I know the title sounds reminiscent of Pretty Little Liars, and I totally agree. It doesn’t help that Two Can Keep a Secret is a young adult novel, but I promise you, this mystery novel by Karen McManus is highly entertaining. Also, unlike the other two books I’ve reviewed from McManus, this one is totally unrelated to that world.
This book centers on twin teens, Ellery and Ezra, who have just moved to Virginia to live with their grandmother while their mother is in court-ordered rehab. They are used to California life, so it’s hard to adjust, but it’s also hard since a long time ago, their mother’s twin sister went missing and was never found. On top of that, this town is also the setting of a murder that happened five years prior to their arrival in the town’s amusement park, formerly named Murderland. Nothing creepy or ominous about that!
Ellery and Ezra find themselves as part of a gang of misfits, which includes Malcolm, who is the younger brother of Declan, who was the prime suspect in the murder that took place all those years ago. Even more strange, Malcolm’s mother married the super-rich Peter, who’s daughter it one on the queen-bees of the school. They all get along pretty well, until foreboding signs start showing up all over town, essentially threatening the death of the next homecoming queen.
That’s all I’ll say for fear of ruining this book for anyone, but man, the twists are basically non-stop! Even in the very last line you’ll learn something almost completely unexpected! In general, the main characters are pretty likable, and Karen writes the others in an attention grabbing and vile way. The mystery definitely propelled me to read this a lot quicker than my normal pace. I just wanted to know what happened! And I was not disappointed. The book alternates between Ellery and Malcolm, which makes sense, but I feel like a book about twins, especially boy-girl twins, should focus more on them, or at least added Ezra as another narrator. Besides that, though, I really had no complaints. If you’ve read McManus’ other novels, you should give this one a go, as well!