Cal, Mateo and Ivy's points of view, so we get a good overview of their thoughts and feelings throughout the story. You can't help but feel for them. They're all dealing with their own insecurities, flaws and angst, plus all those secrets! I felt the characters are a little similar to Karen McManus' other books, i.e. the highly strung girl, the misunderstood boy, but I'm a bit of a sucker for those tropes.

The story really kept me on my toes and had me wondering just what was going to happen next. I honestly had a hard time putting it down.

If you love a good YA mystery with engaging characters and plenty of suspense, I would highly recommend You'll be the death of me.

Book source ~ Tour

Ivy, Mateo, and Cal became fast friends in middle school when they skipped a lecture while on a class trip in Boston. After wandering around for several hours they returned to find no one had even missed them. WUT?! That is…appalling. But the incredibly lax attitude and irresponsibleness of the chaperones aren’t what this story is about. It’s about how, after their trio broke up and went their separate ways, they suddenly have aligned one day in their Senior year and decide to attempt a repeat of The Best Day Ever. Only, it doesn’t turn out to be. Best, that is. More like the Absolutely Worst Day Ever.

I’m still flabbergasted about how they took off during a field trip in middle school and no one even noticed! In any case, skipping a day as a Senior is much more appropriate. Except this particular day turns out to be a no good horribly bad day. When they see a classmate in Boston, who should be in school making an acceptance speech for Class President (that he won over Ivy), they decide to follow him and see what he’s up to. And what he was up to was no good that gets him murdered. Now, the friends are determined to find out what the hell happened and it’s a day of harring off to chase leads, avoiding authorities, and staying silent to everyone trying to find out where they are.

I’ll admit, it took me quite some time to unravel the mystery surrounding Boney’s death. In fact, I didn’t make a connection until just before the Big Reveal. Kudos to the author for keeping me chasing my tail. However, I just want to slap the three of them for running around playing detective when they should have just come clean to the police. But I do get why they didn’t and there’d be no story if they had. Still…slap slap slap to the backs of three heads. Finally, I didn’t like the ending. It was too…well, just too much to believe. And too lip curling. And convenient. But anyway, it’s still a pretty great read. If you like a good young adult twisty mystery then you should definitely give this one a go.

I adored One of is lying, so was really excited to read this when I spotted it on Netgalley. Again Karen McManus writes in a way that pulls you right into the store, leaving you staying up way too late on a school (work) night to find out what happens. Chapters are split between the main characters and each gives a little more insight into what has happened and how Mateo, Ivy and Cal have all been tied up in, just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. There's also the age old teenage romance woven in here. Enjoyed this a lot!

Karen McManus can do no wrong in my eyes - I always really enjoy her YA thrillers. This one in particular was super fun and really fast-paced as most of it happens over the space of one day.

We follow Ivy, Cal and Mateo as they decide to try to relive their 'best day ever' skipping school together. Unfortunately their day goes badly wrong when they find a classmate dead in an empty studio on the other side of town. Suspicious!

The three have pretty distinctive back stories and help the reader understand why they act the way they do throughout the story. There's also lots of secrets that slip out along the way and enough side stories to keep the reader intrigued (even when some of the plot can feel a bit predictable!).

Not quite my favourite McManus book but a solid thriller that I would highly recommend.

I imagine most teens who have ever ditched school think what’s the worst that can happen. The school calls your parents? You get a detention? I don’t think any would even consider the possibility you could end up involved in a mysterious death.

That’s just what happens to Ivy, Cal and Mateo however when the three of them spontaneously decide to skip school. They used to be friends and hope to recapture the magic of the day that made them friends when they went off on a school trip together years ago. Each have their own reasons for wanting to get away and from the very start I was drawn in as each one’s secrets were alluded to. I really love these three characters, each with their own distinct voice, motivation and secrets.

There’s so much packed into the book but nothing feels squeezed in or out of place. It all belongs there from the family issues to the romances and humorous vlogger reports.

The mystery was so perfectly written. One of my favourite things is seeing how all these little strands and tid bits come together at the end and You’ll Be The Death of Me has that in spades.

The clever title gets your attention. The synopsis draws you in and the first pages have you hooked. McManus is a master at young adult mysteries that leave you wanting more.

I can’t wait for the next one.

This books was full of twists and turns, and would be truly gripping to a YA reader.

I have only read of one of McManus' other books, and this one, though not my favourite of the two, was still an entertaining read. Ivy, Mateo and Cal used to all be close friends but, like with what happens to so many young teens, their lives go in different directions. One day, when deciding to cut school together, they are thrown into a dramatic world of secrets, lies, drugs and murder.

The twists in this book were not as predictable as some others within this genre, and the characters are flawed and relatable, making you root for them and eager to ensure things work out for them. The pacing was good and as the story goes on, the reveals are cleverly paced and narrated through the three main characters.

The queen of teen crime is indeed back with this sensational book that is, as is usual for Karen M.McManus full of twists and turns along the way.

Ivy, Mateo, and Cal were wonderful POVs to follow as the mystery unravels and all of their secrets become unraveled as their relevance to the story comes out. They were all unique characters with distinct voices and life experiences that fed into how they viewed and reacted to the death and following events. Of course, I can't say too much about other characters as it may give away the plot but they too were complex and well developed and even those who seemed like minor characters in the story had a role to play were also brilliant. And of course all f the characters changed and developed and became better people over the course of the book, another distince mark of Karen M.McManus' books that I love.

The mystery, again as always, was well crafted and my favorite thing about it was how it all happened over th4e course of a day and then we got to see the consequences from that at the end too. It was so well written and well-paced that by the last 20% of the book I couldn't put it down as I was too engrossed and desperate to find out what was going to happen next and what all the characters were separately piecing together. And of course, there was the masterful final, jaw-dropping, twist that I just love about Karen M.McManus' books for it always comes and it always hits you right in the gut and takes your breath away.

The writing, as I hope my gushing review has indicated, is just phenomenal. At this point every time I read one of her books, Karen M.Mcmanus cements herself as one of my all-time favorite authors becasue she just cannot put a foot wrong. I just cannot wait to see what she does next!

A classic Karen McManus whodunnit, with lots of twists and turns and characters with a real depth to them. Ivy, Cal and Mateo are old friends brought back together by a series of incidents that include a dead body, a secret affair and a quantity of drugs mixed in with guilt, desperation and misunderstandings. Fantastic and believable characters and a plot that keeps you guessing, I couldn’t ask for more!

3.5 stars

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.

This is the first book I’ve read by McManus, although I had come across one of her other books – and considering how much fun I had with this one, it probably won’t be the last. The sheer readability of this book is definitely one of its strong suits. The premise was intriguing, and the book certainly lived up to it – there is murder, red herrings and twists and turns, and lots of secrets and things happening around the characters. A lot happens in this book, especially considering that it all occurs in a very short time frame, but again I think that fed into that readability because this book was a little like a raging river that swept you along – fast-paced, action-packed.

You’ll Be the Death of Me is a multi-POV story, and McManus did a great job with the characters. Ivy, Cal and Matteo are all interesting in their own right and felt very true both to their ages and to their situation. Of the three I think I connected best with Ivy and Matteo, more because there were specific aspects of their lives that resonated with me, more than Cal being left behind because McManus manages to balance the three of them very well. There is also a great dynamic between the three of them, one that changed as secrets were revealed and drew from their past friendship, and it just gave the story a strong foundation. The character development itself is done via an unusual approach because due to the short time-frame of events it isn’t happening in real-time so to speak, but that is not to say that these characters haven’t grown. As we learn more about how these three used to be, and how their relationship had been, it is clear that they have grown in the time apart – shaped by that friendship, the growing apart and events in their own lives. It was nice to see those differences as they came back together, and how that played into who they were now – so while they might not grow too much throughout the immediate plot, the development is there.

My main issue with this book is that it doesn’t quite convince me to suspend my belief enough to be completely suckered into the plot. Perhaps that is just me rather than the book, and I will say that the characters, the pacing and the pull to find the answer did a great job of keeping me invested and wanting to find out what happened, but it didn’t stop me from pausing now and then because of moments and discoveries that just felt a little too contrived and while not all the twists were predictable (which I enjoyed) it did result in the ending feeling a little anti-climatic as though the pieces fit together a little too smoothly to bring the book to its conclusion.

Overall You’ll Be the Death of Me was an entertaining read and had the pacing and appeal of a binge-worthy thriller that you can’t look away from. Although there were a few parts here and there that didn’t hit quite right for me, I still had a lot of fun with this book, and the characters were memorable. I would certainly recommend it for anyone looking for a book that they can curl up with and consume in an afternoon, and have a fun time.

Thank you to The Write Reads, the publisher, and Netgalley for providing me with a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

What can I say other than Karen M. McManus has done it again? The Queen of Teen Crime has solidified her position as one of my favorite authors with yet another incredible page-turner!

In this novel, we’re following three POVs: Ivy, Mateo, and Cal. These three high schoolers used to be close after a random adventure started their friendship. They have drifted apart since then, but one chance encounter in the parking lot brings them back together. But this impromptu skip day turns into the worst day of their lives when they stumble into a crime that affects all of their lives.

If you need to know how to write a page-turner, you can’t go wrong studying one of Karen M. McManus’s books. This one is no exception! I practically flew through this book. There is just something about the way she paces her stories and the way she handles her multiple-POV tales that is absolutely entrancing. It helps that all of her chapters end with cliffhangers so you have to keep reading! I found it hard to put this one down.

I think what also helps is that the author has a gift of writing compelling, believable characters. Ivy, Mateo, and Cal are fascinating to watch navigate this story. They’re all flawed and intriguing and read very much like the teens that they are. They make bad decisions and all I can think is “Yeah… I probably would have done the same thing at that age.” I think that’s why it’s so easy to relate to her characters and connect with them. And that’s what makes me love this book even more.

The fact that it’s set in the city where I lived certainly helped, too. I’m a sucker for books set near/where I live! I love being able to relate to certain things (the 3:30 pm rush hour traffic… 😣) and recognize certain landmarks (shoulda gone to the Aquarium). This is a little and specific thing, but I loved it!

The one thing that brought this down a teensy bit for me was the ending. I felt so unsatisfied! Like there should have been a few more chapters (or maybe another book 👀) to really get to the finish line. But, as far as I know, this is a standalone and now the question of what could happen after that last sentence is gonna haunt me forever!

Final thoughts: If you’re looking for a fast-paced, gripping mystery/thriller that will keep you guessing from beginning to end, you can’t go wrong with You’ll Be the Death of Me! This was a perfectly paced, intrigued story that kept me gripped from page one! I loved the plot, I loved the characters, and I loved the Boston setting. The ending left me feeling a tad bit unsatisfied, but, overall the story was incredible! If you are a fan of YA mystery/thrillers, you have to give this one a read!

This book focuses on 3 teenagers; Cal, Mateo and Ivy, who used to be close when they were younger but drifted apart. It's told from each of their perspectives over one day, when the three of them randomly decide to skip school together, travel across town and happen to come across the body of a murder victim (who also happens to be one of their classmates). Already too many coincidences to hold my belief in the story - I persevered because I thought maybe all these were set up at the beginning, but they just kept coming. By the end, I almost wished I hadn't bothered. The plot point with the teacher and Cal! The ending!
The whole book felt like it was written to be a movie.
Ultimately it read a little young for me - I'm not a teenager so shouldn't really read YA any more B U T I'm a big YA fan and own all the books by this author (have only read One of Us is Lying so far, which I really enjoyed) so hoping the others will be better than this one. On the plus side, I love the consistency with the covers, they look great on the shelf together and I might just get this one to have the set because the marketing team caught me on that 😁

Synopsis from Goodreads:
From the author of One of Us Is Lying comes a brand new pulse-pounding thriller. When three old friends re-live an epic ditch day, it goes horribly-and deadly-wrong.

Ivy, Mateo, and Cal used to be close. Back in middle school they were best friends. 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 school and go into the city. Just the three of them, like old times. Why did they stop hanging out, anyway?

The truth is they have nothing in common anymore.

At least they don't until they run into the fourth student ditching school that day. Brian "Boney" Mahoney is supposed to be accepting his newly won office of class president. Which is why Ivy follows him into an empty building, only to walk into the middle of a murder scene. Cal, Ivy, and Mateo all know the person lying on the ground of that building, and now they need to come clean. They're all hiding something. And maybe their chance reconnection wasn't by chance after all.

My take:
I have been wanting to read a book by Karen McManus as her fan base is all over bookstagram!! Lucky me, I got a seat on this train with @thewritereads and @penguinplatform. YA is outside of my normal genres- but you know by now that I love reading outside my norm for a good read!

This book was a great escape and definitely was reminiscent initially of Ferris Bueller’s Day off. The author did a great job of providing backstory for the friends and bringing them to present day. I really enjoyed their dynamic and the fact that each character had their own distinct personality. There were great twists in this book even though a few I saw coming. But it didn’t matter because the action had me peeling through the pages. I now understand the KMM hype- and it’s well deserved!

If you love YA- add this to your TBR immediately. If you’re not sure about YA- this is a great dip in the water!!

You’ll be the death of me was a roller coaster of emotion for the main characters and oh boy I didn’t see that ending coming.

The story follows Ivy, the girl who has this pressure of being good at everything academics and when she ends up losing the student council election to the class clown she feels humiliated and doesn’t know what to do. The story also has Mateo who has a lot of problems going and Cal who doesn’t have a true friend but everyone knows him but nothing about him. So one day when they come to school and meet each they decide to ditch the school and have most fun day ever but this day takes a turn for bad and everything goes beyond their control as they witness the a murder of a person they know.

The story follows different points of views, and pov which stood the most out for me was that of Ivy because in this story she gets the most character development.

The story just keeps getting better as it goes on.The story was put together amazingly.

The book follows three main characters, Ivy, Cal and Mateo and it starts off very much like Ferris Buellers Day Off. Three childhood friends who drifted apart when they started high school are accidentally thrown together in unlikely circumstances and decide to skip school for the day, all is going well if a little bit awkward until they stumble upon a crime scene. When the victim turns out to be a classmate they flee and try to figure out how and what happened.

Ivy comes from a well to do family but struggles under the pressure of living up to her genius brother. She has spent years struggling under the pressure of doing everything perfectly whilst her brother naturally excels at everything he does. I found Ivy as a character to be the very epitomy of a teenage girl, shes struggling to keep up academically and when she loses her three year in a row class presidency to a kid that really doesnt seem to care she loses it all together and decides that skipping school is a good idea. I wonder how different her story would have turned out if she had only sucked it up and went to school that day.

Mateo was raised by a single mum, when his mum is diagnosed with a joint disorder in the same week she loses her bowling alley business that she built from the ground Mateo has to step it up alongside his cousin Autumn who was taken in when her parents died in a car accident. They work 5 jobs between them to make ends meet and to pay for the medicine that their mum needs. Mateo was a complex character, probably my favourite of the 3 but he wasnt without his flaws either which made him a lot more believeable.

Cal was probably the least developed of the 3 main characters. From the beginning he is harboring a secret that may or may not be linked to the crime scene them stumble upon. I feel like even though i just finished this book i remember very little about Cal or his home life, not sure if thats a me problem or a book problem!

I really enjoyed how this story becomes a journey of how 3 friends need to figure out what is happening before someone else they know is killed. It was fast paced and i know if i had had more time i would have flew through this in probably one sitting! I enjoyed this just as much as McManus' other books and i absolutely adore her story telling style, she has definitely become an auto buy author for me and one i find myself always recommending to other people.

This was decent, it felt both darker and lower stakes than other books though. I didn't feel like the drama was there, even though the plot was centred on murder and drug abuse- clearly dark themes. As usual in Karen M McManus books there were lots of twists and turns, I guessed a few and a couple surprised me. I saw someone mention that the twists are revealed a page before the characters get there and I really noticed it in this book, this definitely lowered the excitement as you don't feel clever for working something out if you're told it a couple minutes early. Maybe that's just me. The end also set up a sequel and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

CAWPILE: 6.57 3*
Characters: 7- I liked most of the characters and they felt like they had different personalities at first, but they all sort of mellowed into the same character towards the end
Atmosphere: 7- It was exciting, just not the most gripping of her books
Writing: 7- KMM is a fantastic writer, unfortunately we're now on book 5 and its starting to feel a bit routine and scripted
Plot: 6- lots of things happened, but it wasn't the best plot I've read
Intrigue: 6- As I said it felt a bit scripted so my intrigue was lowered
Logic: 6- I've come to realise that one of my least favourite tropes is kids that solve crimes that adults can't... and a lot in this just didn't make sense
Enjoyment: 7- I liked it, I will continue to read all of KMM's books, are they my favourites? No. Do I recommend? Hell yes!

You'll be the Death of me is a detailed insight into the struggles of the average teen these days. From being compared unfavourably towards siblings and the effects of the pressure to be perfect, to one-parent families struggling to make ends meet, and social media turning teens into celebrities, this book runs the gamut of High School experiences.
With sympathetic and engaging characters, each with their own faults and motivations and a plot that steams ahead this is a rollercoaster of a book.
The thriller part of the book, with its twists and turns and exposure of secrets, was expertly done and I can’t praise her enough for her sudden reveals.
Highly recommend.

Karen M. McManus certainly knows how to write a thriller. I love the film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and her previous books so was excited to join the tour to see how they combined in You’ll Be the Death of Me.

It’s told from the points of view of the three protagonists, Ivy, Mateo and Cal who used to be friends when they were younger. We also have have a few sections from their school’s YouTube news channel for an external report on events.

Trying to recreate their Greatest Day ever the three skip school and it isn’t long before sh*t happens. Adding a deadline for solving the case was genius because it ramped up the tension. Will they work out what happened to “Boney” and get Ivy to her mum’s award ceremony in time? That is if they all manage to evade the police.

Re-igniting old crushes, rivalries and wounds this plot was so action packed. Each character has plenty of secrets they want to keep hidden, but does that make one of them a murderer?

🤐 You will have to read to find out.

I've only read one of Karen McManus' books before and I was super excited to give this one a try as I do want to read more YA thrillers. I really enjoyed this story. Throughout we are following three different perspectives Ivy, Mateo and Cal. They used to be friends but now they're not and suddenly things are going very wrong.

All three of these characters are hiding some secret which I found really intriguing from the start. What are they hiding and why? Although I did guess one of the secrets I didn't see the others coming which caught me by surprise.

I really like seeing all three sides of the story and seeing the different perspectives on how things are going. The diversity in this book was really cool to see. We have a black character and we also have a boy who had two dads which I really loved seeing.

Throughout the story you become suspicious of many people throughout the story because you have absolutely no idea who murdered the kid that they know. I was surprised when everything became revealed and just felt things ended a little bit conveniently but i still had a fun time reading this one. This was such a fun read and I'll definitely be picking up more from this author.

I have read and enjoyed all of Karen M. McManus’ YA mysteries and I was very excited to be approved for her latest. I am past the stage of needing to read a synopsis of her books now, so I had no idea what this story was all about.

Ivy has just suffered a crushing defeat at the student council election to a guy who ran for a laugh and she is still in the midst of brushing off. Mateo is exhausted after working two jobs since the decline of his family’s business. Cal has been stood up again by a woman he knows he isn’t supposed to be dating. The three of them used to be close but not anymore. Until they all decide to re-create the Greatest Day Ever and skip school. That’s when they uncover a shocking murder and find themselves in the middle of some rather dodgy dealings that have been going on right under their noses.

Mateo is Puerto Rican and the drama of the narrative is especially dangerous for him to get caught up in. I loved that the other characters acknowledged this and that Mateo’s ethnicity was frequently mentioned throughout the book. It is really important that we recognise and understand the struggles of different races and cultures and what better place to put this lesson than in a YA novel?

There are some little pockets of humour in the book too and I really appreciated these bits of light relief. It deals with a lot of heavy themes and things like the banter and easy conversations between the characters brought it back to a comfortable teen setting.

Ivy feels like she is constantly living in the shadow of her brother Daniel, who seems to be good at everything. I know that so many readers will be able to relate to this, even if they are smart, high achievers because it always seems like there is someone who is doing better than you. It’s especially hard if that person is your sibling. Ivy and Daniel’s relationship isn’t a particularly close one and it was only towards the end that I started to realise that there is a genuinely lovely bond between them -something that I don’t think even Ivy knew.

Cal seems to have lost his way and who he really is, which has caused him to make some questionable decisions. I definitely think it’s his friends who trigger the revelation that he has changed and prompt him to get back to the real Cal. For most of the book, I wanted to shake Cal and let him know that his recent actions really aren’t reflective of who he is and to find himself again.

You’ll Be The Death Of Me is an exciting, page-turning YA thriller with a lot going on. There’s a murder, there’s gossip, there’s forbidden romance, there’s a drug ring and a host of twists at its heart involving characters that you really wouldn’t suspect. It’s about three tired, burned out teens who just want to do what’s right and find who they really are. The ending had an air of it not really being completely over, so I wonder if we will be getting a sequel. I’d thoroughly welcome one because these characters are definitely people I’d love to check in with again.