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Two Can Keep A Secret by Karen M McManus.
Two Can Keep A Secret by Karen M McManus. Pub. PenguinRandom House, 2019.
This is a murder mystery for teens par excellence.
It is set in a small East coast American town called Echo Ridge, a town that is obsessed with it’s tragic past. Twenty odd years ago Sadie and her twin sister Sarah went to the Homecoming Ball at Echo Ridge High where Sadie was homecoming Queen. Shortly after Sarah disappeared and has never been found. Why?
Now Sadie’s twin daughter Ellery and brother Ezra have returned to Echo Ridge to live with their grandmother and go to Echo Ridge high school as Sadie has gone into rehab for drug addiction. Five years earlier another homecoming Queen, Lacey who was Sadie’s favourite babysitter, was murdered in a horror theme park called Fright Farm. Her murderer has not been found
On their return to Echo Ridge on a rainy night, Ellery and Ezra find a teacher dead on the road and lots of ominous things are happening around the town. It is the eve of another homecoming Queen Ball at Echo Ridge High and startling as it seems Ellery has been named as one of the finalists for Homecoming Queen. She suspects a fit up and her investigative nature causes her to look into the deeds of the past.
Then one of the other candidates for homecoming Queen goes missing in the company of Malcolm the brother of Declan who has top candidate for the murder of Lacey. What the heavens is going on? Read it and find out, it is outstanding drama.
Brilliantly written in short chapters with lots of things going on. There are mean girls, football players who think they are wonderful, gay boys and girls and the whole American high school scene. The ending is thrilling. You won’t put this down once you start.
Looking for Alaska by John Green
Looking for Alaska by John Green. Pub. HarperCollins, 2013.
The most enjoyable and satisfying novel for High school students i have read this year. Why? because the four major characters in it are just superb.
Miles Halter goes to the same High School in steamy Alabama as his father went to and stays as a boarder. Miles is looking for the Big Perhaps and he meets it alright in the shape of three friends at the school that are to change his life for ever.
He rooms with Chip alias the Colonel, a poor boy, with a deep resentment of the rich, due to his upbringing in a trailer park. He is on a scholarship to the school, is witty and a risk taker. Just what Miles needs. He nicknames Miles Pudge because he is tall and thin and Pudge he becomes.
He is introduced to a brilliant girl named Alaska and is instantly attracted to her and hungers after her for the rest of the book. She in turn flirts with him and other boys but when it comes down to it she holds them all at bay by saying she is true to her boyfriend Jake who is hung like a horse and is an attentive lover. You innocents cannot compete with that.
The fourth character is Takumi, a Japanese boarder who is a true friend and for all the others holds a key position in their friendship.
The book is in two parts and is structured in the days counting down to the beginning of a relationship. Miles or Pudge narrates the story as we count down from136 days Before the event. When it happens everything is blown out of the water but you will have to read it to find out what.
Part 2 is 136 days After the event and wow it is brilliant. As I read it I said why can’t I write like this? and you will too.
The novel is underpinned by a deep philosophical argument about the meaning of life and growing up. Highly recommended.
Life after theft by Aprilynne Pike
Life After Theft by Aprilynne Pike. Pub. HarperCollins, 2013.
Sometimes it is good to pick up a teenage novel that sounds like it is frivilous and it turns out to be pretty good. This is such a novel.
Kimberlee is dead. She was the hottest chick in school but she wasn’t miss nice to everyone. She was immensely wealthy but a kleptomaniac. She stole from everyone. Teachers, students, shops everyone. No remorse.
For whatever reason and at the behest of whatever Cosmic power you believe in Kimberlee comes back as a ghost to correct the wrong she has done. ie return all the stolen property. Hundreds of boxes of the stiff. She never needed it or used it but stored it in a cave.
Jeff is the new boy at a privileged school. The school that Kimberlee went to. On his first day he sees her lying as a ghost on the locker room floor. Nobody else can see her except him. Kimberlee gets him to help her return the stolen goods with the belief that returning the booty will end her days as a ghost. Will this happen or is there more to it than that?
Meanwhile Jeff starts up a relationship with Sera, a once bad girl, now apparently miss clean. The trouble is Sera and Kimberlee have history as does her brother Khail who is built like a brick toilet and has secrets of his own.
It all builds up to a very satisfying and revealing ending. You might not think you would like such a novel at first viewing, but you would be wrong. I enjoyed it immensely.
For high school students.
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