Readers may struggle to get into this book, mostly because the premise--an elite private high school full of intrigue--might present a world unfamiliar to them. Also the alternating narratives take some getting used to; Amy and Liz's voices are not initially distinct enough to know immediately who is telling the story. The chapter titles help, as does the fact that each chapter is brief and the reader can go back and reference the narrator. Once past that, the story itself was fast-paced and kept me reading to find the solution to the mystery. The author does a great job of capturing the ambience of a New England private school and the tangled relationships that develop over four years of living together in an insulated place. The red herrings were satisfying, and the end wraps up the mystery in a rewarding way. Can easily be read by high schools in a week. Since I teach younger secondary students, I wouldn't necessarily use this in my curriculum, but I would suggest it for my more mature readers to seek out for themselves.

Senior year at the Meadowbrook Academy with her best friend, is all Amy has been able to think about. But now, Sarah is dead, murdred along with her boyfriend, and Amy is the prime suspect. She's told everyone she didn't do it and has no idea who did, but the gossip mill is still blaming her.
Liv is a writer for the Academy's newspaper. She's never had friends at school and as a senior, she's determined to use her job at the paper to launch her into a job after she graduates. Liv decides she will figure out who killed Sarah.
These two young women must set aside their prejudices and their differences to work together or there very well could be another murder.

The story line plays like an multi-act play as Amy and Liv tell how these privileged young people could become targets in a thriller gone crazy. Short chapters, so the POVs change quickly and the action never slows. As the tension increases to the point of breaking.......well, you'll have to read the book to figure out the rest.

Goodman sets her story in a Connecticut boarding school. The story changes POV between two girls who are forced to room together after a tragic double murder on the campus of the school. There are various twists and turns as the story moves to a conclusion. Goodman provides various red herrings through out the story. This intriguing “who done it” is in the spirit of Karen McManus.

I do like the opposition that she creates between the two protagonists. However, there is backstory that is briefly discussed, but could have developed the character more. Also, I liked the clues that turn out to be dead end, but the characters discover them and explore them and debunk them immediately. There isn’t a shocking development that was foreshadowed to really wow the reader.

This book is a fun prep school murder mystery that kept me guessing the whole time. By the end I really didn't know who did it and even found myself wondering if it really was the obvious suspect after all. I really enjoyed the book and the friendship that develops between the two main characters as they work together to solve the murders.

Who can you really trust?

This book is told from two points of view: Liz and Amy. Both are teens with issues, but both are in pursuit of the truth. Two classmates are murdered, and it is a race to uncover the killer to make sure justice is served.

It is Amy's roommate, Sarah, who is one of the murder victims, along with Sarah's boyfriend, Ryan. However, how could anyone enter the dorms, and how did Amy not hear anything? Is she the killer?

Liz is a classmate and editor of the school paper. However, she is not part of the in-crowd, and her quest to make a name for herself in reporting causes issues with the other students and even puts her in peril.

The book moves fairly slowly until the last 15 percent when everything comes to a head. From that point on, it races to the finish line. There are many potential suspects, and I admit I wasn't sure who to suspect, but I did have my eye on one character as the killer. I was correct in my assumption, mainly because I couldn't determine a motive for anyone else.

The author does a good job of setting up the crime and potential killers. Other information uncovered could lead to a motive for several characters. However, the truth wins out in the end. This book also depicts the lives of privileged individuals in a private boarding school. No one is immune from crime.

If you enjoy YA and mysteries, this might be one to read. We give it 4 paws up.

I really enjoyed this one. This is my first novel by Jessica Goodman, but I have plenty in my tbr that I'll be moving up. This had everything I love in a YA thriller. This was the perfect binge read. The beginning of senior year at a prestigious boarding school, Meadowbrook academy, and two students are found dead in their dorm room. Who is responsible for their murder? Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Group for the ARC.

📚: The Meadowbrook Murders by Jessica Goodman
⭐️: 4/5

Sometimes there’s no better brain candy than a YA thriller that takes place on campus at a New England boarding school. Think a little bit Pretty Little Liars and a little Gossip Girl, with a New England vibe.

This was quick paced, satisfyingly predictable (it is YA after all), with the dark(ish — again, it’s YA) academia that I needed in this read.

Big thanks to Penguin Group via @netgalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Meadowbrook Murders is out now!

Really good book that I enjoyed a lot!
The Meadowbrook Murders is a YA mystery set in a prestigious boarding school. It’s told in alternating points of view, switching between Amy, the student who discovered her best friend’s body, and Liz, the editor of the school paper. I thought the author did well at conveying the different emotions of the main characters throughout the story. I was not able to guess the ending, so great job with the red herrings too! Overall an enjoyable read.

Wow, what a book! Having never read anything by this author before, I didn't know what I was getting into. It turns out a lot!

I'm trying to find anything I didn't like about it to talk about, but honestly I can't think of any. I wasn't expecting high school when I received this ARC because it mentioned dorms, so I was thrown off when what I assumed was college ended up being a prep school. I was a little put-off by that at first, because I was expecting adult characters, but as I read it, I actually really liked the high school kids. They weren't cheap stereotypes of a high school story. The characters were believable as people, even the ones you didn't hear much from, like SPOILERS SHHHH!

The most impressive part of this all is that right up until it was revealed who was the killer, I did NOT suspect them at all! I LOVE when I can't guess the killer! I actually hate when I work out the mystery ahead of time, which is sadly often enough since I love mysteries so I know how to spot the tells. This one had me convinced it was three different people at three different times before the reveal was someone I sorta suspected but had written off.

To me, that is the mark of a great mystery. Keep the reader unsure of the big reveal until it happens. It's very rare that I say this, but this is a damn good mystery and I have no complaints at all.

Sometimes I like to break up my fantasy reads with a good mystery or thriller and hope that the characters are fascinating and complicated. Goodman delivered on that so hard in The Meadowbrook Murders. Amy and Liz are two very complicated characters that are the heart of this story and drive the plot in some interesting and twisting directions. While the characters are YA aged, the story is written so well and reads at a much higher level.

This had potential but I’m afraid it was just a little boring for me. The book started off right away with a murder and I just didn’t engage with it from the jump.

Meadowbrook Murders: 🎓🔪👧🏻⁣
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Thank you @prhaudio @penguinteen #PRHAudioPartner for my gifted copies! ⁣
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If I’m ever in a high school dark academia read, I will always search if I’ve read all of Jessica Goodman. The answer is yes, I have. 😂 I love the way she makes the most flawed characters but they’re so real. I know every single one of them when I was in school (100 years ago) ⁣
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I loved Liz and Amy. They were very different characters and I thought their little tag team was perfect. It gave me Mean Girl vibes when Gretchen yells about Cesar and Cady is just crossing off the list. Honestly, Sarah is cool and all, and I know we shouldn’t talk ill of the dead, but was she really all that? I dunno, she kinda sounded lousy to me, but that’s just me. Why we giving her so much credit for being amazing when she was just.. entitled? ⁣
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Audio is perfect. It’s a tag team of two favorites: Sophie Amoss and Jessie Vilinsky. I’ll listen to any of their audiobooks, so definitely highly recommend the audio!⁣
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The mystery part was great, easy to spot the culprit but you know it’s a fun and entertaining ride to get there. Quick and to the point, a good one to binge if you need to get into a palette cleanser with a YA thriller. ⁣
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QOTD: What are your weekend plans?

Once again, Jessica Goodman delivered another twisty thriller that had me guessing until it's conclusion. Every time I dive into one of her books, I never know what secrets will be uncovered or how the plot will resolve. Even though the beginning started slow, by the end I was on the edge of my seat. I look forward to more of this author's books in the future.

I'm not as much of a thriller reader as I used to be, but find ones that are intriguing enough to get me to jump back in - This was definitely that. What I liked about The Meadowbrook Murders was the dual narrators. One of the narrators is the roommate of the two students who were murdered, and the other was a student journalist. Their stories/narrations overlap, but they also have unique perspectives and spins on the story. There were some solid twists and just good suspense building and twists. Thanks to NetGalley for the look at this February 2025 release!

Young Adult mysteries are often so difficult to rate because readers are frequently required to balance out a value judgment between entertainment and pacing with quality of mystery.

It’s disappointing, because we’ve seen enough YA mysteries where the quality doesn’t suffer in exchange for snappy pacing and writing (Maureen Johnson, Kathleen Glasgow, Robin Stevens, etc.) to know that we don’t necessarily have to demand less from these than we do from an adult mystery.

Ive been up and down on Jessica Goodman’s books, all of which are well paced and compelling but most of which also have some pretty significant structural flaws and plot holes. This is one of her best offerings as far as being a compelling read, but the solve felt a bit obvious as to the “who” (the Chekov’s Gun of it all), and messy in terms of the “why” of it, for which absolutely no clues are offered prior to the big reveal.

This is frustrating because the story could easily have avoided this, as well as the numerous plot holes and inconsistencies that befell it. And I know Goodman is capable of writing a more soundly structured and plotted mystery, as I thought The Counselors was quite well done in this regard.

That aside, the pacing was of course excellent, the premise was fine, and the setting is both immersive and enjoyable. In all, an entertaining read that does, for all its structural shortcomings, at least add up in the end.

3.5 rounded up! Definitely a fast paced YA thriller and one that started strong but fell flat when it came to the ending. However, if people are looking for a quick read, I will always recommend Goodman.

The story takes place at a prestigious boarding school, Amy wakes up to find her roommate Sarah and her boyfriend murdered. Amy and her
townie boyfriend are initial suspects, so Amy works to try and clear their name. The story started off strong, but the ending fell flat for me. There was not enough backstory on the characters for me to care anything about them and the ending just seemed convenient.

I love a good YA thriller and I know I can get a great story from Jessica Goodman.
While this wasn’t my favorite from her, which I truthfully had high expectations for this one because the dark academia vibes are always a good time, and it was. But it was also a bit surface level with the characters and some of the scenes that I wish we could have dove a little more into. This one was also a bit on the slower side. However didn’t ruin the overall vibe of the read.
I’ll always recommend Jessica to anyone looking for a thriller.

At the prestigious Middlebrook Academy, what should have been the perfect start to senior year turns into a nightmare when Sarah and her boyfriend are brutally murdered. As suspicion falls on Amy, Sarah’s roommate and supposed best friend, journalist Liz begins her own investigation, uncovering secrets the victims never wanted exposed. But with a killer still on campus, the truth may come at a deadly price.

What I Liked
This gave me A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder vibes but with a stronger YA feel. The suspense kept me engaged, and I loved how Liz took her role at the school newspaper seriously, determined to uncover the truth. There were some genuinely tense moments that had me hooked.

What I Didn’t Like
Some of the dialogue felt surface-level, making the characters seem one-dimensional. The pacing was slow at times, and I wish the investigation had kicked off sooner to keep the momentum going.

Who Would Enjoy This?
YA thriller lovers who enjoy boarding school settings


Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Young Readers Group for this ARC.

Senior year at Meadowbrook Academy was supposed to be perfect for besties Amy and Sarah. But everything changes when Sarah and her boyfriend, Ryan, are found murdered in their dorm room. Amy, who had a very public argument with Sarah the night before, suddenly finds herself at the center of the investigation. With her room now a crime scene, she's forced to move in with Liz - the school's ambitious newspaper editor, who sees this as her chance to break the biggest story of her career.

As the hours and days pass, gossip spreads like wildfire through the halls. Everyone has a theory, but no one knows the truth. Amy and Liz both want answers but for very different reasons. When suspicion starts closing in on Amy, the two form an unlikely partnership, determined to uncover what really happened that night.

This was another incredibly well-written dark academia mystery that takes place at an elite boarding school, and I loved how Amy and Liz went from reluctant roommates to full-on investigative partners. I had my suspicions about who the culprit was early on, but that didn't take away from the suspense. I also really appreciated that every clue had to be earned, and nothing came too easily. Jessica Goodman has officially solidified her spot on my auto-read list - I've devoured everything she's written so far, and I cannot wait to see what she does next. Overall, I gave this book 4 stars!! If you love YA thrillers with secrets, high-stakes drama, and strong female leads, this one needs to be on your TBR!

Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin Group, and G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion!