Absolutely enjoyed this novel! Suspenseful and fun, I enjoyed all the twists and the characters throughout. Would definitely recommend for anyone who enjoys mysteries and thrillers!

A engaging YA mystery. Set in a boarding school, there is both a mysterious death and a very secret society which does random pranks that are possibly becoming more dangerous. An unlikely sleuth works on solving the crime. There are a lot of layers in this story and the author does a good job of making sure it doesn't get confusing, just gets more intriguing. I can see this book really appealing to the YA audience.

Thank you Sourcebooks for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC of this novel. This is a good entry into the YA mystery/thriller/dark academia genre. It takes place at a very upper crust English boarding school, and the protagonist is a scholarship student. Excuse the pun, but the execution was a little bit textbook. I could not connect with the characters emotionally, but maybe I was in an off mood. The perpetrator also becomes obvious about midway through but the why does not. Looking forward to the author's future novels.

Thank you to Usborne, the author, and NetGalley for the ARC.

This was a mystery that even I couldn’t solve, which is very exciting because I guess the plot to everything. The writing is very straightforward, and the book is told from the point of view of our main character writing it after the fact. I can see it as realistically being written by a gifted high school student. I loved that although there does end up being a love interest, it doesn’t have a huge role in the overarching story being told. It’s just for funsies. Although there were many characters over the course of the story, unlike in some books, it was relatively easy to keep track of who was who. They all felt very real and fleshed out, each with their own motives and personalities. I also love the underlying theme of wealth leading to entitlement and more greed. Overall, this was a really fun and interesting read. I would definitely recommend it to someone looking for a more lighthearted YA mystery.

I thoroughly enjoyed this compulsive YA thriller! I found myself staying up late on multiple occasions! I just couldn’t put it down!

This book has a lot of characters and at some point I thought nearly everyone was the killer! I enjoyed the old, creepy boarding school setting! It really added to the mystery, especially when there were cloaked figures in the basement.

If you enjoy dark academia and YA thrillers, then I recommend checking this book out!

Ok yas coming from a book tock girly here I loved the plot behind this book. It was very well thought out and written well. I loved how fitting in with school , which is challenging for everyone. was a huge issue at the beginning then the murder happened. I actually didnt want the book to end and I'm debating reading it again when its published so that I can experience it again. As a person of color I loved that the FMC was of indian descent it kind of made it even that much more relatable for me personally.

Okay but can you imagine writing a short story and a day later one of your classmates turns up dead in the same manner? That’s such a good premise.

So, I loved this book. It’s a little slow start and some moments are a stretch, but it’s about teenagers and is written in first person, so that didn’t really bother me.

Honestly didn’t see the killer being that person till the very end and I was surprised to see they pulled it all off.

It’s a fun twisty read, that’s going to keep you company for the beginning of spooky season.

Huge thanks to NetGalley for providing me an eARC 💖

Thanks to Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire for the pre-release copy! I can honestly say that i absolutely adored this book. If you were into ‘A Good Girls Guide To Murder” then this YA mystery might just be for you. This book as fast paced and an enjoyable read. The characters were done well and you could really feel all of their emotions. The mystery was a little too predictable for me, but i also am a thriller fanatic.

Jess just wants to get through school without being noticed. She already knows she has a mark on her back because she is a scholarship student among the rich and elite. Yet when a fellow student dies the spotlight finds her because they end up dead the same way a main character of a short story, she writes dies. Jess is a spunky character. Her voice is vibrant and jumps off the page at the reader. Her strong voice truly carries the story. There are some spots where the story lags, but overall, I enjoyed the mystery. I also enjoyed that Jess grows as a person and finds other people to connect with in the school outside of her best friend.
Thank you to Sourcebook Fire and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book.

This Book Kills. What a great title. This YA mystery has great twists and turns. Books set in an elite boarding school are generally not for me. I was so intrigued by the title and the description, I had to give it a try. I am so glad I did. Jess is a scholarship student among the rich and entitled. You get the trope, right? She does have one good friend, Clem, and she loves creative writing. Her interest in writing stories might justbe what will get her into trouble, even though she tries to keep her head down and blend in. It's hard to do when you are the only student of Indian descent. ( this was the one detail that didn't quite make sense to me. ) A YA mystery that is well done. I didn't solve the mystery ahead of the main character. I count that as a win. Go ahead and pick this one up. I was able to read an ARC from NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire. I appreciate that. This is the first book I have read by this author but if she keeps writing YA mystery, it definitely won't be my last.

Thanks to Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire for the pre-release copy! Below is my honest review.

This book was just FUN. The school setting was well done, the characters were entertaining and had depth, and the mystery unfurled over the course of the novel with really good pacing. I really enjoyed the development of relationships between characters throughout the story, which felt natural to me, and I very much enjoyed the diverse main character's perspective.

My only real gripe with this one is that, if you are a big mystery reader, you're probably going to guess the ending like I did. But that being said, it didn't really detract from the FUN of the novel, so I still chose to rate this one high.

Four stars, definitely recommend to mystery/YA fans. Give it a shot, and I think you'll enjoy it.

Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the copy of This Book Kills by Ravena Kaur Guron. I loved how well-drawn the characters were, and how they evoked memories of being a teen. The mystery was good and intriguing, but I was disappointed that in the end the perpetrator ended up explaining why and how they did things instead of us being able to see what went on. I have read plenty of books where we see things from the killer’s POV so I could try to figure out the red herrings and who the killer was, so I would have preferred that format to just being told. If you love a school story, especially one set in a boarding school, this is the book for you. I guarantee it will keep you reading.

I love mysteries set in prep schools, and the premise of This Book Kills sounded perfect for a cozy afternoon. However, it fell very flat for me. First, I have an incredibly hard time buying into diaries as a form of narration. It never feels plausible, as I can't believe someone would verbatim write down entire scenes from their life, including backstory and description.

I tried to remain open-minded, but the characters themselves were too overblown. Granted, this is for a YA audience, but I think it might be too junior for even a 14-18 range. And that's disappointing because I feel like this book could have been fantastic.

Ultimately, it was a DNF for me, but I hope other readers enjoy it more!

I would say that this was a solid light-hearted (as far as murder can be light-hearted) YA mystery for me. If you can suspend belief that a secluded private boarding school does not immediately shut down and send everyone home after a high-profile student is murdered with the perpetrator still on the loose and threatening other students, then you can probably get into this one.

What I Loved: I was honestly surprised and satisfied with the solution. I wasn't thinking too hard about it, but I was slowly narrowing down suspects and at a total loss when the big reveal came. Guron is officially queen of the red herring. I was also a Jess fan - she was a solid narrator and I was rooting for her the whole time.

What Could Have Been Better: The Regia Club stuff got really messy, especially at the end. I kind of lost sight or didn't fully understand the motivations and intentions of several key players. Also, these are several really cruel, really psycho high school students. I mean it when you kind of have to suspend belief on the scenario a little bit.

All in all, it was an enjoyable summer read. Don't overthink it. Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the e-ARC.

I found the character development in the book to be quite engaging, particularly with the main character Jess. The story was set in a captivating Prep School environment with a plot that was straightforward to follow. Although I was able to foresee the ending, I still found the book enjoyable and had a pleasant time reading it. I would definitely recommend it though — in fact I already have.

Thank you to netgalley and sourcebooks fire for providing me with an arc of this book.

This has a good overall story, and the mystery keeps you guessing for a long time. There's a mixture of suspicion and doubt flying around throughout almost the whole book, casting uncertainty over guesses as to who's guilty of what. I was glued to the pages for long stretches of the book, really engrossed in it.

However, there was a lot that I didn't like about the writing. The author's prejudice against the wealthy seeps from every page, the MC's woe-is-me attitude is cringe worthy, and lazy writing tactics are used in abundance, which took me out of the immersion: characters speaking in stuttered sentences that they can't finish only because the author wants to drag out the suspense (which is broken when you SEE the writing techniques being employed; they weren't done well); the MC constantly trying to convince the reader that the guy she's totally into definitely isn't into her, which is overused author-speak for "this guy is totally into her" (it would have been more tense and uncertain if these assurances never happened, but their presence makes it obvious where the story is going); character behaviors that are laughably unbelievable; multiple bad guy monologues. Those are the poor writing choices that I recall off the top of my head. Subjectively, I'll throw in that the MC is insufferable to me almost the whole time. That didn't help my enjoyment.

It's a YA book, and I appreciate it being clean other than murder (little language and no sex). We need more books like that, other than just ones written for actual children. The gripes that I have about the writing quality also place this as YA, not adult. Unfortunately, this isn't one of those YA books that can be enjoyed by adults and teens alike; it will be way more favorable to teens, who haven't yet read all the tired writing building blocks a bazillion times, and so they may not notice that it's lazy writing. I do recommend this book, for teen readers. I'd have probably loved this if I'd read it many years ago.

So. Good story. Compelling mystery. Definitely written for teenagers. 2.5 stars from me, an adult reader of YA.

Thank you to Netgallery and Sourcebooks Fire for an early release copy of This Book Kills by Kaur Guron.

Trying to get into this book was a little difficult for me, the characters came off a little more immature then what I would have liked (I understand it’s Young Adult but they came off as more middle grade then soon to be seniors). Some of the names are a little out there but i didn’t mind however having to read Millie’s full name multiple times became repetitive quickly.

The writing here is good, I think it could have been a little more descriptive when it came to character descriptions. During the start the characters only get described once which makes it a little hard to picture some of the scenes in here. I liked how we got to see the main character Jess become more confident in herself as the story proceeds, the friends she makes are more genuine and it helped for a more happy ending. The emotions written in her surrounding the death of Hugh were written in a way that felt genuine,

The romance felt a little off to me, Hugh just died and Jess is can’t go a chapter without gushing about Tommy, the ending is sweet but the romance just felt like it took away the seriousness of murder investigation. During some chapters Jess addresses the reader directly and I’m just not a fan of that type of thing in general it always take me out of the story.

**Thank you so much to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review! These thoughts are entirely my own.**

I really enjoyed this book! I love mysteries and boarding schools, so this book was right up my alley.

The setting was amazing; like I said, I love anything boarding school. I loved how the book also involved the school board, the teachers, etc.

I also really enjoyed the characters. I don’t always like first-person POVs, but This Book Kills did a great job keeping me hooked through Jess’s POV. She was written so well! She was funny and introspective and had interesting thoughts and lenses from which to read the story.

I also loved how the romance was kept on the down-low! This made me so happy. It allowed for a lot of good character development, and I wasn’t distracted from the mystery. It was, again, written really well. The same goes for how clean the book is!

The twists were crazy! I would have never guessed most of them, though one of the bigger ones was shocking at first and then I felt like I should have guessed. There were a lot of clues pointing to this twist, but I was not paying close enough attention to see them.

Anyways, I really loved the writing style, the setting, the slight romance, the plot, all of it! I had a great time reading this book and would definitely recommend, especially if you liked A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.

This one turned out much better than I anticipated after reading the synopsis and the first 20% of the book. It actually had me stumped on who was behind the murders, which is saying something. My biggest hang up with this one was how juvenile some of the writing was geared. It seemed unnecessary to me to have silly character names and to keep over using the same phrases (Er…) to the point it detracts from the story. I did appreciate that there were layers of complexity when it came to characters secrets and wasn’t quite as straight forward of a murder mystery as I had thought. There were of course some events that seemed like a little too much of a coincidence than it would be in reality, but if you can look beyond that it was entertaining. The characters were mostly interesting and the author did do a nice job of making everyone seem like a suspect. I was invested in wanting to know what happened next. If you like murder mysteries and/or boarding school stories, give this one a read.

This book caught my attention with its clever title and cover art. How perfect! I was immediately drawn in by the main character and her clear goals and motivations. I also liked the idea of her short story serving as an inspiration for the crime. This is particularly relevant in the true-crime community with the recent story of an author committing murder. I truly enjoyed immersing myself in this story and felt like I was in the passenger seat as Jess navigated this investigation.