A fun YA murder mystery! Better Left Buried follows Lucy, whose private investigator mom hijacks their spring break to meet up with a client. When they arrive to find her mom’s client dead—a man who Lucy later finds out actually helped raise her mom—Lucy is left with more questions than answers. At the scene of the crime, Lucy sees a mysterious girl on a motorcycle, but she vanishes before Lucy can find out who she is. Audrey, our other main character, is that girl on the motorcycle—drawn to the scene of the crime due to a mysterious text she received that night. When she sees the dead body of a man who she blames for her own father’s death, she realizes that she might need to figure out who killed him before someone pins it on her first. As things get stranger when Lucy finds that her mom’s connections to this town run deep, she finds Audrey and proposes they work together to find answers to the questions they both have—hopefully before someone else ends up dead.
❤️ What I loved: This was a fast-paced and engaging mystery that kept me hooked! I wanted to know how everything was going to come together and understand more about the mystery behind the town and past secrets.
💔 What I didn’t love: There were some issues with the storytelling that pulled me out of the story at times—abrupt shifts in narrative, dropped plotlines, etc. While I was a fan of Lucy and Audrey in theory, their relationship wasn’t developed enough to feel like it really landed.
This book is a great option for many YA readers who are looking for a quick and engaging murder mystery. Students at my library have been eating it up!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐/5 (3-3.5)

Acknowledgments & Disclaimers ✨ Thank you to NetGalley, Mary E. Roach, and Disney Publishing Worldwide/Disney Hyperion, for providing an ARC and the opportunity to share an honest review of this book. ✨ All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own. ✨ My reviews and ratings strive to evaluate books within their own age-demographic and genre.

BETTER LEFT BURIED is an immersive thriller with layers upon layers of mystery and characters you can't help but root for. Thank you to NetGalley for an early review copy!

Lucy is a cute and quirky teen who sets off to solve the mystery of the hold the town of Haeter Lake has on her mom. They were supposed to be heading to a Spring Break destination when Katy gets the call to come home to a place she has never mentioned before. A man is dead, there are multiple suspects, and enough hidden history to fill the library. Lucy is told repeatedly to stay out of it, but she keeps digging herself in deeper and deeper until there is no way out.

The matter-of-fact nature of the LGBTQ+ themes is comforting. Not every story has to be fraught with the coming out issue. Lucy's attraction to Audrey is a typically bumbling teen drama, and it felt like a natural part of the story.

There were some continuity issues that took me out of the story, but the suspense was pretty well-drawn. I didn't buy some of the family history or the coverup, but the book was entertaining in spite of that.

Solid mystery for the YA reader.

I loved this story. It had so many layers of mystery that it captivated you from the beginning. And three generations worth of murder kept these families in the small town tangled together. It felt like a good Nancy Drew mystery with her friend Bess by her side (in this case, Lucy and Audrey). The twists and turns just kept coming that you never saw who did it.

But it's rare for me to comment on what I didn't like. I was very confused why Lucy kept calling and referring to her mom as Katy, rarely mom. I didn't know if Lucy was maybe adopted or something.

Also, Lucy's whole parent situation seemed weird. If Katy traveled so much for her PI job, why did it seem like Lucy wasn't in a stable home? And if her father was a CNN reporter, it seemed like he wasn't now and would be the more stable caregiver.

And finally, why did the author feel compelled to make Lucy and Audrey gay? It was a terrific story up to the point of Lucy's reveal and it's not like it added anything to the story. In one case, not to add plot spoilers, it really distracted from the story and left me a little disgusted. I mean these are supposed to be middle school to early high school girls.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review an advanced copy of this novel. I highly enjoyed it and will be recommending it to others.

A quick teen murder mystery with some romance. The cute romance building between Lucy and Audrey offset the murder and darker themes of the novel. I liked that the characters acted like actual teens, coming off very young and innocent in certain ways but still tough and reckless. At times the adults, mainly the moms, seemed very young too in how they were acting but that could be because of the past traumas they were confronting and their fear for their daughters. The communication between the two MCs and their moms was practically nonexistent on any deeper level though which I guess set them up to sneak around and try to solve the mystery but was frustrating to read. But I did like that the Lucy and Audrey were both strong, independent, smart girls raised by single mothers and that they had completely different personalities/descriptors. The twists are a little predictable but still entertaining and overall it's a fun read. If you like small town vibes, insta love, and fast paced YA mysteries, Better Left Buried may be a good fit for you!

Thank you Disney Hyperion for the DRC via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Another example of a book that I am not the intended audience for and it shows. I should’ve known when it was marketed as A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder that there was a chance I wouldn’t enjoy it.

It’s very much a YA book, and sometimes that works for me. This time it didn’t. I will for sure recommend it to my students, and know that they’ll find it much more enjoyable.

This book wasn’t for me.

It was a small town mystery but it was slow. And the whole no communication this was painful. I mean at some point communication has to happen. I just found the whole book to be annoying.

It was a great idea I think, just could’ve been written better and not be so agonizing.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read and review.

Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for granting me an advanced digital arc of this book! It was an interesting read.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read and review this before publication. Better Left Buried takes two sparky characters and plunges them headlong into a murder mystery that has its roots in the past.
Starting off on her way to stay with her dad for spring break, our main character is fed up when her mum announces a detour to a town she’s never heard of to help an old friend that’s never been mentioned. Unfortunately, when they arrive at the scheduled meeting place they discover the body of the man they’ve come to meet. Lucy sees someone in the woods and is convinced they know more than they’re letting on.
It takes a bit of time to establish who’s who - mainly because Lucy has to be introduced to them all and told about them - but it’s clear that her mum has been hiding things about their past. Audrey, the young girl seen in the woods, has her own reasons for being there.
As Lucy and Audrey team up we follow the ongoing murder investigation, but they also unearth family secrets and root out those guilty of crimes long passed. Perhaps an unlikely ending, but guilt does strange things to people!

This was such a great read! We follow Lucy and Audrey around their families’ hometown following tragic events; however, the tragedy doesn’t end there and it can’t stop following the girls. The plot comes with plenty of mystery, red herrings, and excitement. I enjoyed the pacing and the dynamic of all the characters. Each turn brought new paths for discovery and created more tension.

I really liked Lucy and Audrey as our MCs. They were believable, while also being tough and strong as heroines of mystery/thrillers need to be. It didn’t feel out of place that they were teenagers either as the plot played into it. I feel like the romance was a nice tension breaker too, both for the girls and the story.

The plot was a little messy though. A few times it felt like too many pieces were moving and it wasn’t necessary. Parts were very fast and others were muddy. Overall, it worked really well though. It comes together and I enjoyed the ending. Highly recommend it!

Thank you to Disney publishing and NetGalley for the ARC.

Thanks to Netgalley & Disney Hyperion for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Lucy was traveling with her mom to meet her dad, who would be taking her on the summer vacation of her dreams when her mom stopped them to quickly check in on a friend in rural Tennessee who sent her a text asking for help. Once they get there, it's quickly obvious that Lucy's private investigator mom will not be continuing their road trip soon, as her mom's friend is dead in the amusement park where he asked for them to meet. It quickly becomes apparent that there's more to this town and her mother than Lucy could have imagined. As she begins investigating on her own, Lucy finds Audrey, a local girl with her own reasons for wanting to solve the murder and a knack for being in suspicious places. Together they embark on a mission to uncover some of the small town's secrets together.

This set up seems so perfect, and the cover absolutely draws you in. In that case, why didn't it live up to all the mental hype I had for it? Part of my issue comes from the communication in this book, or the lack thereof. So much of what happens is driven by the fact that the main characters just would not talk about things clearly. Instead, Lucy's mom sends her on her own missions to discover information that she already knew, just to save the pain of talking about it. Lucy won't ask questions because she doesn't really want to know the answers. While this helps the story and could feel real for some people, stories driven by lack of communication frustrate me. It's a personal issue.

I also found the romance to be unnecessary. Because this was an ARC, I went into it not knowing this plotline was there. I am sure some readers will love the book because of the addition of the romance into the mystery, but I just wanted to solve the mystery, so I found myself trying to rush through the teen romance to get back to my favorite parts.

My final issue that kept it from feeling perfect was the use of the setting. People are dying in a mysterious amusement park. This park is the center of the mystery, but we kept leaving it to go other places. I wanted more of the creepy park. Granted, most of the other places were enjoyable settings in their own right.

Overall, this was a fun mystery. I definitely see the comparisons to Knives Out and A Good Girls Guide to Murder. I enjoyed trying to figure out the mysteries of Lucy's family, the murder, and the town. The pacing was fantastic, and the pages flew by. If you are someone who isn't put off by a lack of communication and go into it knowing the town is as much a focus of the book as the amusement park, and that there is a romance plotline, I think this book could be perfect for you. I just needed that information going in, and I didn't have it, which distracted me from an unputdownable mystery storyline.

Real Rating 3.5


I saw this on so many lists to read after I’ve read Here Lies a Vengeful Bitch. So I did. And even though I worried for a while it was too much alike, it ended up being ok.

The mystery in this was bomb! Well once it got started. It took forever for us to get to what the ACTUAL mystery was. And even though we see one of the teens noticing the other, we don’t understand why or anything else until way later. It was like a slow burn mystery and you just can’t do that. There needs to be something happening all the time, and this one just wasn’t it for me. I will say it got good once it got started tho. And the MESS! There was so much drama in this and I am not embarrassed to say that this is what intrigued me most lol

The next thing I really liked was the setting. I LOVE amusement parks, but NOT creepy ones. And this one was creepy lol And then to find out all the things that happened there? Big yikes. And to find all the different things that ended up happening there? Yeahhhh it was creepy for a reason. I was right to not like that place. But naturally, because I knew better, that was my favorite part. Every time they went there I knew there was something else that was about to happen. And I loved that.

I also liked this for the feelsssss. Like I was legit creeped out because of the dark and gloomy amusement park and I was also creeped out by the huge mansion that was there while everyone else didn’t have the same grandeur. Roach did really well with giving this a gothic type vibe.

The thing I didn’t like about this was the characters. I understand that one of them the moms was a PI, but Lordt everything just kept falling into place for the daughter. For her to have no training and her mom to be certified Idk how it was so easy for her. And like how did her mom not banish her from the first time? My momma would have put me on the first thing smoking to my dad’s lol

Even though it wasn’t completely believable, it was entertaining. Definitely helped put me in a Summer Ween mood so I’m not at all mad at it. I really hope y’all pick this up and let me know what you think of it.

I enjoyed this quite a bit, but found Katie absolutely insufferable for the first half of the book. There were some subtle implications that Lucy was having to parent her parent that I thought were really interesting, but could have been explored more explicitly. I did enjoy the mystery and the sapphic romance, though the whodunnit element really didn't gel as much. Still, it was enjoyable and Katie was redeemed a bit more after she stopped refusing to say ANYTHING about her past or give any information at all about what was going on.

Better Left Buried is a sapphic mystery that revolves around the investigation of a small town murder. There were a lot of characters in the beginning and it took a while for me to get into the story. I like the relationship between the main characters, Lucy and Audrey and how they grow through the story together. The mystery aspect was just OK to me but it was a solid read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

Lucy Preston's private investigator mother has never really talked much about her past. All Lucy wanted was to go on a normal spring break trip, but those plans change when her mother gets a message from someone in her past. Lucy finds herself at the ruins of an amusement park, with a body under the roller coaster. Lucy decides to investigate this murder too, since she thinks this murder is the key to unlocking the secrets of her mother's early life. Lucy joins forces with Audrey Nelson, who has her own reasons for investigating this murder and how it is connected to the entire town. A fantastic thriller with several twists, told in two voices (Lucy's and Audrey's), about the secrets we keep and dangerous they can be.

Better Left Buried by Mary E. Roach is an enthralling and darkly humorous exploration of the macabre, showcasing Roach's signature wit and meticulous research. The book's engaging narrative and fascinating insights make it a compelling read that captivates and entertains throughout.

This didn't keep my attention like I had hoped it would. I struggled getting myself to read it but overall it was a decent book, just maybe not for me.

This is a book that I was really looking forward to. Langley being brought to a town where her mother is very mysterious about why they need to come back. Only to find that the mystery is tied to her family and her past. One that she has never been able to explore before. Audrey has always been seen as one of the outcasts of town. Her mom and her always struggling to find a way to make ends meet. Sadly, when Langley and Audrey meet, I feel like everything quickly became really one noted.
The story itself had so many opportunities to delve deeper into what was going on. The mystery of the family, trying to figure out how Audrey's mom fit into everything, the murders, even the romance itself? And yet everything felt very superficial. Even the romance between Langley and Audrey did nothing to carry the book. I did enjoy the coming out of the closet joke though. I also liked how their opposite personalities completed the other. Beyond that though this book was a hard one for me.

Thank you to Disney Publishing Worldwide and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

The beginning of this book really grabbed my interest and kept me going and then lulled in the middle. However, the ending revved (motorcycle pun) back up for an engaging ending.

The two main characters in this story were cute and really worked well opposite each other. I think reading from the two opposite characters was a fun way of staying engaged in the story. The romance wasn’t too overbearing.