I really tried to get into this one but couldn’t make it past the first few chapters. The premise is interesting - poor little girl girl, Amy, and her best friend, Sarah, have already been growing apart when Sarah is murdered in her room. Desperate to uncover the truth, Amy works with Liz, editor of the school’s newspaper, to try and find the killer. The split POVs between Amy ad Liz felt unnecessary, and, even though I wanted to know what happened, the book just felt too muddled down with the different characters. Jessica Goodman’s books are often a hit or miss, and this one was a miss for me.

Amy is ready to start senior year with her best friend and roommate, Sarah. For the first time, they get to be at Meadowbrook Academy a week before classes start, and the younger years arrive at campus. A week famously full of parties, which they're all too happy to partake in.

When Amy wakes up after another night of partying at the boathouse - one she left early to meet up with her boyfriend, she finds blood in the common room. Sarah and her boyfriend Ryan are dead, and Amy got in a fight with her the night before. Now everyone is looking at her, because how could she have slept through their deaths?

Liz is at Meadowbrook on scholarship, and she's never found a social group. She's here for the journalism program, and she takes her role seriously. So when two kids are murdered, Liz is the one to break the news. Now she's forbidden from posting stories without running them by her teacher and the headmistress first, and she's given one job. To make the school look good. How can she become the journalist she dreams of being if she isn't allowed to tell the story that really matters?

When Amy is housed with Liz, she has nothing to say to her. Liz is famous for putting her nose where it doesn't belong, and she can't trust her to not exploit Amy's pain. Yet somehow, Liz is the only one that seems to give her the benefit of the doubt. As more of Amy's so called friends turn on her, Liz even stands up for her. When they start to work together, Amy finds out that there was a side to her best friend that she had never known. Was she keeping enough secrets to have gotten her killed?

As I read more YA mysteries, I find myself judging them a little harshly. Often times I see the twists before they happen, a mark I always thought of as a weak mystery. Then I had to come to the realization that after 10 years of casual mystery reading, maybe I'm a little better trained to see the twists coming than I thought I was. Whatever the case may be, this one was predictable in places, but overall a solid mystery. I enjoyed seeing Liz and Amy work through their differences, and was rooting for them long before the end.

Amy and Sarah are best friends and super excited to start their year at Meadowbrook. When Sarah and her boyfriend are murdered in their dorm room, suspicion quickly turns to Amy. She never heard a thing and is determined to prove her innocence. Liz is a reporter for the school paper and this story could make her the top reporter. Secrets are uncovered and it's messy. Who did this? This was a quick enjoyable read and the truth is something you won't see coming.

The Meadowbrook Murders is about a murder at a private boarding school just before classes begin. It was intriguing, mysterious and a bit surprising at points. A little slow in the beginning, I stuck through the slow build and was rewarded with a few surprises.

**A big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic ARC and the opportunity to review this book.

3 1/2

When two of Meadowbrook’s most popular–and legacy–students, Sarah and Ryan, are murdered, everyone starts looking for answers including the editor of the school newspaper, Liz, who dreams of getting a scoop that will, in turn, reward her with a college scholarship. Amy, Sarah’s roommate from California, becomes a suspect after it’s revealed that she and Sarah had been fighting the night of the murders. After Amy moves in with Liz (there are no other rooms available), the latter hopes that this might be her opportunity, her “in,” but Amy makes it clear that she wants nothing to do with Liz or her investigation. That is, until the suspicions on Amy and her boyfriend make Amy an outcast just like Liz in Jessica Goodman’s boarding school mystery, The Meadowbrook Murders.

Jessica Goodman did an excellent job of keeping her reader guessing about “whodunit” while providing us with two interesting and layered characters in Liz and Amy. The build up felt a bit slow at times and the novel had several stock characters (outsider townie, former best friend who’s now jealous), but the pace soon picked up revealing a clever plot with twists and turns promoted by the secrets people were keeping.

I found the discussion on journalism and ethics to be very interesting. It went well with the “veteran” journalist, one of Liz’ heroes, who becomes her mentor, giving us an idea of what real journalism is supposed to be and the ethics behind it.

All in all, a good take on the boarding school mystery, with some unique elements thrown in.

Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy.

"The Meadowbrook Murders" was a page turner from the first chapter. It grabbed the readers attention and kept them wondering were all the twists would end up at. This is a book I can definitely see in the library being checked out as soon as it's available and word gets around that it's a murder mystery at a boarding school in New England. Not only is it fast-paced, the two POV are far from similar, I'm sure students can relate or at least understand or even become frustrated with some of the characters. I would have only loved more of Sarah's back story, sure there was some, but I'm sure the students will be making their own assumptions of her. In all, the book was very enjoyable.

2.75 stars

I am a sucker for a boarding school setting, add murder and complicated friendships and this should have been a home run for me. I read "The Counselors" by this author and really enjoyed it but didn't LOVE it, so I was hoping that this one would take all that I liked about that story and make it even better. Alas.

I'm very behind on book reviews so am writing this a few months after reading, and the only things I remember about it now are that I didn't like one of the POV characters, I predicted the killer, and the twists in the end of this were odd, like they made sense but I didn't feel they added anything to the story, which is never what you want in a thriller. I did enjoy the setting and one of the POV characters and her experiences with the complicated social hierarchy of the school. But none of that made it a particularly memorable read in a genre I read a lot of. I can see a teen enjoying this a lot more than me if they hadn't already read a bunch of similar stories, though. I just was mentally comparing it to the "Private" series I grew up on the whole time, which is probably unfair.

Thanks to Penguin Teen and the author for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

3.5 stars

This was a fun (can I say fun?!) murder mystery book. It was easy to read, the characters were relatable and I found myself reading whenever I could!

I wish I could see those underground tunnels!

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

1⭐️

DNF: 6%

Nothing pains me more than having to DNF yet another Jessica Goodman book. After reading the synopsis to this, I really thought that I was going to have a keeper on my hands, especially with me making 2025 my year to dive into Dark Academia full time. Ooh man I was so excited. Ugh!!!

I know that DNFing a book around 6% may appear to be okay for some readers while others might think/say “Wow. She didn’t even give this book a chance.” But for me, my DNF stems from my inability to like both Amy & Liz after being introduced to them. Once I read Amy’s first chapter, I developed this feeling that she would come off as both whiny and entitled. That she would constantly use the murder of Sarah to get whatever she wanted and as I skimmed through the book, I was proven right. As for Liz, the chick literally wished something horrible would happen at Meadowbrook just she could write about it, for the school newspaper, and use the investigation to get a scholarship for college. I mean, I am all for hard work and using resources to get me meaningful things but the murder of two classmates and pretending to be friends with the girl who just found them dead just so you can get information?!?! Nope!!! Add the fact that the writing felt a little choppy and I made up my mind to call it quits. Again, I am so disappointed that I couldn’t bring myself to enjoy this as others most definitely will.

If you find yourself coming across my review and/or become motivated to pick up this book then I say you should. Your experience could be so much more different than mine!!!

Thank you NetGalley and G. P. Putnam’s Sons for granting my request for an Advance Reader’s Copy in exchange for my honest and personal opinion!!!

I think I’ve read all of Jessica’s books but one, and this one falls solidly in the middle of likability for me. I always enjoy the thriller setting of a boarding school or camp if it’s done well.

I didn’t find Liz or Amy to be all that likable as characters, but I’m glad in the end that they got close after the murders were solved and they processed their grief. It was a little hard at first to feel any sort of grief or emotion about Sarah and Ryan though, since they weren’t in the story at all.

I also thought that Peter was a predictable killer, but that’s okay. At the beginning, the second that they briefly mentioned that he was in the dorm too, I suspected it was him. Especially the more he was involved with telling Liz stories for the paper and holding vigils for them. So this “twist” in the case wasn’t particularly a surprise to me, but I didn’t mind that it was him.

I’ll continue to read Jessica’s books as they come out, as they are hit or miss! I’ll be curious to see what kind of setting she does next for a YA thriller.

Thank you to netgalley for my copy of the novel.

I am a big fan of boarding school murder mysteries, and this was a pretty darn good one. The clues kept me guessing until the end, and it truly ends with such suspense!

I received this book from Net Galley for review.

This story takes place at a high class academy and revolves around 2 girls who are little more than acquaintances. They end up being dorm-mates after two students are mysteriously murdered and one of the girls has to be moved out of her current dorm, as she shared it with the girl who is now dead.

Amy, had the terrible misfortune of finding her dorm-mate and best friend Sarah and Sarah's boyfriend, Ryan, murdered in the next room. As can be imagined she quickly becomes a suspect, and as she is trying to prove that she had no reason to want her best friend dead, she is moved in to room with none other than Liz, the school newspaper editor.

What starts off as a rocky situation, ends up turning into an unlikely investigative duo.

This is a pretty typical prep school thriller. It gives "The Skull" vibes, as in the movie from the 90's with Joshua Jackson and Paul Walker. This was enjoyable, but there wasn't really anything super special about it to set it apart from other thrillers. If you like a thriller and a murder mystery, then you will probably enjoy it, but it was just a run-of-the-mill YA thriller to me. I liked the characters, and I did like how it unfolded between the two characters' perspectives. There just wasn't anything super unique about the setting or the characters.

This is an author my students always flock to, so they were super jealous when they realized I received an ARC. Now, I do not think I would be able to use it for curriculum, but it is a book I recommended to my students and for my library to pick up! In pure Goodman fashion, she nailed the book with the characters, suspense, and plot.

Jessica Goodman's "The Meadowbrook Murders" is a thrilling enigma that will pull you into its dark heart and keep you guessing until the very last page. This isn't just a murder mystery; it's a tangled web of secrets, friendships, and betrayals that will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew. From the first chapter, a sense of foreboding settles in, a feeling that something sinister lurks beneath the surface of this seemingly idyllic town.

Goodman masterfully weaves together past and present, gradually revealing the hidden truths that connect a series of shocking events. The characters are complex and layered, each with their own motivations and secrets, making it impossible to discern who is truly innocent. The atmosphere is thick with tension, and the suspense builds with each passing page, drawing you deeper into the mystery. You'll find yourself constantly changing your theories, second-guessing your instincts, and desperately trying to piece together the puzzle before the final, devastating reveal.

"The Meadowbrook Murders" is a gripping tale of obsession, secrets, and the lengths people will go to protect their own. It's a story that will haunt you long after you've finished reading, leaving you with a lingering sense of unease and a desperate need to unravel the truth. If you're looking for a mystery that will truly captivate and enthrall you, look no further. Jessica Goodman has delivered a dark and compelling thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

Check out this teaser :

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.

This is my first book by author Jennifer Goodman. The book cover is not that appealing but don’t let that affect you picking up this book. I enjoyed this popcorn thriller set on a private college campus and told in a dual viewpoint. It was a bit predictable but still entertaining. Read this if you enjoy the trope of campus murder mysteries.

I am a sucker for any book that Jessica Goodman writes, because I know that my students will enjoy them. This was a campus mystery about Amy, who wakes up to find her roommate/best friend murdered alongside her boyfriend. Amy is dealing with feelings of grief and PTSD as she struggles to make sense of what happened and deal with the knowledge that there is a murderer on her campus. She gets moved to a room with Liz, who also happens to be the school newspaper editor. Liz is not a kid from the incrowd who sees the world only through the eyes of a reporter and how she can win a journalism scholarship. Liz is the original person who broke the story of the murders on campus. As the two must work together to find the killer, the reader is taken on a journey of twists and turns.

I recently had the pleasure of reading this, and I have to say, it exceeded my expectations in so many ways. From the very first page, I was hooked by the engaging style and the intriguing characters. The author does an excellent job of building a world that feels both immersive and believable, making it easy to get lost in the story. The plot was full of twists and turns that kept me on the edge of my seat. Just when I thought I had it figured out, the story would surprise me with something unexpected. I highly recommend this and all their work.

This book was fine. I don’t think in 6 months I’ll be able to tell you anything specific about it. There’s a murder, the teenage journalist wants to solve it and someone is accused and we have to figure out if they really did it or not. There you go. It’s well done, but just blends into other ya murder mysteries where I’m left wondering Where are the adults??

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

While not a bad book, I found it to be very predictable. It didn't deliver on the dark academia vibe I was looking for even though it took place in a private school. It just didn't hit the mark.