Book Review: You Can Trust Me by Gina Blaxhill

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Wow. There was not a moment when I was not completely gripped and absorbed in this book, having ended up spending nearly all of yesterday reading it, for about 6-7 hours (though with the odd breaks) because I was just that determined to keep reading on, as with all the suspense and drama and 'wham' moments that were unfolding I could not simply leave it for tomorrow, I needed closure and that is only a sign of an amazing book, when you are able to get hooked like this. My brain hurt a bit as a result but god it was so worth it.

YA thrillers are one of my very favourite book genres-not all of them I love, as of course they have to be done really well and strongly, that keep me really hooked with their unfolding suspense and drama, twists and turns while also highlighting issues that are very real such as toxic friendships, relationships and sexual abuse. This book did all that and was perhaps the best I have read out of all these YA thrillers.

Like many YA Thrillers, this is about a teenage girl, who here is called Alana, who finds herself uncovering a murder mystery involving the murder of her friend, and finds an unlikely ally in the rich, badboy of the male school. I'll admit that I did actually guess that the culprit was Marley pretty early on, as of course it's always the person you least suspect, the one who seems the friendliest with the protagonist, which is exactly what Marley was, as of course any of the St Jules boys would have been too obvious. Well I say that but one of them, Henry, who was also Marley's brother, was also actually the joint culprit in Esme's murder, who was always an absolute toxic and obnoxious knobhead, and he was the one who actually finished Esme off after she had seemingly been revived, and while that was no real surprise, the joint effort between him and his sister, Marley, who was the real wolf in sheep's clothing, having claimed to be Esme's best friend and suddenly befriended Alana who was now suddenly her 'best friend' too, is what made the whole thing a real twist and surprise. I'll admit that I had been hoping that it wouldn't be Marley due to the fact she seemed like a good friend at first, but as Marley's behaviour became more and more suspicious I was kind of glad.

So yeah, while I did guess Marley pretty early on, the obviousness of that didn't actually take away the brilliance and strength of the book, because it was still a complex concept and shocker overall. It might have just been obvious to me as well because I've read quite a few murder mysteries before so have gotten used to spotting the guilty party maybe. The idea of her and Henry working together actually didn't fully occur to me until it was mentioned I think to be fair either. But god that was one heck of a twist. I mean I think the signs did become pretty clear the way Marley didn't seem at all fazed by her supposed "best friend's" death, like wanting to go shopping right after her funeral rather than attending the wake, and I guess the only thing I would perhaps critique here was the way she wasn't even shown to be faking being sad about her "best friend's" death, as that would usually surely be the case and what she'd want to throw people off. But yeah, the way there was this one character who was supposedly Alana's ally, her only female ally at that, initially did suddenly start to ring alarm bells to me, as per typical twist. But like I say, that was still one heck of a twist, having even revealed the full extent of Henry and Marley's actual psychotic, murderous nature and just how extreme they actually were by showing their background as well, though them murdering their parents did seem a tad far-fetched as there didn't seem to be a realistic, strong enough motive there so did come off as a tad forced, and might have been better if it had been that their parents abused them or one of them at least, given how protective they were of each other. Unless I overlooked something there, I don't know. But again this is only a pretty minor thing I'd critique. It was very disturbing seeing just how extremely psychotic Henry and Marley actually were, like it might have been even better if their psychosis had been explored a bit, like if the old friend of Marley's from Bamford revealed that her and her brother had disturbing behaviour as children and their parents brought them to be diagnosed with psychosis, and were about the put them in special care or an institute maybe this could have been their motive for killing their parents, so I'd say that was a bit of a missed opportunity to be honest. I mean clearly both of them had psychosis and maybe some other mental disorder in a very extreme way-I'm no psychiatrist of course but psychosis does seem like the most likely option, so it might have been interesting if this had been touched on a bit, rather than them just having been randomly psychotic together. Marley actually helping her brother rape another girl was also a disturbing twist, and in a way she was worse than him, as at least aside from the very beginning when he first starts chatting to Alana he wasn't a wolf in sheep's clothing, with Marley being the very worst, most extreme kind of Wolf in Sheep's clothing there is.

Another thing I'd critique was the use of american terminology that was used despite this having been set in the UK, and this wasn't just by Liam either who fair enough was actually American, but by other characters too, like Alana using the term "Jerk" more than once and Marley using the term "butt". Just another example of US terminology and dialect worming its way into our country, with our culture seeming to copycat american culture quite a bit. Again, this was pretty minor though, which is why I have stuck with the 5 star rating, because it was overall an amazing read, even if it wasn't 100% perfect.

I was kind of hoping a little bit that the culprit would be Liam, but when I saw that after Alana's speculation that it was Liam there were still loads of pages left, meaning more space for resolution, I knew it couldn't be. That and the fact that this is a pretty common red herring in thriller mysteries I've noticed, that often take place pre-climax. Honestly I did find Alana's relationship with Liam pretty annoying, with all those romance scenes making me cringe a bit, but they did realise they weren't right for each other and broke up, so I do appreciate that. I found Liam a bit too clingy and needy with Alana as well, obsessing over her and seeming to love the idea and image of her more than her herself, though I appreciate that this was at least addressed somewhat by Alana, getting annoyed with him for seeing her as a status symbol. I like as well how Xander was revealed to actually be a pretty good guy deep down, as initially he is painted as just as obnoxious and toxic as the rest of the St Jules boys, but is given a lot of depth with obvious insecurities and insight into own behaviour, and ends up becoming Alana's closest ally and helping her deal with the whole mystery and incident of Esme's murder. This was actually really heart-warming to see, as unlike a lot of feminist novels that depict patriarchy like this with guys mistreating girls in such a way, it wasn't just about simply making all the male characters obnoxious and toxic knobheads who mistreat girls/women, but also giving them complex personalities, which was done so well in Xander and I really admire that.

Another thing though I should perhaps critique is that it was kind of annoying the way Marley and Henry's consequences and comeuppance were never really specified, with Marley's only being implied, as you would've thought surely after them having committed murder and attempted murder that it would have specified their life sentence. I mean they were implied to be serial killers, and so just having been pretty ambiguous and abruptly dismissed whatever consequences they were going to face (most likely life sentence surely), including with Henry's accident, was pretty disappointing.

Toxic friendships was definitely a key concept highlighted here, and something that I always find really intriguing in YA thrillers, and of course it resonates with me a lot, with this having covered the most extreme kinds of toxic friendship there could be.

While there may be a few points I have critiqued here, I have still given it a 5 star rating because it was simply amazing overall, which is what the 5 star rating says, and most books I find, even ones that are 'amazing', always have their flaws. It had been a good while since I last read a YA thriller like this, so it felt good to get back into it again, and am currently reaading Gina Blaxhill's other, successor novel "Love you to death", so am looking forward to that too!