Tell Me Everything
A Novel
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
“A compulsive page-turner with shades of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History peopled by a new generation.”—Catherine Steadman, New York Times bestselling author of Something in the Water
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
In her first weeks at Hawthorne College, Malin is swept up into a tight-knit circle that will stick together through all four years. There’s Gemma, an insecure theater major from London; John, a tall, handsome, wealthy New Englander; Max, John’s cousin, a shy pre-med major; Khaled, a wisecracking prince from Abu Dhabi; and Ruby, a beautiful art history major. But Malin isn’t like the rest of her friends. She’s an expert at hiding her troubled past. She acts as if she shares the preoccupations of those around her—dating, partying—all while using her extraordinary insight to detect their deepest vulnerabilities and weaknesses.
By Senior Day, on the cusp of graduation, Malin’s secrets—and those of her friends—are revealed. While she scrambles to maintain her artfully curated image, her missteps set in motion a devastating chain of events that ends in a murder. And as fragile relationships hang in the balance and close alliances shift, Malin must test the limits of what she’s capable of to stop the truth from coming out.
In a mesmerizing novel that peels back the innumerable layers of a seductive protagonist, debut author Cambria Brockman brings to life an entrancing story of friendship, heartbreak, and betrayal.
Praise for Tell Me Everything
“Gripping . . . Brockman paints an unnerving portrait of the power people hold over one another—especially as they blur the line between protective and obsessive.”—Time
“At once a complex thriller and antihero origin story, Cambria Brockman’s riveting debut is a true page-turner.”—Lisa Lutz, New York Times bestselling author of the Spellman series and The Passenger
“Cambria Brockman’s dark and twisty Tell Me Everything is an impressive debut, a complicated and compelling novel of psychological suspense that deftly explores the questions of how well we know our friends and of whom we can trust.”—Karen Dionne, author of the international bestseller The Marsh King’s Daughter
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Malin Ahlberg, the control-obsessed protagonist of Brockman's disquieting debut, is a senior at Hawthorne College in Edelton, Maine. Though her troubled upbringing left her a loner, Malin arrives on campus determined to reinvent herself, befriending Ruby, Max, John, Gemma, and Khaled on day one. The six become inseparable, but now, just months before graduation, their bond is starting to fray. Malin launches a desperate bid to fix things, but as the book's prologue foreshadows, a suspicious death will tear them apart. Malin's narration is studded with flashbacks to both freshman year and her childhood in Texas, tracing the origins of the group's implosion and her own manipulative compulsions. Brockman perfectly captures the insecurities that plague young adults, as well as the intense relationships that form in the crucible that is college. Deliberate pacing complements the sinuous structure, with anxiety and dread mounting as the story lines coalesce. Not every reveal feels earned, but the shocking central twist and devastating conclusion amply compensate. Fans of Patricia Highsmith and Donna Tartt should take notice.