Tell Me Everything

I found this disappointingly predictable and quite dull. The ending was ridiculous.

Brilliant

Great book, but I will probably never touch it again. I wish they could put a warning on the front if extreme cruelty to animals is part of it. I get that it's part of the story, but it spiked my depression off the charts. I actually tore out those pages and shredded them, but I don't think it's enough.

While parts of this book reminded me of The Secret History, I found the characters in this novel more realistic. I’ve known someone like each of them with the exception of Malin—but, then, if I’ve met someone like her, I wouldn’t necessarily recognize it, would I? After finishing this whirlwind read, I checked out the reviews and completely disagree about the ending being a disappointment. The ending was perfect! How many books have you read when the first sentence of the LAST page lifts the hairs on your arms? I look forward to reading Ms Brockman’s next novel.

An elite New England college, a group of friends that form fast and close, a shocking murder that tears them apart…. I knew going in the Tell Me Everything by Cambria Brockman was my kind of book. I love books that take place on college campuses. They are little microcosm of society—everything always seemed heightened because it is more contained. This was no exception!What a book! The suspense in this one creeps up. Despite knowing upfront that Senior Day will end in a murder, the story was so captivating that I almost forgot about the murder for the first half. The story is told in alternating timelines between freshman year as Malin forms friendships with the group of six, Senior Day where the twisted path these friendships have taken unfold through quick stories leading up to the murder, and stories from Malin’s past that cover secrets she has worked to keep hidden.This narrative structure was so perfectly executed, as the bits of stories we learned about each character slowly became connected, leading to a shocking ending that truly took me by surprise. Sometimes I think that telling a story out of sequence can be jarring, but that didn’t happen here. Instead, the characters became more rounded as the book progressed.Malin is an incredible and unique character. Her beauty is in stark contrast to who she is—someone who is more comfortable in the shadows letting others shine. When Malin starts college, she pushes herself to try to make friends. In the past, she has always preferred being alone, a fact that made her parents worry about her. With a fresh start, Malin is determined to be normal and have people to rely on.And despite Malin’s reserved nature and distance from others, she does develop friendships. Seeing the characters through Malin’s eyes was interesting, because Malin is a person who thinks deeply about each interaction. She reads others and tries to understand what they want, what they are hiding, and why they are doing things. But Malin herself never seems fully reliable. Through her monologue, we come to understand that Malin has some secrets in her past that she hopes the others won’t learn. Malin doesn’t even share them with us right away.And the ending! I have to be careful here because I don’t want to give any hints. I saw another reviewer describe the ending as “a twist so quiet you never saw it coming” and I think that is the perfect way to describe it. A brilliant debut novel! I will be looking for whatever Cambria Brockman does next!