You'll Be the Death of Me

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-7

Chapters 8-15

Chapters 16-26

Chapters 27-36

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Background

Literary Context: Karen M. McManus and Young Adult Fiction

Karen M. McManus is a best-selling American author known for writing mysteries and thrillers for a young adult audience. Her first novel, One of Us Is Lying (2017), is told from the perspective of four students who are accused of murdering a classmate and forced to discover the true killer. In the novel’s sequel, One of Us Is Next (2020), three students at the same school are forced into a high-stakes game of truth or dare. The final book in the series, One of Us Is Back (2023), follows the characters from the first book as they recover from the trauma of their experiences. In addition to this series, McManus has written several standalone thrillers that address similar themes. McManus’s novels often feature multiple narrators, teenage protagonists, false accusations, and mysterious murders.

Like most of McManus’s novels, You’ll Be the Death of Me is an example of young adult fiction. Young adult fiction describes novels written for readers approximately 12 to 18 years old, typically featuring protagonists of similar ages. Young adult fiction spans nearly all genres, although the most common are contemporary fiction, fantasy, and romance. Writers of young adult fiction aim to address issues that affect young adults, such as romantic relationships, relationships with parents, coming of age, and personal development. McManus’s young adult thrillers combine these genre conventions with the common tropes of mystery novels, such as the discovery of a body, false accusations, and red herrings. However, due to the age of her intended audience, You’ll Be the Death of Me is less violent than comparable novels written for adults.

Cultural Context: True Crime Media

True crime is a literary, film, and documentary genre that examines a crime and its aftermath for popular entertainment consumption. In the United States and Great Britain, the development of the printing press was closely connected to the popularity of true crime reporting. In the 17th and 18th centuries, reporters on both sides of the Atlantic published cheap, sensationalized pamphlets about recent crimes for a suddenly literate public desperate for easily digestible literary entertainment. These early examples of true crime media often focused on the lurid details of the crimes, highlighting the vulnerability of the victims and the cruelty of the perpetrators. True crime media of the 20th century, such as Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song (1979) and Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood (1965), focused on the aftermath of brutal crimes, humanizing the perpetrators and criticizing the criminal justice system. In the 21st century, podcasting has become the primary medium of the true crime genre, allowing researchers to dive deep into a single story over time. The shift in perspective from sensationalized violence to critical analysis reflects a more modern understanding of the lasting effects of violent crime on individuals and communities.

In recent years, true crime media has faced criticism for being harmful to victims and their families and making it difficult for justice to be achieved. Critics suggest that true crime media can retraumatize victims by forcing them to relive violent experiences and face questioning from strangers. They also suggest that the popularity of true crime media encourages ordinary people to interfere in police investigations, potentially misidentifying perpetrators and preventing justice from being served. You’ll Be the Death of Me explores Ethical Problems With True Crime Media as one of its central themes.