Book Review: Dead Girls Can't Tell Secrets by Chelsea Ichaso
***Scroll to the bottom for my rating***
Dead Girls Can’t Tell Secrets is a young adult mystery novel set in a high school setting. It is focused on the relationship between two sisters. The oldest, Savannah, is trying to make amends for a recent argument after the youngest sister, Piper, is found having fallen down a mountain and landed in a coma.
Having trouble facing the reality of her last conversation with Piper, Savannah, while in disbelief about the suicide attempt claim from the cops, is determined to prove someone had it out for her sister. This is why she joins Survival Club and takes a weekend camping trip at the top of the same mountain her sister was just rescued.
Between the uber-loved teacher, Piper’s nemesis at the school paper, secret friendships, “ex-best friends,” the captain of the soccer team, and some newfound confidants, there are a lot of people to point fingers at for Piper’s accident. Savannah, digging deep to find the culprit, finds herself quick to accuse and even quicker to recant once she learns the truth about each person’s connection to her sister.
“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer” is Savannah’s motto throughout this search, and it proves pretty accurate the more she uncovers.
I read Dead Girls Can’t Tell Secrets as a quadruple buddy read with my amazing booksta friends Liela, Age, and Reese. We split it into 50-page intervals with discussion in between, but we quickly found there wasn’t much to discuss—mostly just our suspicions.
I can’t exactly speak for the other girls, but this one wasn’t for me. I likely would have DNF’d this book had we not been buddy-reading. I’ve reached a point where some YA is too YA, which was the case with this book. The main character was immature, which seriously irritated me throughout the book, making it hard to feel any empathy or sympathy for her. I got that the intentions of her actions were meant to be good-natured throughout, but I was not really rooting for her during the story. Due to my disconnect with the characters, I am rating Dead Girls Can’t Tell Secrets as 2 out of 5 stars.
Even though my rating for this book is not high, that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good book. It just wasn’t for me, or even better, it wasn’t for me at the time of reading it. If you are rounding out your middle school and high school era, I think this book is better suited for you than it was for me. I enjoyed the writing style and the tension; I just didn’t relate to the characters. If I had picked up this book 10-12 years ago, my rating might have been entirely different. This goes to say that everyone is entitled to their own opinion on their reads and should take the time to determine for themself if what they’re reading is for them.
As always, thanks for reading! 💜
Stars: ⭐️⭐️