Absolutely loved this book! The drama, the lies, the suspense, the MYSTERY! Yes! This was everything I needed and then some!

I loved EVERYTHING about this book and I'm not even exaggerating because this book was really good. It kept me guessing till the end. I would really recommend this to anyone who loves reading a good murder mystery in an academic setting.

I think that if you're a YA reader that's on the younger side, this would appeal to you. The writing and characters come off pretty juvenile which made this sort of feel like an R.L Stine middle grade story. That isn't a crime or anything, but from the synopsis and the marketing, it was just...disappointing to read. There was a lot going on in this book, too, so I feel like everything got too little screen time/explanation because we were just trying to fit so much in. Overall, not horrible but done a bit of disservice by the marketing and description of the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourebooks Fire for the eARC.

This YA novel was just that, young. I struggled to fully involve myself in the plot and found the characters too juvenile to related to. Granted I am not YA, but just found this one to be geared younger than I anticipated.

Fans of YA thrillers geared towards a younger audience will enjoy this book. It didn't entirely fulfill all my personal wants and needs in a YA thriller.

It felt a little too juvenile for my liking and more like an R.L. Stine book that should have been shorter. It was a little on the too long side, yet failed to give us details about the things we really needed. I also felt it had a few too many side plot lines that were thrown in as red herrings, but really didn't go anywhere.

Despite it's length, it was a pretty quick read,

Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book. These opinions are completely my own.

I would not pick for myself, but I'm 22 years above the targeted audience. I do however believe YA will eat it up, although the emphasis of the names is a little eccentric. I would recommend for students who enjoyed a thriller mixed with a bit of humour

This book was entertaining but it felt a little too close to A Good Girls Guide To Murder, which I love! I think that's why this book kept my attention through out most of the time. I could also see why some may have an issue with it because it's a little too close to that. I love a good mystery and really couldn't figure it out until the very end, then I had a lightbulb moment.

With its student body full of suspicious characters, the Heybuckle School makes an intriguing setting for a murder mystery. Readers will race to follow the clues along with Jess—but, with so many possibilities in so many different directions, This Book Kills may leave readers feeling fatigued.

Full review published on NightsAndWeekends.com and aired on Shelf Discovery.

This Book Kills is a young adult mystery that tries to cram a few too many subplots into one book.

Jess is one of only two scholarship students at the prestigious British prep school Heybucket. She is constantly worried about losing her scholarship and embarrassing her ethnic Indian parents. Meanwhile, her best friend Clem (short for Clementine-Tangerine) is glad to be away from her parents, who have always been more concerned with their business than with her.

When Clem’s boyfriend, Hugh, is found murdered on school grounds, suspicion falls on Hugh’s ex-girlfriend, Millie. After all, she had just threatened to kill him for cheating on her with Clem. However, Jess soon receives a text thanking her for helping with Hugh’s murder. It seems that the absurd murder scene is straight out of a short story that Jess wrote. There is also a side plot about a secret society at the school that bullies the students. And, of course, the police are totally incompetent and basically do nothing throughout the book.

I realize that This Book Kills is marketed for young adults but some of the many subplots seemed to be to cribbed from other, better, books. The poor scholarship student angle has been done to death in classic literature. Secrets societies at prestigious prep schools are no surprise either. Overall, this book is recommended only for preteens who haven’t had much reading experience. 3 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with an advanced review copy.

I greatly enjoyed This Book Kills! Jess' character is one I really enjoyed and the author did a wonderful job of detailing her feelings that you can clearly see and understand a lot about her. The plot of the story was excellent I honestly didn't want to put this book down which made for a rough morning but definitely worth it! Truly a wonderful story! Thank you Colored Pages Book Tours, Ravena Guron and SourceBooks Fire for sharing this book with me!

Cool boarding school murder mystery, with a dark academia angle, also exploring privilege, race, and class. The writing was mostly smooth and the chapters weren't too long, often ending on cliff-hangers - students will eat this up. Great for fans of The Good Girl's Guide to Murder!

There is a popular idiom that you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Jess Choudhary, a young woman of Indian descent, must learn this rule the hard way as she becomes involved in several murders at her elite private, boarding school when she receives a text thanking her for the inspiration to kill one of the students in the same manner as a character in a short story Jess wrote. Add to the mystery a secret society composed of students that is daring people to do more dangerous pranks.

This book is a very well-written YA mystery with well-developed characters and very realistic dialogue. I could totally relate to being the scholarship student at an elite private school and being used and ridiculed for coming from a different culture or following a different religion. The murder, and the planning and execution of it, was totally plausible. The book was a scathing rebuke of elites who think they can use people and get away with murder. In the end, Jess triumphs and learns that her family cared deeply for her, and what matters is not how much money they had. She learned the value of true friendship, along with solving several murders.

This book was one of the best YA mystery novels I have read. There were lots of red herrings which kept you guessing, although I had a hunch who the murderer was. There were a few things that leave the reader wondering, like how Jess could solve the murder that a PI could not. Having said that, I would highly recommend to anyone who has read Holly Jackson books, or anyone who enjoys mysteries.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an eARC of this book and provide my unbiased opinion.

The title of this book is the thing that immediately grabbed my attention when I first came across this book. I was like, uhh... How?? Oh, well, let me tell you how: Jess and her classmate Summer wrote a story for a class, a murder mystery, but the story was stolen from the teacher’s desk and the next day one of their classmates was found DEAD in the exact same way that Jess had described the fictional murder in their story. It was WILD! I loved the premise of this book, and overall, I ended up liking it for the most part. I enjoyed the mystery of it all and just following Jess as she tried to figure out what was going on. Unfortunately for Jess, there were A LOT of suspects, especially considering that there was a super suspicious Super Secret Society at this school for rich kids. The more we discovered about this society and the victim, the more interesting it got.

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t really care for any of the characters. I mean, Jess was fine, but I just didn’t connect with any of them. Although I did appreciate the unlikely friendships she built through this unpleasant journey. That was really nice.

As for the killer, I can’t say I had them pinned down for sure. The thought, “Oh, what if it’s THIS person,” crossed my mind offhandedly about the person who turned out to be the killer, but then when it was revealed that it WAS them I was shocked! Especially because I had no clue what their motive could possibly be. BUT THEN we got another twist that I did not see coming at all! That whole scene at the end there with all the revelations was insane! It was also very sad because Jess had a realization about someone... and I am being super vague because spoilers, but I just felt really bad for her.

However, I was enjoying all the revelations and villainous monologues... until I wasn’t. It went on for way too long. There was too much talking and not enough attempted murder in my opinion 😆 AND THEN the climax was over and I thought we were wrapping up but NO! I looked at the table of contents and we still had three chapters AND an epilogue left! Just- why? Why was the ending so long? 😭 It just dragged on forever! I’m not gonna lie, I was getting a little impatient there. But I did like the way Jess stood up for herself in the end with all those condescending school board people. I was SO happy for her!

Overall, I thought this book was fine. It wasn’t bad, but I also didn’t love it. The mystery was intriguing, and while I liked Jess well enough, I just didn’t really connect with any of the characters. Not to mention what I felt like was a very drawn-out ending.

This book doesn’t kill. It killed a few hours of my time. It was intriguing and perfect for a certain population of young readers. It is not scary. It is not unpredictable or surprising. It was a look, through teenage eyes, at the classism, racism, and sexism of an elite school in England. I can see it appealing to you teenaged readers.

There’s been a murder at Heybuckle Prep, and Jess is afraid she will be blamed. She wrote a short story that used the murder weapon and another key detail that very few others would know anything about. She needs to find the real culprit so she doesn’t lose her scholarship, or her life.

This Book Kills, a young adult thriller by Ravena Guron, lays out what seems like a fairly straightforward murder mystery set in a teen centered universe. While it covers a lot of the normal teenage tropes, it also includes some discussion of social class, (and to some degree race) delving into have and have-nots and how different one can be treated depending on which side of the spectrum they fall. For a thiller, I thought the writing was fine, but everything just seemed too neatly tied up in a bow at the end, it was lacking the depth it needed. Having read my share of YA, I know it’s possible to include this type of range, even while gearing your story up for a younger audience.

I received this free advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and feedback.

When Jess Choudhary writes up a murder story for her creative writing class, she never expects it to actually happen... and now the killer is leaving her notes and she has to figure out who did it before she is blamed for the murder. All Jess was ever meant to do was keep her head down, keep up her scholarship, and get through highschool. As a scholarship student and one of the only 2 students of Indian heritage, Jess is a rarity in her elite school.... and when one of the most popular and richest kid who happens to be dating Jess's friend ends up murdered in the same manner as she wrote in her fictional creative writing story.... Jess finds herself at the center of the investigation. When she receives an anonymous message from the killer thanking her for the inspiration for the murder... Jess knows she needs to figure it out before she is blamed or becomes the next victim. In a school of filthy rich kids, elitist, and secret societies... betrayals lie await at ever corner and Jess doesn't know who she can trust. Anyone of the students could be the murderer and with a secret society going after her as well... Jess has her work cut out for her if she wants to figure out who the real killer is. This was such a fun murder mystery read. I loved all the twist and turns and really enjoyed Jess as a protagonist, her voice was fun to read from and she was an interesting character to follow along with. I liked how everything wrapped up and the mystery flowed really well. It's a fun read and one I'd definitely recommend for mystery lovers!

Release Date: September 3, 2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire | Sourcebooks Fire for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

One of the best YA murder mysteries I’ve read…and I don’t say that lightly!

I audibly gasped more than once as the twists kept hitting me. I didn’t know who to trust, who to suspect, or what lead to follow, I loved it.

IJess, the main character, was such a breath of fresh air in this genre!

Highly recommend!

Thank you to Soucebooks Fire and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest feedback. Unfortunately I had to DNF this. I understand that it is YA, but the plot is atrocious. I didn’t mind the cutest asides in the writing, but the dialogue and action feel like reading a terrible fan fiction. Not for me at all.

This Book Kills incorporates a murder mystery set at a boarding school with a secret society ran by wealthy families. Two students, Jess and Summer, were the only students who were enrolled on an academic scholarship. The plot was so well executed with secrets and clues that it was hard to guess who killed Hugh. Every time I thought I figured out who did it, something else happened and I was back to square one. This is the first book where I enjoyed every character and how well they fit into every situation. Jess was my favorite from beginning to end. I was happy to see Jess grow throughout the book and became more self aware of everything and everyone around her. She became more confident in herself and the decisions she made along the way. She no longer felt like she had to gravitate towards Clem’s friendship and found her own friends. The boarding school and secret society (The Regia Club) gave dark academia vibes with their pranks. Fans of Karen McManus and Holly Jackson would definitely love this book!

Thank you Netgalley & Sourcebooks Fire Publishing for an eARC ♥️

The story follows Jess, a scholarship student at a prestigious boarding school, who's already struggling to find her place among her wealthy and privileged classmates. She's constantly feeling like an outsider, and the pressure to perform well academically is mounting.

I have to admit, I'm a total sucker for books set in boarding schools - there's something about the closed-off, insular world that just fascinates me. And this book delivers on that front, perfectly capturing the claustrophobic atmosphere and the complex social dynamics of a boarding school.

Then, the unthinkable happens - a popular student named Hugh is found dead, and the school is thrown into chaos. Jess is shocked and disturbed by the murder, but she's also determined to get to the bottom of it. She teams up with a few friends, including a rebellious artist and a quiet but brilliant tech whiz, to start investigating.

As they dig deeper, they uncover a complex web of secrets and lies that lead them to suspect several people of the crime. There's Hugh's girlfriend, who stands to inherit a vast fortune from his family; the school's charismatic headmaster, who seems to be hiding something; and even Jess's own friends, who may be keeping secrets of their own.

What I loved most about this book is how it perfectly balances the drama and angst of being a teenager with the suspense and intrigue of a classic whodunit. Ravena Guron gets the teenage voice just right - Jess and her friends feel like real, relatable people, with all the usual insecurities and anxieties. But at the same time, the mystery is expertly plotted, with plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing until the very end.🔥