YA – Dead Girls Can’t Tell Secrets

Ichaso, Chelsea. Dead Girls Can’t Tell Secrets. Sourcebooks, 2022. 978-1-728-25597-2. 328 p. $10.99. Grades 7-12.

Savannah has been consumed by guilt ever since her younger sister, Piper, fell – or jumped – off a popular scenic overlook on a nearby mountain. Savannah believes a fight the girls had is responsible for the accident that left her sister in a coma. Until she borrows a sweater from her sister’s school locker and finds a note from the Survival Club, luring Piper up to the mountain the day of her fall. Savannah never did understand why her brilliant, non-athletic sister signed up for the hard-core hiking club in high school, but now she has a place to begin unraveling what happened to her sister. Joining the club herself, Savannah heads up the mountain with the group for a weekend camping trip, determined to unearth who was out to get Piper, and why. But it won’t be easy, when everyone, from the club’s faculty advisor, to each member, including Savannah’s boyfriend, has secrets to hide, and framing each other for Piper’s fall becomes the weekend activity. As Savannah probes each of the club members, the backstory of the sisters’ last days also unfolds, revealing deep sibling rivalry as well as Savannah’s frustrating relationship with her parents. Suspense is high until the last pages, proving a satisfying conclusion to the book. Many of the characters, including Piper and Savannah, are white, while Grant, Savannah’s boyfriend, has brown skin, and another character presents Latina.

THOUGHTS: This is a solid, highly entertaining middle school and up mystery in the vein of Karen M. McManus. The mystery, along with the high school drama, should make this a popular book. 

Mystery          Nancy Nadig, Penn Manor SD

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