You'll be the Death of Me: Karen M. McManus

Brief Synopsis:

Ivy, Cal and Mateo all became friends in the 8th grade when they randomly skipped school together and had the Greatest Day Ever in Boston without getting caught. It didn’t take long, just a couple of years, for the friendship to die off and for them all to begin to go their own way. Now, in their senior year of school, the three of them each face their own hardships in life. Ivy is very type-A. As a matter of fact, her whole family is, and she’s being overshadowed by her younger brother that skipped ahead in school and is excelling. She also just lost the school presidential election to her joke of an opponent, Boney Mahoney, and she doesn’t know how to face the school.

Her mother is also being named the Citizen of the Year in their town of Carlton, and the pressure is on for Ivy because she’s been asked to give a speech at the ceremony. Meanwhile, Mateo is dealing with hardships of his own. His mother was diagnosed with osteoarthritis, which has been really putting her out of commission, and their family bowling alley had to close down. Mateo and his cousin Autumn, whom his mom adopted years ago, have been trying to pick up the slack and take care of things, and it’s hasn’t been easy.

Then you have Cal. His parents are dad and dad, and he dresses in some really awesome and bright fashions. Things seem really good for Cal, but he was just dumped and told that he seems like he goes through the motions of life instead of actually living them. All three of them are feeling pretty lost, and even though they haven’t talked in ages, they all meet up by happenstance in the school parking lot and make the decision that they’re once again going to ditch school for the day together and have a good time.

The good time unravels pretty fast, but we were expecting that, weren’t we? They go downtown and end up at this supposed-to-be vacant art studio when Ivy swears she sees Boney go in there. What is he doing here, when he’s supposed to be giving his acceptance speech at school for the presidency, he stole from her? When they get in the studio, which they have the code to because it just so happens to be the studio that Cal’s mystery artsy chick he’s been seeing works in, they find Boney… not upright.

He seems to be have been injected with something, and they can’t be sure it’s Boney because they only really see his sneakers, but they’re pretty sure and they hightail it out of there when they hear the police coming. They go to the bar that Mateo works at to gather their thoughts and the news reports that a body was indeed found and they’re looking for a “blonde woman, in her 20s” that was supposedly seen injecting Boney with something. So that has two immediate options: Ivy herself, with her blonde hair and brown eyes, or whoever the heck Cal has been seeing, who he doesn’t want to talk about.

When Cal takes off, Mateo and Ivy follow him, and trail him to a coffee shop, where he meets up with… their art teacher. He calls her Lara, Ivy and Mateo call her Ms. Jamison, and whatever way you boil it down, it’s bad news. Cal tells Lara that a body, supposedly Boney’s, was found in her studio and she’s clearly upset. It’s convincing enough that all three of them aren’t sure if it could’ve been her. When they go to leave, Lara’s purse is missing, and they find it turned in at the front counter. Cal and Lara part ways after she says she has to talk to the guy that’s been letting her use the space, and he gets back on the train only to find Ivy and Mateo sitting right behind him and wanting answers.

Cal’s clearly pissed that he was followed and gets into it with them, saying some shitty things, including bringing up the fact that Ivy had an uber crush on Mateo in the past and they kissed but it didn’t go anywhere. He walks away and Ivy and Mateo end up hashing it out, discovering that she always thought he just forgot about the situation and the reality being that he tried to ask her out and the entire situation was thwarted. Which is really cute, y’all. Ivy diffuses the tension between her and Cal, begs him not to leave yet, and they agree to go and get a bite and talk some more.

They end up at this donut place Cal loves and Ivy reveals that she was the one that took Lara’s purse before, stealing her planner. They go through it and discover a class roster with three names circled in red: Boney’s, a guy named Charlie, and Mateo’s. Shit gets more real from there, with the discovery that Charlie, Boney and Mateo’s cousin were all selling Oxy together and that Autumn was doing it to be able to afford Mateo’s mom’s medication. They chat with Charlie, but he’s drunk and isn’t able to tell them much. His house was totally ransacked and he and Mateo duke it out before Charlie realizes that they aren’t the ones that did it. Mateo’s sure his is in the same state and they go to Ivy’s house, where she works to clean up Mateo and they have a really sweet moment in the bathroom.

However, Cal confronts Mateo about Autumn and him knowing about the Oxy all along and things are decently tense. It gets worse when Charlie turns on the news and they see that Ivy is being talked about. They decide that they have to try and find Autumn and warn her about everything that’s gone on. She’s been working all day long and probably hasn’t even looked at her phone yet. Her boss tells Mateo he won’t give him Autumn’s delivery route over the phone, but he will in person when he shows his ID and proves that he’s family. The trio take off for Autumn’s work after they drop Charlie off at his brother’s place.

Once they get there, they talk to Autumn’s boss and find out that someone else was also asking about her. Panicking a little, they hurry to the next place that Autumn is supposed to be. They find her there, warn her, and beg her to take off for the Bronx, where Mateo’s mother is for the day visiting some family. After a while she agrees, but also tells him that if it really comes down to it, they need to turn her in and come clean. Their next stop is the school, to raid Lara’s classroom and see if they can find more connections to the mysterious D, the guy that they think is connected to the whole thing that left a note for Lara that they found in her planner. At this point, Ivy decides she has to tell Mateo something.

She comes clean about an incident a while ago regarding Mateo’s mom’s bowling alley and trying to prank her brother. This prank ended up in Mateo’s mom getting sued and is ultimately one of the reasons that she had to give up the bowling alley. Mateo is beyond pissed and tells Ivy that he’s done with her. When they get to the school, he takes off and tells them that he’s done with the entire thing. He goes home and, just like Charlie’s, it’s totally ransacked. He decides to attempt to clean up, but then Autumn tells him that she came clean to Mateo’s mom and she’s going to the cops. He’s more than pissed and wanders into her room, where he makes a connection that could change the game.

Meanwhile, while Ivy and Cal are raiding Lara’s office, they’re caught by Ivy’s brother Daniel and he tells them a secret about the past that also breaks things apart between Ivy and Cal. Mateo goes to a party and confronts Autumn’s gross boyfriend, figuring out that he’s the weasel everyone talks about turning people in and kind of working on both sides. The weasel tells him, finally, who the one behind all of this is. Ivy is texted by who she thinks is her brother, but is actually the school coach… who is also the drug dealer AND Lara’s fiancé. I know. Lots going on here.

Cal goes to Lara’s house to confront her once and for all when he finds drugs in her desk and finds her about to take off. She tells him that he himself, the other guy (D) and her fiancé were all kind of a means to an end and now it’s time for her to clear out. She claims that she is being framed with the drugs by her fiancé, and Cal isn’t sure what to believe. She starts to leave but the coach is already there with Ivy, and he’s holding her hostage. They go to Lara’s garage and she starts weaving a tale of escaping to the coach, even though Ivy and Cal can both tell she’s just trying to save her own ass.

Things end in a pretty brutal tussle and Cal’s pretty much seconds from death when the cops show up and apprehend the coach. Ivy, Mateo and Cal all end up on the better side of things, and Ivy even comes clean about messing with the bowling alley. Mateo’s mom begins working with Ivy’s dad, Autumn doesn’t end up in prison and begins volunteering at an addict recovery type of shelter, and Mateo and Ivy are even given a second chance at everything they lost when they were younger.

However, all is not well that ends well in this story. Mateo’s dad comes around and invites him to dinner to introduce him to his new girlfriend. Guess who it is?

My Rating:

6/10. I LOVE Karen McManus books and this one just kind of fell short for me. There wasn’t a whole lot going on and the story seemed to kind of drag. It says it’s a standalone, but it felt like there could be more to the story? Especially how it ended. Either way, I prefer McManus’s other books.

Scare/Spook Rating:

I’m going to say a 5/10. The suspense had potential to be spookier, but it just ended up kind of predictable.

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Until next time <3