Wow. Wow. If you love thrillers, drop EVERYTHING and get this book when it comes out Feb. 4.

Bestselling author Jessica Goodman’s novel centers on the students at Meadowbrook Academy following the gruesome murder of two of their own, Sarah and Ryan. Told from dual perspectives, Amy is Sarah’s best friend and crushed by her murder, while Liz is a student reporter determined to uncover the truth.

This is an incredibly well-written story that makes me want to read everything Goodman has ever written. The characters don’t feel like characters, they feel like real people whose stories Goodman captured. I guessed the murderer pretty early on, but that didn’t matter. It’s not about the twists; it’s about the progression, the storytelling, the emotions on display on every page. Questions about why the murderer did it and what everyone is hiding — because for sure, everyone is hiding something — kept me reading until the story’s satisfying ending. Don’t miss this one.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Writing style
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Characters
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Plot
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Premise
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Pacing
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Impact

Thank you to Penguin Group and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was overall a pretty good YA mystery/thriller set at a boarding school. The addition of dual POV was interesting, although I found Liz to be pretty annoying at times. She did have good character growth, and outside of her obnoxious reporter mindset was really relatable to me versus Amy.

I didn't guess who the killer was, so I didn't find it super predictable. There were some nice secrets and lies reveals sprinkled throughout the book, and it was well paced - I flew through in 24 hours.

Thank you NetGalley and PenguinTeen for the ARC!

This is a who-dun-it mystery about a double murder at a private school. We get two POVs in this book, one from the best friend of the girl that was murdered, and the other from the school journalist. This book is essentially an investigation, trying to figure out who killed Amy's best friend and her boyfriend and why.

This book was fairly well written. It held my attention for the most part, but I feel like it was easy to guess who was behind the murders. I really enjoyed the short chapters and the back and forth between both POV's.

I wouldn't classify this as a thriller because.. it just wasn't thrilling in my opinion.. all the action happens in the first chapter and the very end of the book with the middle being very slow. That being said I rated this 3/5 stars. I'm not sure if this is something I would recommend to anyone I know, but definitely can see the appeal for any YA readers who may be able to relate more to the characters.

Big thank you to NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

THE MEADOWBROOK MURDERS by Jessica Goodman
⭐️ rating: 8.5/10

read if you like:
🏫 prep school thrillers
🔪 murder mysteries
📰 investigative reporting

summary:
I’ve loved all of Jessica Goodman’s books, including THEY WISH THEY WERE US and THEYLL NEVER CATCH US, and was so grateful when I scored this advanced copy. It follows Amy and Sarah, two students at the elite New England prep school Meadowbrook Academy. They are about to start their epic senior year, full of sports, parties and freedom, when Sarah and her boyfriend are found murdered in their dorm room. Amy is devastated and wonders how anyone could come after her seemingly perfect best friend. But even Amy has a secret of her own she’s desperate to hide. Meanwhile, her new roommate Liz, the editor of the school paper, is desperate to expose the truth both for the feature of the school and for her own journalism career. But as she begins to learn the secrets her classmates were keeping, she finds that everyone could be more at risk than she thought.

This book is such a quick read, with short chapters alternating between Amy and Liz’s POV’s. It offers an intriguing mix of suspense and social commentary, set against the backdrop of an elite prep school where privilege and ambition collide. The realistic depiction of the insular, high-stakes high school scene feels authentic and atmospheric, adding depth to the story. The character development is another highlight. Amy stands out as a compelling protagonist—complex, resourceful, and easy to root for. In contrast, Liz comes across as juvenile and immature at times, making her harder to connect with. Their complicated relationship is one of the story’s strengths, but I found myself wanting more depth in their bond, as it had the potential to elevate the story even further.

While the ending ties the threads together well, it is a bit predictable. That said, the journey to the reveal is engaging enough to make up for it, with twists and turns that keep the pages turning. Thanks to Penguin Group, G.P Putnam’s Sons and Net Galley for the advanced copy. Check this out when it releases on February 4!

4.5/5. I am a big fan of this author and this book didn't disappoint. I love Goodman's writing and find her characters are the written correctly for their ages. Was it my favorite of hers? Not really. I think it could have been a full 5 stars if the ending was more satisfying. I liked the main characters but felt the side characters could have been more fleshed out and maybe we could have had one more suspect along the way.

Boarding school and a murder mystery, I couldn't wait to dive in. While I didn't find the book full of too many twist and turns, I was left guessing until towards the end. I was going through 3 different suspects the whole time.
I will say it was a little slow to start, but when the pace picked up, the rest went pretty quickly.

4.25 stars

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

Thank you NetGalley! This is not my first book read by author Jessica Goodman and it won’t be my last. Another great read. I always enjoy a good dark academia type novel

The Meadowbrook Murders is a tense YA thriller that follows two teenage girls - Amy and Liz - as the navigate the aftermath of two brutal murders at their elite boarding school. I really enjoyed the dual perspectives, and especially loved Liz’s character, who’s a student journalist. The book does a great job of immersing the reader in the setting - a New England boarding school, where cliques and gossip and high school parties abound. While the book wasn’t quite as twisty as I thought it might be, I still didn’t guess the ending (I never do 🫣), and I read the book in a single day because I needed to know the end.

I really liked this book. Sometimes a good YA is just what I need to get me out of a slump. This one had a great plot, great setting, great characters. Full of twists and turns and a surprise ending.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this arc.

It’s not a secret that I’m a fan of mystery novels, murder mysteries in particular, so this book felt right up my alley. I mean, private school, scandalous murder, privileged kids (and a few not so privileged) living together with slack adult supervision, a killer loose among them seemed like the perfect premise for a great read.

Well, I was both right and wrong in my assumptions. The mystery was intriguing and discovering who the killer was, and why did they kill, was a good surprise, the kind one wants when reading a mystery novel. The problem, for me, was that getting to that point took a lot of willpower because this book starts slow, like a snail on a hot driveway kind of slow, and stays slow until well into its second half.

I reached about 25% of the book still hoping for something to happen, something else besides the parade of anguish teens adjusting to the reality of classmates having been murder. We get it, murder is a super traumatic event and these are kids facing it without escape, but still because characters with a point of view don’t engage in an active effort to investigate what happened, everything happening page after page feels more like staged drama than engrossing real-time events.

After realizing the super slow buildup would continue indefinitely, I then kept reading just wondering where is this going? My patience was rewarded with an increase in pace and a swift resolution, but by the time I got there my overall feeling was one of, “I don’t think this book was for me,” so take my comments with that grain of salt.

I would say that, if you’re looking for a thriller this is not one (by the mere definition of thrilling) but still remains a good murder mystery, with some good characterization and a few compelling moments, yet is worth remembering that things move slowly in this story, so if that’s not your cup of tea, perhaps this one is not for you.

Three and a half stars for me. Rounding down because the promised Dark Academia atmosphere wasn’t all that there, as it at times felt as if this was happening in a town more than within the walls of a boarding school.

I liked the setting of the Boarding school and thought the mystery of who killed Sarah and her boyfriends was full of twists and turns, and who the killer was, was a complete surprise. I thought the students acted their age, making dumb decisions left and right thinking they were doing the right thing.
The beginning of this was a bit slow on the build-up, we have the murder happen right away, but the next quarter or is just what happened after. It isn't until a bit before the halfway point that Amy and Liz start really looking into what happened and figuring out why someone might have wanted to hurt Amy and her boyfriend.

Things went pretty quickly after the halfway point, and I flew through it. It kept me guessing, and most of the twists we got were completely surprising keeping me on the edge of my seat about what was going to happen next.

Every now and again, I just crave a good YA murder mystery and even better, one that takes place at an English boarding school for peak academia vibes. This has all the vibes you’d want in an academia thriller, with a boarding school in New England taking place during fall. As a girl who craves fall all year round, this book hit. It’s books like these that keep the spirit of autumn alive, even in February.

One of the best parts of this book is that the killer was not super obvious. I think that’s one of the biggest things that determines whether a murder mystery is good or not, either making the killer harder to guess, or having a really good plot twist. And while this doesn’t have a plot twist, it also doesn’t make the killer obvious either. It’s pretty easy to narrow it down, but it never is obvious in who it is until the end.

Now to be a little critical, where this book is lacking is not fast enough of a buildup. By the time you’re 40% in, nothing much has happened except the aftermath of the murders and everyone adjusting to the mental and emotional fallouts of it. There’s not really any sort of investigation until you’re around halfway through, so you kind of wonder where the plot is going or how they’re even going to find the killer, since no one is really doing anything except going to class and coping. After that it does start to pick up, but it’s slow to get there.

While this is set in a boarding school, you don’t really get the academia feel you’d crave from a book like this. It’s not like I’d expect them to all dress is full uniform and walk around like they’re in hogwarts, but I cannot tell you how many times I literally forgot that this took place in a boarding school. That dark academia atmosphere I was craving just wasn’t there. But to be honest I’m not sure what she could’ve done differently to give this book the atmosphere it needed. There was nothing defining enough to give it the autumnal boarding school vibes I wanted. Nonetheless, I enjoyed this a lot. If you’re craving a good YA thriller, this one hits the spot and I’ll definitely read Jessica Goodman’s future books.

Thank you to Netgalley and GP Putnam for sending me an advanced copy in return for my honest review.

Thank you to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

Jessica Goodman has become a staple YA thriller author for me because I love the way she writes about rich teens’ drama and layered friendship dynamics as the backbone for the murder mystery. While not my favorite of her books, her latest has plenty of the things I love about her work. This particular book is set at a boarding school, where Amy, one of the two main characters, wakes up to discover her roommate and her roommate’s boyfriend have been murdered in their shared dorm suite. After her discovery, Amy gets reassigned to share a room with Liz, the editor of the school’s newspaper and the other main character. The girls couldn’t have less in common, and the point-of-view alternates between Amy and Liz as the girls learn to set aside their differences and work together to solve the murder. If you wished that Pretty Little Liars had been set in a boarding school or that Gossip Girl was more of a thriller, then this book may be right up your alley.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
4/5 STARS

Genre: YA Thriller

Set in a New England boarding school, a student wakes up to find her roommate & her boyfriend murdered in the next room. When the evidence starts pointing towards her, she realizes it the killer has to be someone they know.

This is a fast paced thriller. Think a dark Gossip Girl. The chapters are really short, so you can fly through it. It was a little predictable but I like the way the story unfolded and the drama.

If you have read Jessica’s other books, you will enjoy this one too!

Thank you Penguin Teen for the ARC!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for an arc of this book. All opinions are completely my own.

This is a really solid YA mystery. This starts out with a bang, and we get straight into action. I really liked our main characters and what they each brought to the story. The setting was really interesting as well.

I lived how this was structured, and the quick pacing worked really well for me! The mystery was fun, and I liked all the twists and turns that came with it. I wish the end reveal wasn't as predictable as it ended up being for me, but that's mostly on me as a huge mystery lover. I could definitely see that if you don't read a lot of mysteries that you would be shocked by the reveal!

Overall, I really liked this and would recommend it to YA mystery lovers!

This book had the makings of a great mystery. Although I didn't immediately guess the ending I did want more twists and turns and shocks. It was a mediocre thriller. Pretty fast read.

"From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of They Wish They Were Us and The Counselors, comes a page-turning murder mystery set at a prestigious New England boarding school about the importance - and price - of telling the truth.

Secrets don't die.

It's the first week of senior year at Meadowbrook Academy. For Amy and her best friend Sarah, that means late-night parties at the boathouse, bike rides through their sleepy Connecticut town, and the crisp beginning of a New England fall.

Then tragedy strikes: Sarah and her boyfriend are brutally murdered in their dorm room. Now the week Amy has been dreaming about for years has turned into a nightmare, especially when all eyes turn to her as the culprit. She was Sarah's only roommate, the only other person there when she died - or so she told the police to cover for her own boyfriend's suspicious whereabouts. And even though they were best friends, with every passing day, Amy begins to learn that Sarah lied about a lot of things.

Liz, editor of the school newspaper and social outcast, is determined to uncover the truth about what happened on campus, in hopes her reporting will land a prestigious scholarship to college. As Liz dives deeper into her investigation, the secrets these murdered seniors never wanted out come to light. The deeper Liz digs, the messier the truth becomes - and with a killer still on campus, she can't afford to make any mistakes.

The Meadowbrook Murders is a gripping mystery about the inextricable way power, privilege, and secrets are linked, and how telling the truth can come at a deadly price."

There's nothing more deliciously dark academia than a murder mystery at an elite school in New England.

The Meadowbrook Murders is a solid YA dark academia thriller set at an east coast boarding school. The story will keep you wanting to turn the page. I figured out the killer in advance and I didn't even care. That's always a good sign.

Thank you to Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers and Netgalley for the electronic advanced copy.

I think this author writes good YA thrillers but it just wasn’t for me. I have been very picky this new year.

🔪┊ “ forever, my life will be divided into two halves, a before and after, one with sarah and one, horrifically, without. ”

The Meadowbrook Murders is a dual POV mystery novel, switching between Amy, the roommate and best friend of one of the victims, and Liz, the editor-in-chief of the high school's newspaper. The story takes place at Meadowbrook Academy, and 'impossible-to-get-into boarding school,' just as school as about to start up again.

I liked Amy's inner thoughts and how she dealt with the murder of her best friend! I honestly felt bad for her through all of the stuff she went through, from being brought in for questioning to being accused of the murders by her supposed friends. Liz, on the other hand, was a typical journalist for most of the novel; that is to say, she only cared about getting the 'story' and didn't really care about who she hurt. It was only around the 70% point that she realized how to handle her journalism with grace, which was unfortunately a little too late for me to come to like her. I didn't really buy their friendship by the end of it; while it makes sense that there would be some level of understand between them after everything, I don't see their friendship lasting. Overall, I would have been fine if it had just been Amy's POV.

I thought the mystery was an interesting one, though I was able to figure out who the killer was and what their motive was early on. It was definitely entertaining to watch the mystery unfold, however!