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Business Stationary Mart - Promise Not to Tell: A Novel
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List Price: $13.95
Our Price: $2.12
Your Save: $ 11.83 ( 85% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780061143311
ISBN: 0061143316
Label: Harper Paperbacks
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: 2007-04-01
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Release Date: 2007-04-10
Studio: Harper Paperbacks
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Lots of holes in the potato girl story
Comment: I like the unusual pieces of the puzzle of this horror-mystery: the cult setting in Vermont, Lazy Elk and his "droopy" ways, a farmer with very fertile eggs that he sells, Alzheimer, and especially the Potato Girl, Del.
One hole is why would the ghost of Del create an accident for her brother Nicky? She doesn't have any strong motivation to hurt her him if she supposedly cares for her deputy Kate, why would she endanger her brother who will be a lover to Kate?
Another is how could Nicky still have no past with women? How could a trailer trash like him, stumbling about with a bottle of Wild Turkey, bothering his former lover Zack, but suddenly run into a teenage romancer Kate and have her fall for him? You'd think the experience with Lazy Elk and Zack and her former husband would sharpen the frequency of her antennaes to spot another loser. Her blindness of Nicky annoyed of the hell out of me. A man like him would have had at least 12 love children all over the states of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachuesette, and maybe even into Canada. I mean there are so many trailer trash hussies like Kate, gosh everywhere, even in Arizona, where I'm from.
There are some more holes, but I'll let find them for yourself. I can't resist sharing the last one: Why would Del forgive Kate? Del is young enough to hold a grudge, making one of her tormenters choke a mysterious raw potato. Why doesn't she just go after Zack? If evil or the power of revenge can defy the laws of logic, why let Zack kill someone else? I have a hard time accepting that mean Del could let Kate go. Based on her vengeful acts, she hasn't obtain the white light of forgiveness that we want those who have passed to attain. Del's ghost doesn't seem to have evolved or is ready for that.
Regardless this, I know readers will love the unique attributes of this novel. Those of you who will enjoy this novel will have another one to read. I know you'll like Del because she's Mayella Euwell revived to become a heroine. That's a plus.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I almost never give up on a book
Comment: No matter how bad it is I tend to grind on and wait to see the story will get better.
I am sometimes rewarded for this persistence, and when I am it encourages me to do it next time.
This was a horror story. I expected horror. I didn't expect down and dirty ugly. I have trouble with that in a book. Chilling is good in a horror story. Compelling helps, or intriguing. None of those things here. . I disliked the characters and found them annoying. I thought the story was dull. I stopped about 80 pages in, so I may well have missed the best part, but somehow, I don't think so.
There are brutal deaths, and unkind people, and in my opinion no redeeming value to this story.
Customer Rating:
Summary: grossly amazing
Comment: The book PROMISE NOT TO TELL was a quick read.It was written so well i felt as if i was in the book. I'm a sophomore in high school and in a honors English course. This book is one i would suggest to my teacher. Any one at any age would be compelled to the book simply after the first page. It is one that keeps you on the edge of your seat, and with your head deeply buried between the pages. I enjoyed the twists and turns in Kate's life that keep me wanting more. I feel that anyone could relate to one or more of the hardships shown in the book, bullying, money issues, cliques, rape, abuse, sexual confusion, and even prejudice. It is a story i will remember for a long time and a book i will share with everyone i know. I strongly recommend PROMISE NOT TO TELL.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One potato, two potato, three potato, four...
Comment: One potato, two potato, three potato, four
I wish I hadn't bought this book
T'was wasteful and a bore
Customer Rating:
Summary: Its potential is buried under mediocre writing, forgettable characters, and an unbelievable plot twist. Not recommended
Comment: Kate returns home to care for her mother with Alzheimer's, but her return coincides with a murder that closely mimics a murder from Kate's childhood. Kate's remembers her small-town childhood and her friendship with the murdered "Potato Girl" while she explores what has become of her old family and friends and their possible connection to the recent murder. Promise Not to Tell is a promising combination of small rural town and ghostly murder mystery, but this potential is buried under mediocre writing, unremarkable characters, and an unbelievable plot twist. I was disappointed by this entirely mediocre book, and I don't recommend it.
Many aspects of this book--the small-town setting, the farmer's daughter, the ailing mother--aren't to my tastes, but I was open to trying something new and intrigued by the combination of a ghost story and a murder mystery. Unfortunately, the only good thing I have to say about this book is that the premise intrigued me enough to pick it up and, having picked it up, it was a fast and forgettable read. Promise Not to Tell is well-intended, and it has some promising aspects--including the premise and characters (which are a brave, unusual choice) and the intended themes. But all of these aspects are for naught: the book is dragged down into mediocrity, and the best thing about it is that it's soon finished and forgotten.
McMahon's writing style is amateur and undeveloped, and so it reads swiftly but leaves no lasting impact. It expresses the themes so blatantly that they become bland and meaningless. The narrator's constant dishonesty and weak sarcasm is vaguely irritating. The characters are sometimes promising, sometimes unpleasant, but largely--like the writing--forgettable. The plot does not redeem these factors: the book builds to pleasant (if exaggerated) suspense, but the final twist and reveal is so arbitrary and so unexplained that it's unbelievable and ruins everything that comes before. The book isn't outright bad or begging to be mocked, but it is entirely mediocre. It offers nothing, and it's not enjoyable to read. I had no idea what to expect from this author, but I certainly expected better of a book with such high reviews. I don't recommend it to any audience.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Forty-one-year-old school nurse Kate Cypher has returned home to rural Vermont to care for her mother who's afflicted with Alzheimer's. On the night she arrives, a young girl is murdered—a horrific crime that eerily mirrors another from Kate's childhood. Three decades earlier, her dirt-poor friend Del—shunned and derided by classmates as "Potato Girl"—was brutally slain. Del's killer was never found, while the victim has since achieved immortality in local legends and ghost stories. Now, as this new murder investigation draws Kate irresistibly in, her past and present collide in terrifying, unexpected ways. Because nothing is quite what it seems . . . and the grim specters of her youth are far from forgotten. More than just a murder mystery, Jennifer McMahon's extraordinary debut novel, Promise Not to Tell, is a story of friendship and family, devotion and betrayal—tautly written, deeply insightful, beautifully evocative, and utterly unforgettable.
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