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

Chapters 27-36Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 27 Summary: “Mateo”

Mateo drives to Stefan St. Clair’s house, where a party is being held to celebrate and mourn Boney. Charlie and Mateo discuss the cruelty of Boney’s death, and Charlie suggests that either one of them could have been called instead. Mateo reluctantly admits to himself that he might have gone to protect Autumn. Charlie tells Mateo that he plans to lie low and hope that the police don’t connect him to Boney. He asks Mateo whether there is anything going on between him and Ivy, but Mateo brushes his questions aside.

Outside, Mateo finds Autumn’s boyfriend, Gabe, and identifies him as “the Weasel” who arranged to meet Boney and find the drugs. It is revealed that Mateo recognized Gabe’s voice when he called the number using Boney’s phone.

Chapter 28 Summary: “Cal”

Cal arrives at Lara’s house, where he’s only been once before when her car was in the shop and he gave her a ride home from school. When she invited him in, he had expected something physical to happen between them, but all she did was draw him in her living room. Now, he feels relieved that they never had a physical relationship. Inside, he confronts Lara with the pills and kill list, and accuses her of killing Boney. Although she admits sending in the Carlton Speaks clips to Dale Hawkins, she insists that the drugs and kill list were planted. When he brings up Dominick Payne, she laughs and says that the real mastermind has been in front of him the entire time.

Chapter 29 Summary: “Ivy”

Ivy arrives at Daniel’s location and finds it deserted except for a single car with its headlights on. She texts Daniel, who responds that he sees her as the car’s headlights flash. Via text, Daniel explains that the car’s battery is dead. Ivy moves her car closer to his before getting out to retrieve the jumper cables out of her trunk. Daniel makes no move to get out of his car, and Ivy starts to feel annoyed, her old resentments coming back. When she closes the trunk, Ivy is surprised to see someone who is not Daniel. The man pushes Ivy onto the ground and then hauls her off with him.

Chapter 30 Summary: “Mateo”

At Stefan St. Clair’s party, Mateo pins Gabe to the ground and accuses him of naming Mateo as one of the students selling drugs. Gabe responds that the man he works for knew that three students were involved and that he couldn’t give him Autumn’s name. Mateo accuses Gabe of killing Boney, but Gabe insists that he is just an enforcer and an organizer. When Gabe refuses to give Mateo the name of the man he works for, Mateo drags him to a pond behind Stefan’s house and pushes his head underwater as if to drown him. After 20 seconds, Mateo releases Gabe, who finally admits that he works for Coach Kendall, the Carlton High lacrosse coach and Lara Jamison’s fiancé.

Chapter 31 Summary: “Cal”

As Lara attempts to leave, Cal forces her to tell him who she believes is setting her up. She reluctantly admits that her fiancé, Tom Kendall, has been dealing drugs in Carlton for six years. Lara explains that she began to suspect Tom planned to frame her when he insisted on knowing when she’d be at the studio and asked her to sort syringes with him. She is convinced that Tom hid the drugs and the kill list in her planner to frame her for selling drugs and killing Boney. Although Cal points out she has an alibi, Lara insists on leaving with the fake IDs she has bought, convinced that Tom will find a way to frame her. Suddenly, Tom Kendall enters with Ivy.

Chapter 32 Summary: “Cal”

Cal and Ivy watch helplessly as Tom and Lara discuss Tom’s plan to frame Lara for their deaths. Tom reveals that he killed Boney because he showed up empty-handed after promising to return the stolen drugs. Lara convinces Tom to frame Cal and Ivy for the drugs and Boney’s death then kill them with an overdose of fentanyl, as he killed Boney. As Tom attempts to restrain him, Cal hits Tom with a crowbar, momentarily escaping. Tom overpowers Cal and begins to choke him. As Cal starts to pass out, the police arrive and intervene. When Cal awakes, Ivy tells him that someone sent the police to Lara’s house, but she is unsure who. Cal thinks he sees Mateo as his parents run up and hug him.

Chapter 33 Summary: “Ivy”

Five days after Ivy and Cal’s rescue by police, the Sterling-Shepard house is surrounded by reporters hoping to interview Ivy, who is still reeling from the ordeal. After she admitted that she poured oil on the lane where Patrick DeWitt was hurt at Spare Me, Ivy’s father arranged for his lawyers to settle with Mateo’s family, restoring their financial losses. Despite Ivy’s apology, Mateo still will not speak to her. The aftershocks of Brian Mahoney’s murder and Tom Kendall’s arrest affect all of Carlton. Lara Jamison, now working with the police against Tom, claims Cal misunderstood their relationship. Mateo’s cousin Autumn has retained a pro-bono lawyer who is pushing for her to avoid jail time. Ishaan and Zack now have a paid, sponsored true crime YouTube channel. Ivy’s father calls her detective work extraordinary.

Chapter 34 Summary: “Mateo”

Autumn begins preemptive community service at a substance abuse center, and Mateo’s mother forces him to go with her. Working with children whose parents struggle with addiction convinces Mateo to stay clear of drugs of all types. He has agreed to spend time with his father, who has moved back to Carlton and secured a stable job. Both Autumn and Mateo have reduced their workload to one job each in anticipation of the settlement with Ivy’s father. Mateo’s mother admits that she allowed Spare Me to close after the DeWitts sued rather than admit that the business was already failing. She apologizes for being too stubborn to ask for help and for asking them to take financial responsibility for the family. Mateo realizes that he wants to make things right with Ivy and brings Sugar Babies to her house.

Chapter 35 Summary: “Cal”

One month after Boney’s murder, Cal still struggles to come to terms with the violent and very public end of his relationship with Lara Jamison. Lara continues to deny that their relationship ever became inappropriate, though Cal’s dads believe that he is telling the truth. Although Lara ultimately resigns from her position at Carlton High School, Cal faces some bullying as a result of their relationship. Ishaan defends him from bullies and the two quickly become friends. When Mateo cancels his plans with Cal to volunteer with Autumn, Cal asks Ishaan to visit an art museum with him. Ishaan enthusiastically agrees.

In a transcript from Zack and Ishaan’s YouTube channel, Emily encourages the hosts to move on to a new topic and stop bothering Ivy. Ishaan warns that a case this strange is sure to have a surprising trial.

Chapter 36 Summary: “Ivy”

At Mateo’s house, Ivy drafts a letter to the Massachusetts Board of Education insisting that Lara Jamison’s predatory behavior is formally addressed. Mateo reminds her that she is not responsible for punishing Lara, and that karma will come for her eventually. Ivy feels confident that Lara is still profiting from Tom Kendall’s drug money, and that she now has another man following her around. Mateo tells her not to get involved. Suddenly, Mateo’s mother appears with news that Mateo’s father has arrived and wants to take him to lunch. Mateo insists that Ivy come along. At lunch, Mateo’s father nervously introduces him to his new fiancé: Lara Jamison. When Lara suggests they all try to be friends, Ivy and Mateo storm out. Ivy vows to pursue a scorched earth policy to destroy Lara.

Chapters 27-36 Analysis

The end of Cal’s relationship with his teacher, Lara, provides the turning point for his arc, jolting him out of the idealized fantasy of their relationship—a fantasy he constructed to justify it to himself and absolve her of wrongdoing. At the beginning of the novel, Cal frames his romantic connection with Lara as similar any other teenage relationship—presenting himself and Lara as peers and discounting the abuse of power and violation of ethics inherent in a romantic relationship between an adult teacher and a minor student. He attempts to justify the difference in their ages by comparing it to his aunt and uncle, who “have a ten-year age difference, and nobody cares” (93). Although his father, the dean of a college that recently fired a professor for sleeping with a student, has explicitly told Cal about the “power differential between teachers and students” (94), Cal still believes that he and Lara are “potential soulmates” (93). By the end of the novel Cal comes to believe that, throughout their “toxic” (311) relationship, Lara was a “predator” (307) taking advantage of a “love-sick teenager” (306). Although he is grateful that Lara “never did anything except string me along,” (257) he also knows that that Lara is now “twisting the truth” (307) by presenting herself as a “caring but ultimately boundary-respecting adult” (306). Cal’s realization that his relationship with Lara was inappropriate and predatory is essential to his character development because it forces him to reevaluate his understanding of himself and his history—including the actions that led to the end of his past friendship with Mateo and Ivy.

In letting go of the fantasy version of his relationship with Lara, Cal also acknowledges how his need for belonging clouded his instincts, highlighting the novel’s thematic interest in The Rewards and Risks of Trusting Instincts. Although he acknowledges Lara’s predatory tendencies and the power imbalance, he also takes responsibility for how he justified something he knew was harmful. In reflecting on their relationship, Cal says that Lara has “wrapped me around her finger” (279) and has made him “a massive sucker” (280). Cal’s self-effacing language reflects his ongoing struggle to deal with the aftermath of Lara’s manipulation. At the end of the novel, Cal is disappointed when Mateo cancels their planned outing to a museum to see an exhibit Cal had hoped to see with Lara, suggesting that he still has work to do to see himself as enough in and of himself. Cal grows anxious about going to the museum alone, thinking that “it would’ve been nice—symbolic in a way—to replace her toxic presence with someone else. Anyone else” (311). Cal still associates art with his toxic relationship and struggles to separate his personality and interests from Lara’s. Cal’s ongoing journey to recover from Lara’s predatory behavior underscores the inherent imbalance of power in relationships between teachers and students. Because of their age difference and her direct influence on his intellectual and artistic development, Lara’s betrayal takes an outsized toll on Cal’s mental health. The novel is unambiguous in depicting their relationship as predatory and inappropriate.

The novel’s final section forces Ivy to confront the root of her insecurity—her brother, Daniel—and move toward self-acceptance, completing her character arc. In Chapter 25, Cal believes Ivy’s younger brother Daniel to be involved with the drug dealers that killed Boney Mahoney, speculating that he may be the “D” who signed the love note they found in Lara’s planner. Cal points to Daniel’s “thousand dollar shoes” (246) as evidence that he has sources of income Ivy doesn’t know about. In the final section of the novel, however, McManus reveals Daniel’s $1,000 shoes to be a red herring since they were purchased secondhand. A common convention of the mystery genre, a red herring is a literary device in which a writer intentionally inserts a misleading clue to direct readers away from the true villain. The mystery of Daniel’s expensive shoes temporarily obscures the true villain—Daniel’s lacrosse coach Tom Kendall—from the protagonists. Daniel provides an effective red herring because of Ivy’s existing resentment toward her brother and the attention he receives from her parents—highlighting the novel’s exploration of Tensions Inherent in Parent-Teen Relationships. Up until this point in the novel, Daniel functions primarily as the source of Ivy’s insecurity since her rivalry with Daniel drives her anxiety. The revelation that Daniel is innocent causes Ivy to reconsider her assumptions about her brother and herself, ultimately restoring balance to their relationship. McManus’s use of Daniel’s sneakers as a red herring reflects genre conventions that also redirects the reader’s attention to Ivy’s personal development.