I received an eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

One year after a serial killer terrorized the small coastal town of Camera Cove, Mac is trying his best to move on. He has just graduated high school, reuniting with some of his childhood best friends to dig up a time capsule. One member of the friend group cannot be there because Connor was the final victim of the serial killer that has not been caught.

After going home, Mac decides to finally open up a bag of comics that Connor had left on his door on a day that ended up being the last day of Connor’s life. In there, Mac finds a small note that tells him that Connor may have actively been investigating the serial killer.

Instead of moving on, Mac begins to investigate this. Under the guise of seeking items for a rummage sale, he begins to make contact with each of the victim’s families to search for clues that the police may have missed.

This was so good. YA thrillers have always tended to be a hit or miss for me, but the YA thrillers that are getting published within the last couple of years have all been outstanding. Keep This To Yourself manages to explore the obsessive nature of unsolved crime, the early beginnings of a romance, and the uncertainty of the summer after high school graduation. The main character is also gay, and it’s nice to read a thriller where that’s the case. (This is still a great rarity!)

If you have read Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig and loved it, you will definitely love this one. Similarly, if you have read The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas and loved it, you will definitely love this one too.

KEEP THIS TO YOURSELF was the kind of thriller that kept me stressed to the very last page. At one point I literally had to tell myself to relax my jaw...which is the sign of a good thriller, right!? It captivated me with easy and engaging writing and an intriguing plot that I couldn't quite guess how would end up. Getting to take the journey with Mac was equal parts sad, stressful, and heartbreaking.

The plot definitely kept me glued to the page (I read it in one day!) and that's the main thing I ask for in a thriller. Mac is trying to get answers for a mystery no one's solved in over a year. Everyone's telling him to move on, but this is his best friend that died...and he can't seem to settle on closure. His life feels so pointless unless he finds out who was the Catalogue Killer. But he suspects Conor wasn't just a victim - what if Conor was trying to solve the case?! Mac takes it on himself to piece together the old old clues. And he starts turning things up. I appreciated that this was rather a 'cold case' because it gave the characters more room to be prying since the police had given up. Of course the incompetent police plot line was a bit predictable, and at the end, I confess I couldn't believe in the decision the cops had made?? It seemed WAY too far fetched. But I lvoed unravelling and unwinding the clues with Mac.

It also featured a group of childhood friends who've since split apart since Conor died. They had all such complex and interesting personalities, and it was interesting seeing how they all fit together...and broke apart.

Mac was a really soft sort of boy, totally quiet and shy, and he did have a nicely solid arc that didn't involve him changing personalities, but he did become a bit more assertive. His romance with Quinn, a cousin of another of the serial killer's victims, was super cute and I adored how rambunctious and bright Quinn was. Definitely a splash of fun in a very grim plot. Their relationship erred on the side of instalove though, but it's still just so so good to see queer characters taking the lead in genres other than contemporary!

Overall?! This was a solidly good thriller that I'm super glad I requested on impulse from Netgalley! It will make you chew your nails and ask questions and throw yourself wildly down rabbit trails that lead to nothing...until Mac unwinds the mystery and you discover the shocking truths with him.

This book is so twisty in all the right ways. You're kept guessing the whole time and nothing really comes together until the end. And that's coming from someone who figured out who did it, but was so very wrong on the reason why.

Mac is a lovable MC who just can't get past his best friend Connor's murder and will do anything to solve it. But Camera Cove is not the picturesque town that it looks to be from the outside. As in any small town, there's a multitude of secrets and they seem to be getting people into a lot of trouble. This mystery is layers deep and I was shocked at every revelation and every piece of the puzzle solved. The setting really amps up the creepy factor and you're not sure who you can trust, not even the MC. The characterization in this one is stunning and I felt like Mac was my best friend and we were solving this mystery together. The side characters are just as lovely, with Quinn being my favorite,

I can't say anymore as I'm afraid I'll give something away. If you love thrillers, you'd be stupid not to pick this one up.

The premise of this is so intriguing, and I admit I raced through the first half of the book without putting it down. I liked Mac (the narrator), and I found the entire situation enticing (he finds a note from his dead best friend a year after his friend was killed by a serial killer). I couldn't wait to discover, along with Mac, who had killed the four victims -- and why.

Sadly, this book never really took off for me. After half the book, I still knew no more about any single character (including Mac) than I had at the beginning. Everything that we learn about any of them was told to us rather than shown, and even the few action scenes had no foundation to explain them. For instance, when Mac meets Quill, the love interest here, all we learn about Quill is that he's bi-racial, his parents are wealthy, he likes to swear, and his cousin is one of the victims. Apparently that's enough to support a romance, however.

It just didn't work for me. When the killer is revealed, I didn't feel any satisfaction or fulfillment. Because Mac never digs deeper than the very surface in his narration -- we don't even know his parents' names or have a basic physical description of them, for goodness sake; they were about as present as adults in Charlie Brown comics -- there's nothing really to support the claims of the mental problems behind the killer's behavior. We're simply told the killer was evil. Plus, Mac has so little perception into the people around him that we, as the readers, are skimming the surface throughout. Mac doesn't even seem to know himself, so it's no wonder that we get no depth to anything or anyone.

I was so disappointed. This book had the promise of a Karen McManus or Caleb Roehrig, in my opinion, but it never even came close to delivering. I might pick up another book by this author, simply because I know writers can grow and become stronger the more they write, but my expectations would be much lower. (By the way, the writing style in itself was very smooth and easy to follow. Ryan can clearly write -- hopefully his characterization skills will grow to meet the writing skills.)

I really enjoyed this book. It really kept me guessing what was happening. I do think the characters could have had more depth. We didn't really learn much about them other than their relation to the main plotline.

Keep This to Yourself by author Tom Ryan is a fun mystery/thriller perfect for Young Adult/Teen. A quick read and full of dark secrets.
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an arc copy of Keep This rob Yourself in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review. I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF THIS BOOK!!! I loved the storyline and how Mac slowly uncovered the mystery of the Catolog Killer. I never would have guess who the killer was!! I’m so glad I got the opportunity to read this early!!

Thank you to Albert Whitman & Company for the arc of this book.
I didn’t dislike this book, but I am not sure if I liked it either, at one point I did consider putting it down, I am glad I didn’t though, the end was a twist you don’t see coming.
I just think this book lacked umph for me, except for that ending, that was very good.

In Keep This to Yourself by Tom Ryan we follow Mac as he struggles with the death of his best friend, Connor, by the hands of a serial killer. Mac doesn’t feel the police were completely thorough with the hunt for the killer so he sets out to see what he can discover on his own, meeting the families of other victims and piecing together clues that the police may not have found value. Mac just wants to find the truth so he can finally move past this horrible time.
Overall I really enjoyed Keep This to Yourself - the plot was solid and wasn’t disjointed with implausible character choices or plot devices (I hate when things miraculously happen to make things easier for the characters). Ryan weaved his mystery pretty well, with new information being revealed slowly until BOOM, the big finale. This is something that’s super important to me when I read mystery novels and I feel Ryan hit the nail on the head. I don’t want too much information given right away but slowly peeled back so I can start making hypotheses about what happened.
My only major complaint is definitely based within personal bias - the romance (I’m super finicky about romance plot lines). I felt the mystery plot was perfect for this novel and there was a romance plot line that I found to be unnecessary. I know fans and the primary audience will love this part of the story, but I felt it was too forced and wasn’t needed for the overall mystery narrative. However, I wasn’t irked by it enough to hate it - I’m not that much of a naysayer - I just would have prefered more focus on investigation than kissing. :)
I’m giving Keep This to Yourself 3 out of 5 Awesome Points. It was an enjoyable read with a main character that provides a lot of emotional depth as well as growth throughout the entire novel. Plus, it was easily digestible so can be enjoyed by a variety of readers. I’ve never read anything by this author so I’ll be checking out more of their works.

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of KEEP THIS TO YOURSELF by Tom Ryan in exchange for my honest review.***

4.5 STARS

What an unexpected gem!

Ingredients for a perfect mystery:

1 serial killer
1 estranged group of friends
1 murdered friend
1 kickass narrator
A bunch of interesting minor characters
1 possible love interest
A generous handful of clues
A sprinkle of red herrings
An ending I didn’t see coming

KEEP THIS TO YOURSELF is one of those novels I wanted to reread immediately after I finished to figure out the clues I missed. How did I not know of Tom Ryan before KEEP THIS TO YOURSELF?

Ryan gave protagonist Mac a likable and sympathetic voice. He’s not only grieving for the loss of his best friend Connor, he’s also harboring an unacknowledged crush for his pal. Additionally, Connor was the glue that held his friend group together, without him they’ve splintered. As much as I liked Mac, I didn’t his other friends, at least for the first 90% of the book. They were interesting people with individual personalities and nuances, whom I wouldn’t have chosen to befriend. Quill, Mac’s new friend and possible love interest, stole my heart.

The plot moved quickly, with my list of suspects constantly changing. They all made sense, until they didn’t.

A strong recommendation for KEEP THIS TO YOURSELF.