Book Review: You Can Trust Me by Gina Blaxill

Main character Alana hates that she’s the new girl, but having a friend already at school helps. Esme is different, of course—they were much younger when they were close—but having a friendly face, especially at the New Year’s party, seems like a great start. But things get rocky quite quickly, and before Alana knows it, the whole night has spiralled out of control. She finds Esme drowning, and tests confirm GHB is in her system. Once thought to have been the start of a good night turns out to be the opposite, souring Alana’s appearance of everything, especially the boys of a school in town that are, as she’s finding out, very intangible.

Alana isn’t going to let people stall her mission at finding out what happened to her friend. Not now that the pieces are becoming clearer to her, but still too unsolved for the police. Everyone and no one is a suspect—much to the chagrin of the students of the schools—and the more secrets come out, the more the identity of Esme’s attacker becomes blurred. Partnering with unlikely people to solve what happened that night, and what might have been going on far longer than initially thought, Alana is shocked to discover that the truth isn’t crystal clear—and it might just cost her life to decode.

Overall, I read You Can Trust Me in under 24 hours, glued to the pages. You could not have disturbed me, not as I was piecing together the mystery alongside Alana. Ultimately, I was a few chapters ahead of her at figuring out the mystery (well, part of it, anyway) but that conclusion as the truth came out was NAIL-BITING. I clung to the pages as the story unravelled, sharp as a knife, carving itself a place on one my favourite reads of the year list by far. This was a carefully taut and engulfing thriller with a hypnotic plot and purposeful message, one that stayed with me long after I read it. Five stars wholly.