This was a great YA mystery/thriller with interesting twists, I was drawn in by the cover and instantly was hooked. When Posey moves to a small mountain town and a H.S. teacher gores missing the MC uses her journalism skills to try and solve the disappearance. Along with members of the AV Club things get interesting.

It was more of a cozy mystery/thriller but that is fine with me. I enjoyed it.

If You Can Hear This sounded so promising, and I was excited to read it. I do appreciate a good mystery novel.
Unfortunately, my excitement was slayed within the first few chapters.
I think the premise of the story was good, but I never felt like the author tied everything together. By the time the ending came, I couldn't have cared less about what happened. This one was a big disappointment to me. I'm not sure I could sell my readers to read this one either.

𝐞𝐀𝐫𝐜 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
3 🌟
-
For fans that love, "A Good Girl Guide To Murder by Holly Jackson," This book might be for you!
The cover art is what caught my attention and drew me to this book. Unfortunately, this YA thriller | mystery didn't keep my attention like I wanted it to. The pace was extremely SLOW, so I just couldn't get invested into the story. The premise is great, but the pace is not.
𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬:
•thriller | mystery
•young adult | teen
𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 Nov.19
Thank you, Netgalley, and Harper Collins Publishing for the eBook for my honest review.

As a teacher, I happen to have a student just like Posey almost every year. It was refreshing to read a high school character like her. She reminded me a lot of myself when I was younger, except smarter and more self-assured. I think shes a great role-model character for my upper middle school students. Not every high school character has to be drinking and partying to be able to find her people and fit in. The AV Club kids were fun to read about and very realistic to the types of high school students you’d likely encounter in real life.
The mystery solving itself did feel a little slow at times, but the characters made up for that. Also, there are some details that were included but not really explored fully (the cult, for example). I am hoping there will be a sequel so that it makes sense why some of this was included.
The one character I think we were MEANT to like, but I didn’t like that much, was Posey’s father. I know he is a single dad, but does he really have to work so much that he is quite literally non-existent in her life, despite her desperation to connect with him? Posey seemed to always be making excuses for him. I know Posey was written to be optimistic and hopeful, but her dad deserved for her to be a little mad that shes home making herself avocado sandwiches for dinner.
Overall, I thought this was a different take on the YA mystery genre and I will definitely be recommending it to my students.

Wow. So, that was a book. And, now it's over!!

Ugghhh, I was not a fan of this book. I kept putting off reading it, till I finally needed to just sit down and finish it. The characters didn't feel very interesting, and I found some of them really dislikable. The mystery was disappointing, and I didn't feel a lot of suspense. Like, I get that their teacher was missing and all, but it just didn't feel urgent to me. Stakes are really important, and I did not feel them in this book. There was, also, the aggravating teen speech. As in, abbreviations even in the spoken language that I did not understand despite being a teenager myself. And, some of the little details, like the classes she was taking, were wrong and kept annoying me. Juniors are usually not taking algebra and biology unless they're behind. This may be changed in the final version, so, there could be that.

There is a good chance that I'm just not interested in YA mysteries/thrillers anymore. They're all very similar, and, at a certain point, you get bored of the peppy, motivated main characters and the sidekicks they drag along in solving a mystery that feels kinda boring. And, I've just summed up most of the YA mysteries I've read, like, ever.

So, I would not recommend this book, but, as always, these are just my opinions, and you may love this book for all the reasons I disliked it.

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

The story kept me engaged all the way through. I enjoyed trying to guess "who dunnit" along with the main character. The characters were relatable and multifaceted, something that is so important in a YA novel. The ending was unexpected but believable. My only complaint is that there were some details brought up through the book that were never addressed or resolved in the end. I wondered if they were intention red herrings, but some of them had nothing to do with the mystery plot, so I am unsure why they were included. Overall, I would recommend this book to mature students who are ready to read about adult themes handled in a teen-appropriate way.

This was a good read. I liked all the characters. The plot was interesting and kept me engaged. It seems like it could’ve the start of a series. I would read Book 2. Thank you for giving me this advanced copy.

This book has given me a rekindled love for thrillers that I didn't know I needed. Time flew with this book, I read it all in one sitting even though I was on the edge of said seat the whole time.

I was able to read this book by obtaining an ARC copy from NetGalley.
This YA mystery/thriller was hard to get into at first. The main character moves to a new town and joins a club where the teacher of the club goes missing. She and the members of the club try to find out what happened to their teacher. Once it got to the mystery part it was easy to read and get consumed to try and figure out what happened. My main criticism is not feeling a connection to any of the characters and I wish there was more character development.

I chose the book based on the comp alone (A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder). I was not disappointed! This book was full of twists and turns and kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. I loved the "band of misfits" trope and how truly authentic the characters felt. It was refreshing and nostalgic to see an AV Club band together to solve this mystery. It's not often that I'm so invested in the characters of a thriller. I was very inspired by the power of friendship in this story and I think readers will truly relate to this theme!

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for the E-Arc

This is not my favorite YA mystery, but I love the AV club concept and the mystery was intriguing. I liked how highschool all of the characters felt in this book. Gardner does a good job at individualizing her characters and If You Can Hear this made me so nostalgic for A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. This is a good read for teenagers aged 13-15 although it does have a bit of a slow start that could make this a harder read for that age group to sink their teeth into.

If You Can Hear This is Faith Gardner's fourth young adult (YA) book and is definitely the most YA of the four as the tone is notably lighter than the previous novels.

Our lead is Posey, a high school student who is a bit of a misfit. Entering a new school, she joins another group of students that are themselves on the fringes of social acceptance. They bond together when their teacher goes missing. Did she leave on her own accord? Did her husband kill her? Was someone else involved in her disappearance? And why don't the police or the school administration seem to be very concerned? It's up to the teens to perform their own investigation.

The characters are likeable, and the mystery is interesting, so it was a fun read. Feel free to add a half star if you fall into the intended YA demographic.

This is a great teen thriller book! I loved the ease of reading and the quick pace. Posey is such a good narrator and main character! Truly enjoyed it, and feel it will be a great hit with YA! Thanks NetGalley for this ARC

3.75 ⭐️ rounded up

Quick gist: This book is about a girl named Posey who moves to a new town. She attends a new school, and she meets Ms. Moses, the teacher who's running the AV club at the school that Posey's now going to. However, when Ms. Moses suddenly goes missing after being under an investigation for murder, all things go awry. It is up to Posey and the rest of the AV club members to get the scoop on the situation and help track her down before it's too late.

I absolutely loved this book. There was a tiny hint at some romance in the book, but the book mostly consisted of the thriller aspect. I would highly recommend this book to people who like thrillers. The reason why I gave it a 3.75 is because it was kind of slow to get into. I liked the book, not gonna lie, but it was hard to get into. However, the book did pick up towards the middle, and I was absolutely hooked. I would highly recommend reading this book if you like thrillers. x

"If You Can Hear This" is a YA thriller/mystery novel by Faith Gardner. Posey, a teenager, has moved with her dad from San Francisco to the rural town of Wild Pines (where the threat of bears looms large in Posey's mind). Posey is an aspiring journalist and even won a national award at her old school. Wild Pines doesn't have a school paper, so it is suggested that she join their A.V. Club. The staff mentor for the A.V. Club is an energetic and quirky teacher named Ms. Moses. When Ms. Moses goes missing, Posey rallies the A.V. Club to investigate her disappearance. But poking into the mystery sparks the ire of some in town and at the school, and club members have secrets that they are hiding.
A recommended purchase for YA collections where "A Good Girl's Guide to Murder" and other teen mysteries are popular.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollin’s for the digital ARC!

This a YA thriller/mystery book based in a small California town where high school teenagers a part of the AV club in school. The AV club teacher goes missing and they work together to find her. The book itself is a light read and you really feel yourself loving all of the main characters. I hope to find out more about certain families in the book.

A light but interesting teen mystery centering around a group of high school misfits that make up their school’s AV Club and their search for their missing teacher. I really enjoyed this one.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books for this digital arc in exchange for my honest review which is not affiliated with any brand.

I thought this was a really fun YA Mystery Thriller. I grew to love all the characters. I think a lot of young adults will really enjoy this one. It does touch on some heavy topics but I think it was done well. Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for a copy of the arc in return for an honest review.

In my quest to work through my NetGalley queue, I started reading If You Can Hear This by Faith Gardner. I have another book by Ms. Gardner in my NetGalley queue as well, so I was hoping that I would enjoy this book. I did – immensely.

What do you get when you mix a group of misfit kids who make up an audio/visual club, a missing teacher, and an apathetic town? You get If You Can Hear This. And believe me, this is a book you won’t want to miss.

Our main characters – Posey, Sal, Jeremiah, Athena, Yash, and Lexy make up the Wild Pines High School AV Club. They each have their own unique perspectives on life and what’s happening.

Posey is a girl who came to Wild Pines from San Francisco. She’s the new kid – she’s weird, quite a bit on the bossy side, and to be honest, obnoxious. I found myself wanting to reach through the screen and swat her upside the head, telling her to relax.

Sal is an enigmatic character, about whom we find out quite a bit. He’s mysterious and can seem suspicious at times, but he’s got a good heart and he cares about people.

Jeremiah isn’t seen as much but he’s an interesting character, what we do get to see of him.

Athena is the actress of the group but she’s got her own issues. I liked her quite a bit because she seemed more real than most of the other characters.

Yash is another character who is more or less in the background – we find out bits and pieces about him, but not much.

Lexy is seen fairly often in If You Can Hear This, but she’s another background character whom we don’t learn a lot about. I do wish we’d learned a bit more about her – especially considering she’s an activist at heart.

I loved the plot for this book. A teacher goes missing and her students set out to figure out what happened to her and where she went. They also want to raise awareness as it seems no one in authority wants to actually do anything about the missing teacher. It shows what students can do when they set their minds to it. It also shows some of the realities of people being on social media and what can come of social media use.

I gave this book a solid four stars because I thought it was a really good YA Mystery/Thriller. The start was a bit slow and it took a few days for me to really get fully into the book, but once it got going, it was awesome. I can’t wait to read the other book by Ms. Gardner that is in my queue.

This is a quick read with a fun group of characters. It was hard not to root for the AV Club at Wild Pines High School. That being said, there was a lot of nothing going on in this book. Things were implied but in the end, literally nothing happened. It was a let down.