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Book Review of Promise Not to Tell

Promise Not to Tell
reviewed on + 7 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1


Promise not to tell really pulled me in from the beginning. I have a love for stories that involve some coming-of-age aspects. The reader is taken back and forth in time with Kate Cypher as an adult returning home to make some difficult decisions regarding her mother and whose arrival has also coincided with a murder that is eerily similar to the murder of her childhood friend, Del.

I particularly enjoyed reading the story from young Kate's point of view. I still find myself magically drawn in when a story involves children. The friendship between outcast Del and new-girl Kate is odd at times as Del is seriously a bit of a character. Kate desperately wants to belong in her new school, but really she is a bit of an outcast herself as she lives on a commune and is pretty far off from living a normal life like the other students at their school. Del and Kate are away-from-school friends who live an adventure when they play together.

Kate as an adult her own set of challenges from the past, and has chosen to live a life-time away from the commune she spent the latter part of her childhood. She has a flood of memories as she tries to piece together what happened to her friend Del and if it is related to the murder of the young girl in the present.

I enjoyed the book a great deal and read it over a weekend. I was intrigued as the story unfolded. It also left me really wanting to know what would become of Kate in the future. There was definitely quite a bit of adult subject matter, but it was factual rather than explicit, but the facts though fictional are still disturbing.