Nobody Know But You by Anica Mrose Rissi (SPOILER REVIEW)

3.5* rounded to a 4* for Nobody Knows But You by Anica Mrose Rissi. I requested this book off of (@Harper360ya) on Twitter and instagram, through their email sign up!

This book is about a murder that happened at a summer camp! However, I think it's predictable, but fun to read despite that.

First of all I would like to say that I typically am not a fan of first person books, but the first page immediately captured my interest. I also like how its being told through different modes; Letters that never got sent, texts, news broadcasts, and Camper and counsellor statements. This book is mainly told through letters from our main character Kayla to her friend Lainie, which she never sends to - in her words - "Destroy the evidence". As well as this the letters talk about everything leading up to what happened at the summer camp, so it's a mix of past and present tense. Going into this book I thought Lainie was the dead camper, but upon reading further into it we discover that Jackson is the murdered party.

My first impression of Kayla was that she was a very unreliable narrator and seemed to be twisting the narrative of what happened so that we would be more inclined to believe her version of the events. She also app

ears very dramatic. The more I read this book it appeared to me that Kayla was sort of maybe crushing on Lainie. Before I even arrived at page 40 I had an inkling that Kayla was going to be the one who did the murdering, in my opinion it was due to her being jealous of Lainie and Jackson. Kayla mentions a big argument that they have towards the beginning of the book, and she says the quote "I would give you the world if I had it.", this to me seems like she kinda likes Lainie and just wanted the best for her. However, that one point is detrimental to the story.

One thing that solidified the idea of Kayla being the killer for me was, when she mentioned she knew Jackson was face down in the lake when he died, unless she was there and the murderer. As well as this, through the news articles we know that Lainie insists that she's innocent. For me another solid reason of proof to believe Kayla killed Jackson is the whole nightmare sequence she has in the "October 8" chapter. We get even more proof that Kayla is unreliable from the quote "I'm clearly biased, so perhaps my memory can't be trusted.". Therefore, she shouldn't be trusted in what she says.

I like that we get statements from other campers so that we have a more reliable version of events, and unbiased. The only thing I can find that irks me a little about the book is the fact that Kayla is pretty two dimensional and doesn't really have a personality outside of being obsessed with Lainie.

We only really get to learn what Lainie was like through the letters that Kayla writes to her, and how she speaks about the past. Despite Kayla's unreliable narrating my impression of Lainie was that she is magnetic and fun, and larger than life. But, in spite of this, Lainie is only larger than life because of how her parents are, so it's an act so that people can't see what she's really going through. Lainie is totally enamoured by Jackson and se kisses Kayla in front of him for him to give her attention. This makes me even more sure that Kayla killed him because she was feeling eft out of everything!

Later on in the book we get a chapter where Kayla is talking about one of her meetings with Dr. Rita. She starts to ask about psychopaths and if Lainie or Jackson could be Psychopaths, to which Dr. Rita says that she can't diagnose people who aren't her clients. Kayla then proceeds to ask if she could be a psychopath, Dr. Rita just laughs and brushes her off saying definitely not. What Kayla said next gripped at my attention, she says in a half-joking way "You don't think I'm charming enough to be that manipul

ative?" This to me screams that it's a message for not only us, as readers, but also her Dr about how she's definitely manipulating us to believe one thing whilst a complete other thing is true. She mentions about Lainie how "Once you were free of him the obsession would stop. You would need me again, just like I needed you." this to me is motive.

We also get to find out that, because of the lie Kayla told, Lainie gets sent down for the murder. In the end it gets confirmed that Kayla is the killer, as I predicted. The way I see it if you care about your friend so much, you aren't going to lie to get them sent down all because they wouldn't come crawling back to you once they lose someone they love.

Overall, this book is

a predictable but fun read. It kept me interested. and turning pages. As well as this it's a quick read. If you want a quick and fun read then this is definitely the book for you!