Book Review: Dead Girls Can’t Tell Secrets – Chelsea Ichaso

Disclaimer: I was gifted an eARC of ‘Dead Girls Can’t Tell Secrets’ by the publisher via Netgally in exchange for an honest review. All the opinions below are my own.

Dead girls can’t tell secrets is a YA mystery/ thriller with a gripping plot. Piper Sullivan fell from Suicide point a month ago and has been in a coma ever since. Some speculate that it wasn’t a fall at all but an intentional jump. Piper’s sister, Savannah has a different theory. She believes that Piper was being threatened and someone had a reason to want her dead. In ‘Dead girls can’t tell secrets we follow Savannah as she goes on a hiking trip to uncover the truth about her sister’s accident.

This book has:
An unreliable narrator.
A camping trip.
A girl in a coma.
A group of friends where nobody can be trusted.
Whodunit trope

This book had so many twists and turns it made my head spin. This has all the elements for the perfect YA thriller. I enjoyed the whole cast of characters and it really made me feel like I was back in high school trying to figure out where I fit in.

The big reveal was so well done. It caught me completely off guard and I never saw it coming. I loved the camping trip element. It made the story a lot more interesting when the characters where a while away from help or even cellphone reception.

Savannah’s character was flawed and relatable, but damn, that girl can make some stupid decisions when she is in hot water. There were many face palm moments related to her character. That being said, it does add to the thrilling aspect of the story and keeps you engaged.

This is a fast-paced page turner that will keep you on your toes. The perfect whodunit YA thriller that you can fly through in one sitting. If you are looking for an action packed read with some questionable characters, then this one is for you!

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire, Netgally and Chelsea Ichaso for the review copy.

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Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for this ARC.
The story follows Savannah attempting to do detective work after her sister, Piper, is said to have attempted suicide by jumping off a cliff. Savannah doesn’t buy it and it determined to find whoever attempted to murder her sister.
I had a difficult time wanting to continue reading after I started it. As a main lead, Savannah isn’t very likable, tends to make poor choices and also has poor detective skills. In an attempt to solve the mystery of her sister’s fall, Savannah joins the Survival Club at her school and goes on a camping trip basically very close to where her sister fell. She then tries to keep her investigation a secret, but she one by one ends up accusing everyone; once they deny it, she spills the beans about her investigation. There are a few chapters from Piper’s view, which were more enjoyable than Savannah’s. The plot twist was a bit silly in my opinion, but the ending was okay.

Savannah's sister fell off a cliff a month ago. She is determined to find out if it was truly a suicide attempt, or worse; attempted murder. So she joins the wilderness club on their weekend trip to find out just what these people are hiding, and if they have secrets even half as bad as savannah herself.

I would like to start by saying I love the premise. Anything with dark secrets to spill, I'm in. However, as I began reading, I had an immediate dislike for the main character and boy, was I right for that one. Savannah is so full of herself, there is barely a page that doesn't mention how beautiful she is or how many boys are staring at her. So, I was hoping to find reprieve in other characters, but I'm sad to report that all of the other characters were just as unbearable. As far as stories go, I did enjoy it enough. The secrets weren't nearly as dark as I had hoped, but it is YA novel so I will not judge too harshly. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

This was a creative concept! I liked the dedication to finding out what happened to Piper. Ultimately I couldn't quite get into this book the way I had hoped. I think this is more suited to a YA audience, which I can get behind sometimes, but this one just wasn't for me.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm very conflicted by this one. The plot seemed promising, at first, but in the end... eh... I was underwhelmed. I won't be going into spoilers here.
I have two main issues: the writing and the main character.

Firstly, I found the writing odd. Even in the first chapter there's this sentence that made my skin crawl: Piper keeps an extra sweater stuffed inside her locker because she's always cold.No meat on her skinny bones. Like... was it necessary? Another example is this 2010s YA inspired sentence: I wasn't a sister.I wasn't even a friend.I was the darkness.

But even the jokes felt flat considering the plot and vibe of this book, at least to me. Personally, if I'm investigating how and why my sister fell off a cliff, the last thing I'd do is crack jokes. I get that it could be a copying mechanism but... it just didn't work. Example:
"If you talk to Abby, she'll just make up a story. She's a drama queen."

"I mean, technically she's an opera queen."
Get it? Because Abby hums a lot.

Let's move on to Savannah, the main character who with no exaggeration deserves the award for "one of the most annoying characters". I felt that the author tried to paint her as an unreliable narrator but as the end what came out was... Savannah. I can see why she was disliked by some characters based on her actions. She's selfish,impulsive,acts before she thinks etc,etc...

Even the plot at some points was dumb(the plot was focused on Savannah's actions,wow what a shock.

I will say however that the book is fast paced and an easy read which is a plus. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough.

Not the worst book I’ve ever read, but it’s not the best either. It sort of reminded me of a low rent One Of Us Is Lying.

Sisters Savannah and Piper had just had the worst fight of their life on the day Piper fell from a cliff and ended up in a coma. Everyone, including the police, belief she attempted to take her own life, but Savannah isn’t convinced, especially when she finds a strange note in Piper’s locker at school.

On a mission to find out what happened to her sister, and clear some of her own guilt, Savannah joins one of Piper’s school clubs and heads out for the club camping trip, in the hope someone in the group might know something. As the evidence piles up, it points to more and more suspects and Savannah finds herself questioning both friendships and enemies.

Dead Girl’s Can’t Tell Secrets (or, The Dark Way Down – it seems this book has changed it’s original title?) was a fun mystery with plenty of twists. I enjoyed the ‘nobody can be trusted’ premise of the story and thought I had it figured out a bunch of times! (I didn’t 😄).

A fast paced, addictive storyline with a bunch of unreliable characters, including the narrator. If you’re looking for a YA mystery thriller that will keep you guessing and glued to the page, add this one to your TBR!

This was a fine mystery. I was invested, and I definitely enjoyed the twist at the end. However, I felt like I wanted to see more consequences for everyone’s actions. How had she not turned in Noah? I guess I’m not as forgiving as Savannah.

I will hand it to fans of mysteries, especially if they’re interested in ones that take place in nature, like ones by Ashley Elston. Not super original, but not boring.

This book was very easy to get through — the action starts right away, and from there the story is very fast paced. The mystery is generally well-developed, and the plot unravels quite naturally, though some of the conclusions that the characters jump to seem a bit exaggerated or forced in context.

It took me a while to pinpoint what it was exactly about the main character’s investigation that didn’t quite do it for me, but a third into the book I finally realized: everything that the protagonist discovers is told to her by other characters. As in, she doesn’t really find any evidence for her theories, she just gets versions or pieces of the story from other people and draws her own conclusions.

Overall, it was a fine YA thriller, though I would probably only recommend it to people looking for a light read.

I read a lot of thrillers and this one just felt pretty predictable. I do enjoy a YA book from time to time, which is why I was interested, but it was pretty basic. I think generally, most will enjoy it and I appreciate the opportunity to give it some attention.

Ichaso's book has twist after twist - I could not stop reading until I found out what happened to Piper. I enjoyed the character development in this book, which doesn't always happen with YA thrillers.

<b> is it okay for a book to be written as of by a teen just because it has young main characters?? </b>
Now, to be clear, i didn't read the synopsis before requesting the book, which in hindsight is one of the dumbest decision I've taken this year... yay me!!!
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the writing style was my main issue throughout the book, not only was it so basic, it was actually really irritating, the author wanted to give the main character the role of an unreliable narrator which is totally okay with me ,but the result was an unreliable narrator who also happens to be super moody, dumbly aggressive and downright unlikeable..
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i dearly wished for a mysterious or gripping edge to the novel, but it felt like reading a manuscript of a failed disney teen movie, the conversations between the characters were so cringe worthy, the author's main goal was to make you suspect every character and then gives you reasons why that specific character is actually innocent, it was like playing cat and mouse with the reader through the whole book which in my opinion was kind of lame.
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The other problem with the book was the unoriginality of it, when you say teen thriller you think of :One of us is lying or A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, these were some good thrillers who kept me hooked from the beginning, had characters worth reading about and most importantly, a good plot!
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but at the end for the sake of sounding not too salty, i liked the cover.
*i received an ARC of this book in exchange of an honest review through netgalley and the publisher*

Savannah is thrown into the mystery of her sister, Piper's death. While the police and everyone else in town thinks it was a suicide, Savannah is convinced something more sinister happened. The novel follows Savannah through her timeline of investigations.

I flew through the book which was about 200 pages. I wish there was more backstory to get to know the characters. I was intrigued by the plot and think it has a good base but fell short with details. I can say the twist at the end did surprise me, so that was a plus!

Overall, a decent-short read that I would recommend to YA readers who want to dip their toes into mystery or suspense novels.

I had a lot of excitement and high hopes for this as the premise sounded interesting and I love a good mystery thriller.

Sadly for me the ending felt kind of flat from such a big build up as I kinda worked out what was going to happen in the end and had a suspicions about that character. Although the ending fell flat for me, the story would be a great read for anyone looking for a simple mystery, who done it, who can I trust?

Savannah did get on my nerves at one point. She was accusing everyone, and weirdly everyone did has a connection to her sister, Piper, but then it would be like nah they’re innocent, okay next person with a wild build up and accusations then the same thing, which would work out if the accusations were less and more detailed and filled in my opinion, rather than many accusations and people which got confusing at one point and felt rushed.

Despite this it was an okay read and would recommend it to people looking for a not too heavy mystery thriller read.

First of all, I'll say I know I'm probably not the targeted audience for this book, so keep that in mind while reading this. That said though, I don't think that was the main reason I didn't enjoy this book.

I was hoping to find a fun, Good Girl's Guide to Murder/Pretty Little Liar vibes YA thriller book and while I think at its core it was trying to get there, it didn't quite meet the requirements.

I will say one good thing though and that is that it is very easy to read, so if you're looking for a novel that doesn't require a lot of thinking/concentration and just want to pass the time, maybe give it a go if it sounds like you might enjoy it.

Now onto the things I didn't like. Mild spoilers ahead:

I found the plot to be quite basic and almost non-existent, every twist was quite predictable and lacked a lot of substance.

The main character was annoyingly stupid about how to handle the whole "investigation", pretty much just telling everyone every single thought that went through her brain. She would just go to the person of interest and be like, "Hey, did you try to kill my sister?". The reactions the rest of the characters had were not very natural either. Apart from that, every single character was a different stereotype of a high school student and they were all very much one-dimensional.
The writing was, again, too plain and basic and the solution to the mystery was not only predictable but also very anticlimactic.

The title is also misleading, no one is actually dead and there aren't a lot of secrets to tell anyways. It is a bit clickbaity for my taste.

To sum up, I did not expect great things from this novel and I was still disappointed.

This was fun! It wasn't what I wanted it to be, but that's my own issue. This is a quick read, and it super engaging - it's honestly so hard to put down, which works because it isn't incredibly long or convoluted. I HATED so many of the choices that characters made in this, but it worked and felt realistic to the characters Ichaso created. I cannot recommend this enough if you want something interesting, funny, and quick to read.

I read this book in record speed bcs it was un-putdown-able. Fast paced, dark and thrilling, everyone seems to have a motive/reason to kill, angsty teenage drama... It was such a ride! My only little setback is I wish the climax-toward-ending (the moment they were discovering who is really responsible and how they were handled) was somehow a bit stronger? Like it pales at the end of such thrilling ride. But overall, I enjoyed it a lot!

< Review copy received via Netgalley in exchange with an honest review >

Dead Girls Can't Tell Secrets is such an amazing book, it helped me out of a book funk I've been in for weeks now. I finished this magnificent book in less than a day and it did not disappoint. It is such an attention grabber and there was not one second or part in the entire book where I got bored or lost interest. This book is filled with such great imagery and shocking plot twists, just when you think you know who is responsible, it whips you back to the drawing board in the most incredible way. The ending left me with my jaw to the floor as well as with tears in my eyes. I was more than content with this book and I can't wait to purchase this next year. Thank you Chelsea Ichaso and NetGalley for the opportunity to read the ARC of Dead Girls Can't Tell Secrets.

*Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks for the free e-arc in exchange for an honest review*

Now this is what I call a fast-paced thriller!
This book wasted no time. It got straight into the story and added background story in between chapters.
I felt a bit strange about it at first, because I thought the pacing was way too fast. But, the backstory was well done and I did end up enjoying it. Lately young adult thrillers aren't really fast paced as advertised, so seeing this was refreshing.

There were twists after twists so even when you think you've figured it out, you haven't. And while at times I felt it might be a bit too much, and the mc, Savannah, made some rushed/questionable choices, it kept me on edge and turning pages. I wanted to know who dun it!
I also liked the conclusion and the way things ended and I really enjoy Chelsea Ichaso's writing style.

All in all, it was a fun quick thrilling read and I liked it just as much as Little Creeping Things. Chelsea's def in my auto-buy authors' list! Can't wait to see what's next!

I love a great ya mystery thriller. I crave the twists and the mystery. However this one was a bit to predictable and kinda fell flat for me.