Book Review – All Your Twisted Secrets by Diana Urban

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?

My rating:

I was really excited for this as I have been loving thrillers and couple of people I know had really enjoyed it. Sadly for me, it fell slightly short of the mark.

I did really enjoy some parts though – especially the locked room mystery. And I really liked how it looked at the value of peoples lives weighted against each other, and the consequences of how you treat others. I also loved the fact they had to chose someone to die and all the ways that played out – the tension felt very present and real.

The parts I didn’t enjoy quite as much were around the more contemporary elements, and the ending. It felt in places more like a contemporary book that happened to be a mystery than the other way round. And while part of the ending – around lessons etc were okay, parts felt very heavy handed and over done. I’m just not sure how believable the reasoning behind it all was (or more, accurately, I believe it but I don’t believe in the resulting actions). It felt like a big step too far. Though given that, I did like the final consequences.

Triggers warnings for bulling, abuse, and suicide.

Buy All Your Twisted Secrets from Waterstones.