Synopsis:
A suspenseful teen-thriller, Your Turn to Die is perfect for fans of Karen McManus’ One of Us is Lying and Ravena Guron’s This Book Kills.
Every New Year, 15-year-old Leah and her family reunite with friends at Roeshot House to celebrate. This year, however, is a body has been unearthed in the garden and unsettling events begin to unfold. As the teens delve into the old house’s sinister history, they uncover dark secrets that threaten their lives.
With suspense building and danger lurking, Leah and her friends must confront the chilling mysteries of Roeshot House before it’s too late.
Review:
Your Turn to Die was a pretty entertaining read that was sadly let down by its ending. But more on that further into this review.
Firstly, I love thriller-mysteries set in old English homes. There’s something so creepy about them, especially after watching a show like the Haunting of Bly Manor. The setting was what made this such a great read. You know the tension is going to build when the characters have no phone signal or Wi-Fi access.
Leah is a pretty unlikeable character, well they all are really. Ivy was one dimensional, Tatum was entitled and bratty and Evan felt pointless. The only characters I actually liked for the whole of Your Turn to Die were Jakob and Poppy. But even they felt very underdeveloped. There’s a whole scene where the girls dress up Jakob in Tatum’s and dye his hair pink and that felt like it was going to be a really significant moment for his character development but other than him clearly feeling quite happy until his parents have a go at him, nothing comes of it.
I really enjoyed learning more about the mystery of the murder but it’s always a little funny when teens think they will be the ones to figure out what happened. Like absolutely no one that knew anything about what happened would talk to random kids about it. Evan’s sister, who met Leah exactly three seconds before, revealed something huge about what happened to the murdered girl. So weird.
The twist genuinely caught me by surprise but it wasn’t great. There wasn’t enough of an explanation as to why this person in specific was doing these things. Being jealous of someone else, which is all I can say without giving it away entirely, wasn’t good enough in my opinion. Also it felt like it was being set up for Poppy, the youngest child, to be the culprit. She casually says something along the lines of ‘I could stab someone again’ but this isn’t explained.
The whole book felt like one big missing plot point. Personally I don’t think there’s a single moment where you question the person behind everything until the very last moment. Hence why the twist is so unbelievable. It could have been great. One revelation is quite sickening but the reasoning is so thin and none of it actually relates to the murder that happened at the house all that time ago.
I pretty much never say this about thrillers but I would have preferred if this had gone down the road of supernatural entities. The moment when Leah thinks she sees the ghost in the garden was really chilling but having this proved wrong in the very next chapter took away all of the tension.
I really wanted to love Your Turn to Die as I keep reading either bad or very average thrillers. It had its moments of greatness but the ending kind of ruined the whole book, which is a real shame.
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