Please Don't Tell

Reviewed by: Brooke Faulkner - McArthur Public Library, Biddeford, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: November 8, 2016

Review

Identical twins Joy and Grace, though very different, have always been close until a rift -- the cause of which centers around a handsome but smug classmate named Adam -- began to form between them in the summer before their senior year of high school. As the novel opens in the fall of that year, Adam has been found dead at the bottom of a quarry that serves as a party site in their small New York town and Joy, who hated Adam and went to the party blind drunk, fears she may have had something to do with his death.

This gritty, sprawling thriller involving blackmail, sexual assault, alcoholism and mental illness mines the secrets of small towns and the price paid by those who keep them. Tims takes her time spinning out both the central mystery of Joy's possible culpability in Adam's death plus many other threads that will keep readers engaged, if at times struggling to keep track of the multitude of plot lines.

Alternating first-person narration between Grace and Joy works fine, though the style of their voices, tinged with sarcasm and biting yet vulnerable, are very similar. The arrival of Adam's half-brother Levi, in town provides a love interest for Joy and provides yet another character whose motives will be examined by readers. The twins' parents are oblivious to the struggles being experienced by both their daughters, and about the seriousness of Joy's alcohol abuse and Grace's eating disorder, which can be a bit hard to believe, though it allows the action to unfold uninterrupted and tips this story firmly into the category of suspense rather than problem novel. A final couple of twists at the very end will prove surprising to many and older teens who've enjoyed authors like Adele Griffin, Lauren Oliver and Nova Ren Suma will find plenty to like here.

Overall Book Score: good