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

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Hairstyles

Throughout You’ll Be the Death of Me, McManus uses descriptions of hairstyles to reveal aspects of her characters’ personalities. Ivy’s mother, Samantha Sterling-Shepard, wears her hair in a French twist, a hairstyle in which twisted hair is secured to the head with pins or combs. Ivy describes how her mother’s “blond hair is pulled back in her signature French twist […] even though it’s barely five a.m. in San Francisco” (1). Ivy explicitly identifies her mother’s signature hairstyle as a symbol of the “thoroughness and military precision she brings to everything” (1). Samantha’s hair reflects Ivy’s view of her mother: Samantha’s capacity to achieve control of all aspects of her life eludes Ivy. Even while nodding vigorously, Ivy’s mother’s hair remains perfect: “a strand of hair nearly escapes her French twist. But not quite. It wouldn’t dare” (1). Samantha’s French twist is a symbol of her precision and control, qualities her daughter Ivy desperately wants.

At the beginning of the novel, Ivy’s hair is styled in her “ever-present ponytail” (25)—a symbol of her anxious nature emphasized by the fact that she repeatedly plays with it while nervous. When she first sees Mateo, she begins “twisting the end of her ponytail around one finger” (29), providing a visual cue of internal emotion. Later, when she’s suspected of murder, Ivy starts “tugging hard at [her] ponytail” (73). The events of the novel cause Ivy to grow more confident; by the end of the novel she wears her hair “loose around her shoulders” (304), a change that reflects her growth.

Cal’s Comics

You’ll Be the Death of Me is bookended by descriptions of webcomics written and illustrated by protagonist Cal Wojcik. These comics provide a symbol of Cal’s ongoing attempts to express himself and make sense of his life. In Cal’s opening chapter, he fondly looks back at “the first web comic [he] ever made: The Greatest Day Ever” (24). Although Cal was only 12 when he illustrated the comic, and he’s made many more since, he feels that this first comic is “the best of the bunch” (24). The importance of the comic to Cal emphasizes the day he, Mateo, and Ivy spent together as a formative experience in his life, pointing to the significance of his friendship with Ivy and Mateo as a central element of the plot. Cal observes that “there’s a certain exhilaration in every panel that mirrors how [he] felt about getting away with something so outrageous” (25), suggesting that Cal believes his art is at its best when expressing his true emotions.

At the end of the novel, Cal produces a new webcomic called “The Shittiest Day Ever” (308), detailing Boney’s murder and his own kidnapping. As a result of the trauma of these events, Cal feels that this comic is “by far the darkest, angriest, most emotional thing [he’s] ever created” (308). However, he also acknowledges it as “the best” (108) of the comics he’s produced, replacing the original comic that opens the story and highlighting his personal growth as a character. In confessing to the insecurity that resulted in the loss of his former friendships with Ivy and Mateo, Cal finds himself able to move forward and create a comic that once again captures the truth of his experiences and feelings. In this way, McManus connects Cal’s relationship to his art with his relationship to himself. His comics symbolize his attempts to make sense of his life and express his emotions.

Senior Class President Election

McManus opens the novel in the aftermath of the Carlton High School election for senior class president, establishing her setting, and introducing one of her central protagonists (Ivy) as well as the victim (Brian “Boney” Mahoney) whose death provides the mystery that propels the narrative forward. The senior class president election also serves a symbol of Ivy’s fear of failure. The fact that Boney Mahoney “ran as a joke” and won with the slogan “vote for Boney and I’ll leave you alone-y” (4) suggests that many students see senior class president as a low-stakes election, whereas for Ivy it represents a humiliating “debacle” that signals her inability to live up to her mother’s high expectations and example—a perspective she projects onto her classmates whom she believes are “treating [her] like [she’s] radioactive” (43). The loss also provides a motive for Ivy to become a suspect in Boney’s murder, as people wonder whether she “might have murdered Boney over a student council election” (81). Despite the relatively low-stakes nature of the election, Ivy takes it very seriously, making it a useful symbol of stereotypical high school problems. By the end of the novel, Ivy’s name is cleared and Brian’s murder is revealed to be connected to a ring of criminal activities, placing the election loss into perspective. The fact that the election is essentially never mentioned again mirrors the ways in which stereotypical high school problems are contextualized within the more insular world of teenage experiences.