Blurbed as Karen McManus’ well-known One of Us Is Lying meets John Hughes’ popular movie The Breakfast Club, Diana Urban’s debut is an absolute latest must read for all of the mystery and thriller fans out there. Featuring ambitious high school seniors that are willing to do everything for their future college and career, all wrapped in complicated drama and twisted lies, and if you’re especially into the escape-room trope, then this is a perfect read for you.
When music-obsessed Amber Prescott arrives at a prestigious scholarship dinner along with her charming baseball-all-star boyfriend Robbie, she couldn’t be more surprised to see the familiar faces that also were invited. The popular queen bee yet also intelligent Sasha, that surprisingly became Amber’s best friend for the past year. The actual genius that’s ‘not just academic genius but actually could invent things’ Diego, Amber’s childhood crush. The well-known troublemaker and stoner Scott. And lastly, the quiet and shy Priya, Amber’s ex-best friend.
What was supposed to be a scholarship dinner soon turned out to be a nightmare, when they are suddenly trapped in the dining room with nothing but meals for six people that have gone cold. Not only that, the tension gets higher when they found a ticking bomb along with a syringe that supposedly filled with deadly poison. An instruction commands them to pick one person to kill with the syringe, or else the bomb will explode in one hour and kill them all. When everything they try to escape the room fails, they must connect the dots between them and figure out how they ended up there, before they run out of time.
Told through a single, unreliable narrator that went back and forth from the present escape-hell to the past complex build-up, All Your Twisted Secrets was exactly like its title. I enjoyed both narratives and had a great time creating multiple possibilities in my head. The present timeline was definitely thrilling and it gave such a strong escape room intensity. The concept and set-up reminded me of multiple escape room movies (let’s be real, it’s one of my personal favourite sub-genre). Although, I did find it surprising that the same trope worked wonderfully on paper too. On the other hand, the past background story balanced out all of these intensity, making me crave for more reasons and giving me more opportunity to craft hypotheses by my own.
Now talking about the characters, each of them were thriving and had their own contribution to the plot. I adore how contrasted every single one of them, though it felt a little convenient at times that everyone is coming from different circles and areas of interest. Also, I’d say that the twist(s) wasn’t so twisted after all, since one of my theories about the culprit and their motivation was proven to be right at the end of the story.
In conclusion, All Your Twisted Secrets was a fun yet thrilling read. Urban’s successfully executed this trope that is commonly found on the screen and instead moved them to the paper. I’ll definitely be looking out for more thrilling stories from this author.
All Your Twisted Secrets is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
This thrilling debut, reminiscent of new fan favorites like One of Us Is Lying and the beloved classics by Agatha Christie, will leave readers guessing until the explosive ending.
Welcome to dinner, and again, congratulations on being selected. Now you must do the selecting.
What do the queen bee, star athlete, valedictorian, stoner, loner, and music geek all have in common? They were all invited to a scholarship dinner, only to discover it’s a trap. Someone has locked them into a room with a bomb, a syringe filled with poison, and a note saying they have an hour to pick someone to kill … or else everyone dies.
Amber Prescott is determined to get her classmates and herself out of the room alive, but that might be easier said than done. No one knows how they’re all connected or who would want them dead. As they retrace the events over the past year that might have triggered their captor’s ultimatum, it becomes clear that everyone is hiding something. And with the clock ticking down, confusion turns into fear, and fear morphs into panic as they race to answer the biggest question: Who will they choose to die?
