Jessica Goodman’s "The Meadowbrook Murders" is a thrilling novel that masterfully weaves together mystery, suspense, and complex characters. Set in the seemingly idyllic town of Meadowbrook, the story unravels a dark and twisted tale that keeps readers on the edge of their seats from beginning to end.

The novel follows the story of Emma Miller, a high school senior whose life is turned upside down when the bodies of two classmates are discovered in the woods near their school. Emma, a bright and determined young woman with a passion for journalism, finds herself drawn to the case, unable to resist the urge to uncover the truth. As she delves deeper into the investigation, she discovers that Meadowbrook is not as serene as it appears, and that everyone in town has secrets they would rather keep buried.

Goodman excels at creating a rich and immersive setting. Meadowbrook is portrayed with meticulous detail, from its picturesque streets and cozy cafes to the dark, foreboding woods where the bodies were found. This contrast between the town’s outward charm and the sinister events that unfold within it adds a layer of tension and intrigue to the story.

The characters in "The Meadowbrook Murders" are well-developed and multi-dimensional. Emma is a compelling protagonist whose determination and intelligence make her an engaging character to follow. Her personal struggles, including dealing with the recent death of her father and the pressures of senior year, add depth to her character and make her journey all the more relatable. The secondary characters, including Emma’s friends, family, and the various townspeople, each play a significant role in the unfolding mystery. Goodman skillfully weaves their backstories and motivations into the narrative, creating a web of intrigue that keeps readers guessing.

One of the standout aspects of the novel is its exploration of themes such as trust, loyalty, and the impact of secrets on a community. As Emma digs deeper into the lives of those around her, she begins to question who she can trust and whether the truth is worth uncovering. Goodman’s portrayal of the ripple effects of the murders on the Meadowbrook community is both realistic and thought-provoking, highlighting how trauma can bring out both the best and worst in people.

The pacing of "The Meadowbrook Murders" is expertly handled. Goodman balances the slow burn of the investigation with moments of intense action and revelation. Each chapter ends on a suspenseful note, compelling readers to keep turning the pages. The clues and red herrings are cleverly placed, ensuring that the mystery remains intriguing without becoming overly convoluted.

Goodman’s writing style is both engaging and accessible. Her descriptive prose brings the setting and characters to life, while her dialogue is natural and reflective of the characters’ personalities. The tension and suspense are palpable throughout the novel, with each twist and turn adding to the overall sense of unease and urgency.

The resolution of the mystery is both satisfying and surprising. Goodman ties up the various plot threads in a way that feels organic and true to the story, while also leaving readers with a sense of lingering unease. The final revelations are handled with skill, providing a conclusion that is both thought-provoking and emotionally resonant.

A captivating and well-crafted mystery, this book will appeal to fans of the genre. With its compelling characters, richly detailed setting, and expertly paced plot, it is a novel that keeps readers hooked from the first page to the last. Goodman has crafted a story that is both entertaining and thought-provoking, making "The Meadowbrook Murders" a must-read for anyone who loves a good mystery.

Thank you to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group for a temporary e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I have been a big fan of Jessica Goodman, reading all four of her previous titles which average as 4 star reads, and The Meadowbrook Murders was no different. It was a little slow, but did get a faster the closer to the end you got. The murders on a prestigious prep school campus with roommates present and unharmed reminded me of the tragedy in Idaho making it feel a little more 'real' and 'possible' which made the story darker. This might be a lot for a young reader, but as an adult, it didn't read as a young adult novel. I read this book cover to cover in 24 hours. Fans of Goodman should add this to their TBR.
.
.
Thank you NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Meadowbrook Murders kept me at the edge of my seat! I couldn’t put it down and I flew through it! It was tense, suspenseful, and I didn’t know who to trust. I loved that it was dual POV and that both characters were so different from each other and each had different perspectives on the crime.

Just couldn’t get into this story as it wasn’t for me. Read up until 65% and had to dnf it.

I recommend as always that you read it yourself to determine if it’s for you.

Thanks to and galley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In The Meadowbrook Murders, two students are murdered in their dorm room and it sends the school into a frenzy, to figuring who did the is horrific crime. The story is told in two POV’s of Amy who was the deceased best friend and Liz who is the editor of the school newspaper wanting to cover the story. The story is in investigation of who did it, who was involved and what lines are crossed to find out the truth.

This was an okay story. I love a YA story as much as the next person but this one kinda dragged on. It was entertaining for the first 40% and then I was ready for the story to reach a conclusion. By the time the killer was revealed, I had already guessed who it was. I didn’t really like Liz’s POV because I felt like she did not add much to the story 🤷🏾‍♀️. Overall I gave it 3 ⭐️. If this sounds like something you would like it comes out February 4, 2025.

I received a digital advance copy of The Meadowbrook Murders by Jessica Goodman via NetGalley. The Meadowbrook Murders is scheduled for release on February 4, 2025.

The Meadowbrook Murders is a young adult mystery/thriller set in a prestigious boarding school. Amy wakes up in the morning to find her roommate Sarah and Sarah’s boyfriend murdered. As Amy was the only other person there, some suspicion falls on her. She knows she didn’t do it, and wants to keep suspicion from her “townie” boyfriend, who she had snuck in for part of the night.

Amy’s search for the truth alternates with chapters from Liz, the editor of the school newspaper, who is reporting on the grisly story in hopes of winning a scholarship. The two girls butt heads, but are forced to join forces as secrets begin to pile up around them.

This novel started strong. Goodman did a good job of setting up the premise and mystery of the story. Initially, I suspected Amy’s boyfriend, and also felt he was too obvious a suspect to have actually done the deed. As the novel began to wrap up, the plot was less successful for me. Other than the boyfriend, there were not other viable suspects presented to the reader, which resulted in an ending that felt a bit convenient, rather than logical and earned. I would have appreciated more red herrings worked into the story. Incorporation of flashbacks (or even a second timeline) might have helped this as well. We get some information about the histories of the characters, but they are only related to us as summary from the narrators. Seeing those moments would have allowed us to see other potential suspects.

More backstory would have also helped with character development. While I did have a good sense of the two point of view characters, the people around them were a bit blurry. In particular, I had no real sense of Amy’s roommate Sarah, so as Amy began to uncover secrets Sarah had kept, the reveals had little significance for me as a reader.

I also felt a lack of clarity in the setting of the story. I could tell that Goodman knew the layout of campus, and how that related to the town and area around it, but as a reader, I did not share that picture. Again, seeing more of the past story might have helped to expand my view of the world of the story.

Overall, The Meadowbrook Murders had the framework and potential of a solid mystery/thriller, but needed to share more of the backstory with the reader for us to fully appreciate the tale Goodman created.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. The writing is fresh and the story had me hooked at the beginning. This is a well written YA/New Adult murder mystery that takes place in a small, sleepy, Connecticut town at a private high school. What happens when a young senior girl, Amy, wakes up to find her dorm mate (Sarah) and her boyfriend murdered in her bed; with no recollection of having heard anything during the night? This is the premise of the story. Amazing how a double homicide can make you look at things a lot differently and wonder who to trust and what to believe. Enter the other main character, Liz, the school paper's editor-in-chief. I loved how the author helps the reader work through how these two polar opposites sift through the information that they glean and eventually rely on one another to hopefully figure out what really happened at their school.

*Thank you to Penguin Teen and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review*

This felt like a teenage reimagining of recent adult dark academia thrillers like In My Dreams, I Hold a Knife. I did like the angle of having it in dual PoV with a journalism twist. I pegged the killer from the start, which was kind of a disappointment. But ultimately I felt like the tension didn't hit as good as it could've.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this title.

This was my first experience with this author and for the most part I enjoyed this. This is a very typical YA thriller. I really enjoyed the beginning and was instantly drawn into the story. When I read YA I tend to expect it to be super fast paced and be very quick to read. Unfortunately I didn't feel that way with this one. While I was very engaged at the beginning, I found myself losing interest as the story progressed. It could very well be that I just haven't been loving YA as much lately. I would recommend this for people who usually pick up and enjoy YA, and when I was a teenager, I would have probably really loved this.

2.5 stars

A run-of-the-mill YA boarding school murder mystery. This helped me pass the time while I was sick at home with the flu but I saw the killer coming from a mile away and the characters were quite two-dimensional.

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I've read a few of Goodman's books, and I did enjoy The Meadowbrook Murders. It was easy reading with two points of view from Amy and Liz. I'm not sure I'd totally characterize this book as a YA thriller. I didn't quite feel the suspense, and I had an idea of the killer somewhat into the book.

Amy has a townie boyfriend who is her soccer coach's son. We don't know his age, but he seemed to be a little older. It was kind of weird, to be honest. Her best friend Sarah was her roommate, and they had a big fight just after moving into the dorms starting senior year of high school at boarding school. Most of the kids are from rich families. Amy finds Sarah and Ryan, Sarah's boyfriend, dead in her room. The scene is very graphic.

Liz is the editor of the online school paper and an aspiring journalist. She's a scholarship kid with aspirations and goals, but few friends. She approaches the story with the goal of getting a scholarship to college. However, after the Murders she gets in trouble for posting the story, and other students don't trust her. But Amy and Liz need each other to solve the case, even though it's not their job. It's clear the school and cops want to find a suspect and close the case so they can return to usual operations. Even if that means accusing the townies that seem suspicious.

I wish that Liz and Amy formed a bond during the time, but they were mostly at odds with each other, accusing each other of involvement or nefarious motives. They had a lot in common, actually, being Jewish and having crappy/absent mothers. The ending was just a little anticlimactic? I didn't dislike the book at all,hence the 3 stars, but it didn't really wow me. Release 2/4/25 3.25☆

4 stars

i highly enjoyed this from start to finish. its not very often i can sit through a thriller in one sitting but this one really got me!!!

amy and liz were complete opposites but helped each other in the most unexpected way possible. it was quick and gripping and even though i figured out the culprit early on, i was on the edge of my seat the whole time!

thank you so much for this arc!

A young adult thriller set at a prestigious boarding school in New England. After a night of partying in the first week back for their senior year, Amy wakes up and discovers her roommate and best friend Sarah murdered in her bed alongside her boyfriend Ryan. The dorm they live in has high security, so who could have killed them? Amy starts off telling everyone a lie - that she was alone that night - because her boyfriend Joseph was there that night, but he's not allowed on campus. Telling the lie instills fear in Amy, especially when she has to move out of her dorm and move in with Liz, the editor of the school's newspaper who seems to be just trying to get a story any way she can.

The novel is told from the POV's of both Amy and Liz. They are both determined to figure out what happened - Amy because she doesn't want her or Joseph to be blamed and Liz because she wants to break the story first. It was fast paced, and I liked the 2 teens as they tried to piece things together. If you're a fan of dark academia thrillers, I'd definitely pick this one up.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book!

I'd rate this 3.5 stars.

I've enjoyed all of Jessica Goodman's books and find them great for students who enjoy engaging, but relatively straightforward thrillers. This story has duel POVs, which I always enjoy. Two students are brutally murdered in their dorm room at a prestigous boarding school and one of their roommates must figure out who did it before someone is wrongly accused. The story was engaging and I read it quickly, but I also guessed the killer pretty early on. That is fine, but what I did miss was a strong explanation for the killer's actions. To me, the motivation just wasn't there, which detracted from the overall story (for me). Overall, this will be great for high school classrooms!

The Meadowbrook Murders is a suspenseful YA murder mystery that delivers on the suspense. Told in the points of view of two very different characters it kept me turning pages on my Kindle, so happy to have received this ARC.

Liz and Amy are both flawed characters, but both focused on finding the truth, each in their own unique way.

The book had me hooked from the beginning, dying to know what would happen next. They even managed to surprise me at the end.

I highly recommend this book if you enjoy YA murder mysteries.

The mystery of who killed two boarding school students kept me interested, with me changing my mind about who the killer might be several times along the way, but neither of the main characters ever grabbed me enough to care much about them. There are the requisite secrets that are discovered about the two dead teens - secrets that could be motive for the murders - but even those don't seem all that big of a deal. They are just more along the lines of disappointments for Amy, who thought she and her best friend shared everything. It also felt implausible that Amy was not more thoroughly questioned by the police. She acted like she was being targeted by them as a main suspect throughout the book. Finally, I didn't find Liz's obsession with only finding facts, and sorting out what merited journalistic attention, to be very compelling as a character trait. I was happy that the two girls managed to work out their differences and rely on each other.

It wasn't predictable but the killer admitting what they did to Sarah and Ryan to their next victim is unrealistic. I'm not sure how that can be written better but there was to be a way.

The Meadowbrook Murders is a YA thriller that follows Amy and Liz after a horrifying attack on the school campus. Sarah, Amy's best friend, is discovered brutally murdered in her bed, alongside her boyfriend. Amy, devastated by the deaths, and even more upset that her last exchange with her friend was a cruel argument, is determined to move on with her life. However, with everyone on campus thinking she is the killer and with new secrets being revealed, Amy is more confused than ever. Then, there is Liz. She has never fit in with her boarding school classmates. All Liz wants is to be an esteemed journalist. In order to win a coveted scholarship, she needs to write an epic piece. This double murder may be just what she needs. But how far is Liz willing to go to get her story? How many people is she willing to hurt?

The Meadowbrook Murders is an easy read and definitely has some suspense, tension, and YA drama. The story is told through two POVs: Liz and Amy. I enjoyed having both of their perspectives and thought the author did a nice job developing both characters. A few of the twists towards the end I found to be unnecessary (particularly the one involving Joseph and Sarah). It definitely reads as a YA book, which, again, makes it a fast and easy read. I do think thriller readers will be able to predict the murderer reasonably easily. With that all said, I still enjoyed the book and wanted to finish it.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Young reader’s group for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review

I have mixed feelings about this book I enjoyed it but there was a lot I didn’t like.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of Liz she was lacking something she started off very unlikable but as the story progressed it got a little better but still I wasn’t really feeling her.
Surprisingly I really enjoyed Amy’s chapters and I felt so bad for her but was so proud at the same time, her character development was probably my favorite.

I guessed the culprit from the beginning but I won’t lie and say the author didn’t slightly convince me it was might’ve been someone else. Overall it was a pretty nice read very fast paced and if I were still a teenager I probably would’ve enjoyed this so much more.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

A well-paced and engaging YA Thriller. The story kicks off with a bang when Meadowbrook senior Amy wakes to find her best friend Sarah and Sarah's boyfriend Ryan murdered in their dorm room. The last conversation Amy and Sarah had was a very public argument that left many of their mutual friends torn on whether or not they could trust Amy, who kept secrets of her own to protect someone she held dear. This leaves Amy in a position where she reluctantly has to rely on the school newspaper editor Liz even though Amy is not a fan of journalists or the media in general.
I did enjoy the book and found it engaging, however, it was a fairly run-of-the-mill "popcorn thriller" without anything super unique to set it apart. I would recommend it to its targeted audience, people who enjoy YA thrillers, or those just getting into the genre.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Young Readers group for the eArc.