30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A riveting read!, June 24, 2007
Jennifer McMahon's debut novel is impressive and showcases the author's narrative skill. The story centers around protagonist Kate Cypher, who returns to her childhood home in New Canaan in 2002, and finds herself revisiting memories of the past, way back in 1971 when a girl Del Griswold, nicknamed the Potato Girl is found murdered. Interestingly, and ominously, a murder takes place in the present, also involving a young girl, Tori. The story weaves back and forth between the past and present,but it never seems disjointed. Instead, it makes for a compelling read...not to give too much away, there are various themes explored here, such as bullying, child abuse, betrayal, and even a supernatural element. It could have been confusing, instead the author skillfully weaves a thought-provoking, intriguing story that will hold you spellbound.
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Haunting and Beautiful Story Awaits You, May 10, 2007
I can't even remember the last time that I read a book as multi-faceted as "Promise Not To Tell." Within the span of just 250 pages, I was seriously frightened. And then laughing. Followed by a lump in my throat. Finished off by a darn good mystery. I am going to recommend this book to everyone I know. I can't stop thinking about it even now. You will never meet a more unforgettable character than Delores Griswold. I was scared both for her and by her. Jennifer McMahon, I'll be remembering your name in the future! Wonderful!
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Intuitive Entertainment, July 9, 2007
For a debut novel, Jennifer McMahon's "Promise Not to Tell" provides its reader with an entertaining blend of suspense, the supernatural and self-discovery that succeeds on many levels.
As a documentalist, McMahon does justice to the era of the 1970s where hippie communities like the fictional New Hope, Vermont brought up a generation of free-love progeny that needed to assimilate from the blue jean wearing age of Aquarius to the pin-striped world of yuppie Wall Street as they left the cooperative and entered their revenue-generating adulthood. With a confident finesse, she focuses on her main character Kate's outsider status, flip-flopping the perspective from that of a hippie-raised ten-year-old girl to that of a divorced 41-year-old woman returning to the commune to deal with her aging mother's Alzheimer's.
Kate's psychological issues exceed the responsibility of caring for her mother. As a lonely child, branded as one of the hippie children with the need to be accepted by her classmates from town, she has but one friendship, a secret relationship with the school pariah, Del, unaffectionately called by her peers, `the Potato Girl.' Due to circumstances that Kate feels she has orchestrated and for which she cannot forgive herself, an unknown assailant brutally kills Del in 1971. Now almost thirty years later, the murder of a teenage girl makes it seem as if the long-dead Potato Girl seeks an voracious retribution that may include payback directed towards her one time friend.
McMahon's strength as a writer lies in her ability to forge empathy between the reader and her heroine that is believable from Kate's past and present personas. Meeting characters from 1971 and revisiting them with their additional adult layers in 2002 adds just enough nuance to perhaps a routine suspense story to make it notable with intuitive passages that are worth reading again. Especially enjoyable was Kate's reunion with Nicky---an event the reader anticipates, but appreciates because of the delicious tension the author so shrewdly and honestly facilitates.
Bottom line? "Promise Not to Tell" explores themes of adolescent friendship, betrayal, loyalty, forgiveness and ultimate absolution that work well within the framework of a hippie community 30 years after its founding. Recommended for its wonderful characterizations; the suspense story reaches only a secondary level with a rather two-dimensional portrayal of the murderer at large.
Diana Faillace Von Behren
"reneofc"
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