If You Can Hear This tells the story of Posey, who moves to a small town and friends the local AV Club. Together, they bring journalism to their small town in a way that's never been there before, uncovering small town mysteries that anyone can recognize.

Posey is very likable, and anyone who is into mysteries will instantly feel a connection with her.

This YA thriller is gripping, emotional, and relatable. Faith Gardner's writing is clever, easy to read, and never leaves the reader behing.

Here’s a positive 4-star review of If You Can Hear This by Faith Gardner:

Faith Gardner delivers a compelling mix of mystery, friendship, and self-discovery in If You Can Hear This, a novel that blends investigative journalism with small-town intrigue.

Posey Spade is an instantly relatable protagonist—driven, curious, and dealing with the heartbreak of unrequited love while navigating life in a new town. Her passion for journalism makes her an engaging narrator, and her determination to uncover the truth about Ms. Moses’ disappearance brings a thrilling edge to the story. The AV Club, a ragtag group of misfits, adds humor and heart, making their dynamic both entertaining and heartfelt.

The novel’s mystery element is well-paced, with twists that keep the reader engaged. From local corruption to cult rumors, Wild Pines proves to be far more interesting than Posey initially imagined. Along the way, the story balances its investigative thrills with themes of resilience, belonging, and the importance of teamwork.

If there’s a small drawback, it’s that some side characters could have been explored more deeply, and a few plot points wrap up a bit too neatly. However, the novel’s engaging writing style and well-crafted suspense make up for these minor issues.

With a sharp, witty voice and an emotionally resonant core, If You Can Hear This is an enjoyable and thought-provoking read. Perfect for fans of Veronica Mars-style sleuthing with a heartfelt coming-of-age twist.

Posey Spade is a misfit looking for a place where she will fit in. The audio-visual club at her new high school could be just the thing she’s been looking for. The club is an eclectic group with a lot of heart and a strong desire to be heard and taken seriously. When their teacher turns up missing, the club comes together to find their beloved leader. Although this is a YA mystery, I was engaged and interested as the plot unfolded. I could relate to Posey’s wish of being accepted and belonging. The characters were well-developed driving the emotional, unpredictable, and intriguing story. Faith Gardener always delivers a clever and original story with numerous unexpected twists along the way to the surprising conclusion. Thank you, NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books for my copy.

I truly wanted to embrace this book, as it contained all the elements I adore in a young adult thriller. Unfortunately, the underdog aspect of the plot fell flat, and both the main protagonist and supporting characters felt stripped of genuine, authentic emotions. The writing came across as stiff and robotic, lacking the urgency a thrilling narrative needs to compel readers to keep turning the pages. Ultimately, the ending failed to deliver the satisfying payoff that the journey deserved.

This could be the start of a really cute YA series. The Wild Pines AV Club sets out to get to the bottom
Of their teacher’s disappearance. This group gives breakfast club vibes and I love how the author took some time to flesh out the beginning of backstories for each one without taking from the main plot. I hope this series continues!

This book would be great in a middle school or for early high school. It would be a good starter book for someone who wants to give the genre a try. It wasn't really my cup of tea, but I can see where others might appreciate it. It was well written, there were no plot gaps, the characters were not one dimensional. Overall it was a good book.
Thank you NetGalley for the advanced preview.

What initially drew me to this book was the "I Killed Zoe Spanos meets A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder" in the blurb, since those are two of my favorite YA thriller/mystery books. So I was a bit disappointed that the book didn't quite meet my expectations. While I enjoyed some aspects of this book, including the characters and the writing style, ultimately the mystery and plotline itself fell flat for me. I still think it could be a good read for others, I just personally did not feel as captivated as I expected myself to be with the mystery. Hence the three star rating.

If You Can Hear This by Faith Gardner is a powerful and deeply emotional story that explores resilience, identity, and the unexpected turns life can take. The protagonist, Memphis, navigates the aftermath of a life-altering tragedy with raw honesty, grappling with grief, self-discovery, and her place in a world that feels unfamiliar. Gardner’s writing is beautifully evocative, capturing both the pain and hope of starting over. The characters are relatable and layered, making it easy to connect with their struggles and triumphs. This book is a thought-provoking, heart-wrenching journey that lingers with you long after the final page.

This is a YA mystery with mixed media, and I really enjoyed it. This is the second book I've read by this author, I loved the other book I read by her as well. This is a classic young adult mystery. I give this one four stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC!

I have mixed feelings about this book. The overall story was great. I really liked the plotline of Posey bringing these characters together to find purpose in the AV club when there was none at the beginning of the novel. However, this reads more like a contemporary novel rather than a mystery/thriller. Posey and her new friends were investigating the entire book, but the ending was a letdown. I was not satisfied at all and felt like the ending lowered my rating.

I loved the relationships built among the characters. Everyone was so unique and I felt like all of the characters. I didn’t like Posey at first but grew to like her as the book went on.

This book was so gripping, i found myself unable to put it down! The story follows Posey as she moves to a new town with a tiny school and inserts herself in their AV club, right as the teacher in charge of that club goes missing. With no help from local police and the school administrators, she and the gang start creating a buzz and searching for their beloved teacher. Overall, the characters and story arc were fantastic and I really enjoyed this book. Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Collins and Faith Gardner for my eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Written in third-person POV, "If You Can Hear This" by Faith Gardner is a story about a high school AV Club who reports on the mystery disappearance of their AC Club teacher, Miss Moses, and its town's complications. Walking into Wild Pines HS, Posey Spad was a well-established journalism student who transferred into the school. With a barely running/organized AV Club, Posey and the story of Miss Moses's disappearance becomes a great opportunity for the AV Club to set their feet off the ground.

Strengths:
Gardner's writing is quick-paced and falls exactly where many YA/adolescent readers will run in terms of their speed of reading. There weren't any tough moments of language, making the experience flow. The end of the chapters fell into solid areas where I was left to wonder and question what was going to happen in the following chapter.

Weakness:
The plot was all over the place and altogether not connected well. Furthermore, some terms/languages were quite cringy to read. There was also so much repetitiveness, especially when explaining Miss Moses and Sal's relationship (which, I find the constant explanation of their student-teacher relationship speculation extremely weird as a reader. Gardner could have already established the false misconception more solidly in the beginning rather than letting that drag on). Also, the characters are not very deeply explored. I wish there had been more time spent on enhancing the characters, but third-person POV could only do so much.

My Opinion:
It took months for me to finish this book, mainly because I dreaded reading it. It felt like a copy of AGGGTM but without the unexpected plot twist. I didn't find anything interesting about this book and felt weird reading about the Miss Moses and Sal thing. It was mentioned so many times and was the main reason I kept putting this book off. There wasn't anything exciting about the plot, and I almost DNF'd it, but I wanted to keep giving it a chance. There was a specific part about the bear--that was a bit weird and out of the blue. Posey's fear of bears wasn't explained; it was just dropped there without further explanation.

I'm 50/50 about recommending this.

Thank you, HarperCollins & NetGalley, for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to the publisher for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review; unfortunately, this did not work out for me. I couldn’t connect to the story or the characters and had a hard time wanting to pick it up. I think this would be an interesting thriller for very young YA. It didn’t feel developed enough and lacked expiation in a lot of ways.

this was honestly a bit of a let down. I loved the characters. It’s not said explicitly but the main character felt very autistic coded which I enjoyed! But the mystery which is the whole focus of the book was just so … meh. Nothing about it felt twisty or gripping. The entire investigation it feels like, they have no leads whatsoever and are just grasping at straws until they literally stumble upon the truth in the end. It kind of feels like the author spent so much time making sure these characters had fun personalities but then was hesitant to actually make the mystery interesting. I still rate it rather high for the circumstances because I liked the characters and their chemistry so much but man do I wish there would’ve been an actual mystery at hand.

This was a really weird one too. For it to be a mystery, it started off really weird. It took forever to get going. She was trying to be a journalist which meant she was following the case, but I think it would have made it infintely more exciting if she was trying to be a detective.

Ok so for one, I think the biggest thing in the book was the mystery. It was……in short….. not good. And not because of the way it ended. Well kind of. It’s never really explained. And when it is, its done in a mass info dump setting. I hate when authors do this. I usually miss a detail that way. And the person that “did it” was terrible. (If you want spoilers, message me) Idk what made them end this like this.

The characters were all quirky which I did love. I very much wanted to see the two of them find love, but I also really didn’t understand why it was in the book in the first place. It didn’t actually need it. They could have been friends and left it at that. But I understand that there needed to be some filler, but I’m just saying it could have gone a lot of different ways instead.

The plot of this was dumb tho. I don’t actually like books with teacher plots. They always reveal some weird thing about the teacher and the student. And although this one doesn’t have it, she did make some weird questionable choices. I don’t really get why she did these things and didn’t actually make a big deal about it. I’m sorry, its 2024… She had to know that this was something that could get her in trouble.

I’m a little disappointed because I was assuming this was going to be like Truly Devious. But it wasn’t. Yeah she was awkward af, but that was it. I hate when these comparisons give me something to get excited for and then it doesn’t deliver. This is not something I normally would have dropped everything for at all. It was too innocent for this coolness that is this cover. I DID like the use of the podcast and social media tho. I know people hate it and say it dates the book, but I love it. I guess because teens actually do this. They really are out here trying to make it big via a podcast.

In this story, we follow our main character Posey as she has moved to a small town after living in San Fransico. We follow her as she joins the local school's AV Club. One day their club advisor goes missing and things seem a miss and the club decides to investigate their teacher's disappearance.

This was a fun read because it was so fast-paced and kept me on the edge of my seat. I will say that as an adult reader, some things annoyed me like Posey's dad being a reporter who is "always gone" so Posey can do all of these things that a normal teenager would not. I also thought that the male lead Sal who was living out of his van was portrayed well. I believe that the reveal was one that I did see coming but also that it was done well for the age group in which this book is intended.

I hope that this is going to be a series because I would love to see more of these characters and what they do going forward.

I want to say thank you to NetGalley and HarperTeen for allowing me to read this ARC.

Just like the last sentence in this dynamite mystery, I hope that If You Can Hear This is just the beginning of what would be a knock-out YA series. From the endearing motley crew of teen wannabe journalists to the smoothly unfurling tale behind what happened to Ms. Moses, I quickly lost track of time as I got caught up in the words. The fact that I fell in love with Ms. Gardner’s book came as no big surprise, however. After all, she’s easily become one of my favorite authors following my love of her last adult thriller, Like It Never Was, which is one book that I can’t recommend strongly enough to anyone reading this review.

While geared more towards the younger frame of young adult readers, even this adult got plenty from the plot. With a found family vibe, realistic dialogue, and a clear sense of place, the words thrummed into my soul like only a really special book can. The absolute best piece of the puzzle, however, was the eccentric protagonist. Posey was likeable, clever, and yet also utterly black-and-white. Set against her soon-to-be friends, her character arc was truly impressive. And as for the rest of these wily teens? Well, their distinct identities and wide range of personalities only made the book sing in the most delightful of ways. All together? It made for a stellar example of masterful character creation no ifs, ands, or buts.

All in all, from its giggle-worthy humor to the mixed media format, this book was well-written and felt wholly immersive. And while there wasn’t a particularly shocking twist considering the potential direction of the plot, I still didn’t have even an iota of a glimpse of the truth before the final timely reveal. So if you love a good cozy-ish mystery along the vein ofI Killed Zoe Spanos, you’ll probably fall in love with this one just as much as this mystery/thriller fanatic. Just don’t expect any truly disturbing topics or adrenaline-pumping action. Do expect, however, one altogether rollicking good time. Rating of 4.5 stars.

Thank you to Faith Gardner, Harper Books, and NetGalley for my complimentary physical and digital copies. All opinions are my own.

If You Can Hear This by Faith Gardner tells the story of Wild Pines High AV club on their search for their missing teacher. When Posey moves to Wild Pines all she wants from this fresh start is to fit in, make friends and focus on journalism. Once she finds out there is no school paper, she decides to join Wild Pines High AV club , which is a club formed under the sponsorship of professor Ms Moses. As soon as Posey joins the club she sees that this club might not be what she wanted, however when Ms Moses goes missing she pursues her fellow club members (Sal, Yash, Athena, Lexy, and Jeremiah) to form Wild Pines Buzz. Wild Pines Buzz is a Youtube Channel with 5 minute videos where the AV club report their findings from their search for their missing teacher.

To be honest I did not think I might enjoy this book as much as it was YA and I have recently not read as many YA books, but I am so glad I read this as I truly enjoyed this book and could see the comparisons with 'A Good Girl's Guide to Murder'.

I liked how the story surrounded on Posey and her leading the club, along with Sal, on their search for Ms Moses and then shaping the videos for their Youtube Channel. I found that the characters were very well developed and their vulnerability shown, as these were still high school kids. The way the relationship between the club members developed with each chapter was also very endearing.

The only negative for me is that the ending felt a bit rushed, leaving it all to the last 2 chapters but overall, I did enjoy this book.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books for this ARC in exchange of an honest review.

Posey Spade, who has dreams of being a journalist like her father, has just moved to Wild Pines. Being a new student at a new school is hard but she is determined to make the most of it. She joined the AV Club in hopes of doing some journalism at her new school, but finds the club is full of slackers and those who want to watch movies to pass the time. After their teacher goes missing, Posey and her fellow AV club members decide to investigate her disappearance and set about to learn the truth!

If You Can Hear Thisis a YA book that on the surface is about students seeking answers about their missing teacher but it is much, much, more. I enjoyed watching as the club members began to share and be vulnerable with each other. How they found a purpose and in doing so made friends, grew in confidence, used teamwork, and learned about their community.

I thought Faith Gardner did a great job in drawing her characters. The teens in this book felt real and I am sure that YA readers will relate to one or more of the characters. I enjoyed the writing and the well thought out mystery.

Well written, mysterious, and engaging.

3.5 stars rounded up

This book was slow to get me hooked, The mystery did pick up a third of the way through and I finished in a day. I wasn't a fan of Posey at the beginning, but I came to understand her better believing that she is ND without her stating that. It read as a mid age YA book, minus all of the F-bombs used. Ending felt rushed..38 chapters of build up and then boom they have an idea and all is solved? A handful of subplots were introduced but then never wrapped up.

Overall it hit all of the standard YA mystery beats and it reminded me of Jessica Goodman books.

Thank you to HarperCollins Children's Books and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review!