Amy is a senior at the prestigious private boarding school, Meadowbrook Academy. It's Senior Week, just before the start of the school year, and Amy and her best friend and roommate Sarah are ready for boathouse parties, soccer practice, and making every aspect of their last year at Meadowbrook epic. So what if they got into an argument at last night's party? Amy and Sarah always make up. But not this time. Amy wakes up the morning after the party to discover that Sarah and her boyfriend Ryan have been brutally murdered. All at once Amy's idyllic senior year has become a nightmare as she struggles with her grief, the suspicion from the police and her fellow students, and her determination to find out who did this.

Liz is decidedly not one of the cool kids. A scholarship kid, Liz has never felt like she fits in with the rest of the student body. She has her work as the Editor of the school newspaper, and her determination to win a highly competitive journalism competition that could get her into the best programs in the country. She knows that breaking the case could be her best chance of winning. But as the school administration attempts to shield the students and the school from the prying eyes of the national media, Liz finds out how far she'll go in the pursuit of the truth, and what others will do to try and stop her.

I thought this was fine. It's fast paced, and there are a few red herrings that make it fun along the way. The final reveal and confrontation is pretty good, and I wasn't mad about it. The characters do make a lot of dumb choices along the way, and only so many can be excused by their tender age. It's no Agatha Christie, but would be a fun intro to the whodunit genre for a young teenager.

What could possibly go wrong when you return to the private prep school at the beginning of your senior year? The entire campus suspects each other which leads to so many variations on who could be guilty. Students start investigating the murder only to find what they thought was happening, wasn't what was truly happening. Well written YA suspense novel.

🔪 𝕋ℍℝ𝕀𝕃𝕃𝔼ℝ 𝕋ℍ𝕌ℝ𝕊𝔻𝔸𝕐 🔪

"𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒔 "𝒖𝒏𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒔," 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒆𝒖𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒎 𝒇𝒐𝒓 "𝒅𝒐𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒅𝒆."

Special thanks to @penguinteen @jessicagoodman & @netgalley for the #gifted eARC.

👉🏼 swipe for synopsis ➡️

𝙈𝙔 𝙍𝙀𝙑𝙄𝙀𝙒:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 [4.25]

This is a fast paced dark academia thriller, sure to make you thankful you never went to an affluent boarding school .🏫🔪

Around the 50% mark is slows a bit, but more clues come into play. The relationship Amy and Liz are forced into ia almost palpable to say the least. Joseph definitely leaves you warey on who could really be behind all this.

I love how the book is broke up by days of events. Makes for suspenful reading going forward in those chapters. I definitely didn't see it coming, the k!ller but also the "cover up".
I'd say overall this is a very good YA academia thriller!

𝙋𝙐𝘽 𝘿𝘼𝙔:
Feb 4, 2025


ℚ𝕆𝕋𝔻❓️⁉️❓️ Did you go to boarding school, or know anyone that did? Would you if you could have chosen?

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#mysteryandthrills #thrillersandsuspense #thrillerfriendsunite #thrillerlover #thrilleraddict #thrillerjunkie #thrillergirlie #bookbuzz #upcomingthriller #themeadowbrookmurders #jessicagoodman #darkacademia #yaacademia #penguinteeninfluencer #penguinteenpartner #partner
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Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy. I was pulled into this story immediately, double murder on the campus of a private boarding school. I love the alternating viewpoints with each chapter. I didn’t think any of the characters were very likable which made sticking around for what happened next a little challenging. Overall, it’s a good YA story that I think younger readers will enjoy.

If you love campus drama and dark secrets, The Meadowbrook Murders is a YA murder mystery you’ll want to add to your TBR! This story unfolds through multiple POVs, starting with the shocking discovery of a young girl and her boyfriend murdered after a campus party. From there, her roommate and the school newspaper editor team up to uncover the truth—and quickly realize that everyone has something to hide.

The twists and turns kept me guessing, and the dual perspectives added depth to the suspense. However, the pacing dragged a little in spots, which made it feel longer than it needed to be. That said, it’s a solid pick for fans of YA mysteries, especially if you love stories packed with secrets, intrigue, and a touch of drama. Check it out if you’re in the mood for a fun whodunit!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC! I loved this book and definitely recommend it to any fans of thrillers, murder mysteries, and dark academia!

Jessica Goodman has a way of tackling sensitive and relevant issues prevalent in society today by crafting unputdownable stories and The Meadowbrook Murders is another example of this power she wields with care.

The Meadowbrook Murders explores how people in a place of privilege and power will do anything to keep their secrets buried. This book focuses on Amy, who finds her roommate, Sarah, and Sarah's boyfriend dead. Immediately, suspicion is placed on Amy as she and Sarah had an epic argument in front of a party full of witnesses. With no more evidence than the argument to convict, Amy's peers are ready to label her as the killer. She becomes an outcast of sorts (as if being a high school senior isn't hard enough already) and to make matters worse, she is forced to room with Liz, the school paper's editor-in-chief and the person who reported on the murders. Amy and Liz have to come together in order to accomplish their own goals--for Amy, that's clearing her name; for Liz, that's earning a scholarship for college in order to have a better life than she does now.

This was a quick and thrilling book to read. Jessica does a good job of setting her dark academia book apart of others of the same nature. Thank you NetGalley and G.P. Putman's Sons Books for Young Readers for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A fairly typical YA boarding school murder mystery. I did appreciate the economic diversity she includes in her books but I didn't think the characters were as well developed as they were in some of her earlier books. She did do a good job of expressing how upsetting this would be to happen and what is is like to be let down by the people who are supposed to help you.

So this is an ARC that I was excited to read BUT it reminds me so much of the Idaho 4. I’m not sure if that was unfortunately inspiration but I was not a fan of that. A couple of high schoolers are murdered and pretty much everyone is a suspect. All of the main characters are hiding something! And I bet you’ll never guess what the weapon was 🫠 I think it could’ve been better with changes to a few details. It definitely started to ramp up towards the end and I like how the sections were separated. I was also a fan of the ending because it was logical and most teens don’t think that way ❤️

The pacing and suspense were great!! I usually can guess the suspect very early on, but here I didn’t and I didn’t even want to guess it, I just wanted to enjoy the journey. If you want bingable thriller with academic settings, elite student and small town vibes - The Meadowbrook Murders is it!

This was a smart well-written book. I enjoyed the mystery and the development of the characters. I cared about them and hoped the best for them. There were wonderful twists and turns and unexpected things along the way which were very cool.

This was a story full of mystery, hidden secrets, and painful betrayals. While attempting to uncover the suspect, it highlights the ideas that we may not know our loved ones like we think we do. I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I found it intriguing, empathetic, and suspicion-inducing. Great fun!

4 stars / This review will be posted on BookwormishMe.com & goodreads.com today.


A good murder mystery has you pointing fingers at everyone before the final reveal of the murder. This novel certainly didn’t disappoint, as I had guessed just about everyone.

Meadowbrook Academy is a very elite, private prep school in Connecticut. As is tradition, the senior class arrives a week prior to the underclassmen. A time to bond, party, prepare for the final year of high school.

Amy Alterman is a senior from Palo Alto, California. Her best friend since freshman year, and her roommate, Sarah Oliver grew up in the east. Both are only children. Both raised in wealth. Both smart, athletic, beautiful. Until one of them ends up dead, and the other appears to be a suspect.

Fantastic novel with lots of misunderstandings, as will happen in a high school setting. The adults in the room (or in this case, in the school) sometimes seem as childish as teenagers can be. The adults do not set the best example. Meanwhile we have a high school student ending up rooming with the one person she never wanted to, and learning that those you might never consider your friends, might be the next person you rely on.

I truly enjoyed this book. It was fast paced and well pieced together. While there are hints of the perpetrator, it isn’t an easy guess. There are lots of life lessons inserted along the way as well.

Great read.

This book kept me glued to the pages and guessing until the end. Two students are found dead in their dorm room, and essentially everybody in the story is a suspect. I liked the alternating POVs between Liz and Amy. The author did a great job at giving us different perspectives of the same event. I love an academia setting and this one was fabulous!

Thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group | G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I loved reading this fast paced YA murder mystery! It held my attention and had me on the edge of my seat! I needed all of the answers and read it in one sitting. The killer wasn’t at all who I thought it was and I loved being bamboozled.

Thank you to Penguin Young Readers Group for the advanced copy. All opinions expressed above are my own.

I have really enjoyed previous books by this author and was so excited for this one! I will say I really enjoyed the dark academia setting and talks or journalism/the plot of that. Unfortunately, this book just didn’t do it for me and I couldn’t stay intrigued. The main characters, Amy and Liz, lacked depth from my perspective and they did not seem to have a friendship I wanted to root for. In turn, I wasn’t invested in them solving the murder. I will also say the character ages didn’t seem to align with their personalities and it felt a bit hard to believe. Overall, it had some interesting parts but wasn’t a book I’d rave over.

Perfect to read in one sitting. I usually like Jessica Goodman books as a palate cleanser read. This book had short chapters, a good dark academic setting, and an intriguing plot.

Murder, a boarding school, and investigative journalism are all ingredients I can get behind; unfortunately, this one lost me a bit. At times, it felt like a bit of a rip off of Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, or maybe that’s just me having read all those books. But these teenagers acted far more mature than any teenagers I have ever taught, so the characters just didn’t feel authentic to me. Also, a bloody gory murder mixed in with catty, gossipy teenage setting was a bit jarring and felt off. I did like the pieces about journalism and what is fair game and what is invasive; I would’ve liked more depth on that topic for sure. At the end of the day, I finished it and it was fine.

This was a fun YA boarding school murder mystery. This story mainly follows Amy and Liz. They are both students at the Meadowbrook Academy in Connecticut. Amy wakes up one morning to find her best friend Sarah and Sarah’s boyfriend dead in the room next to them. Liz is the editor of the school newspaper and wants to cover the murders in hopes she will win a journalism scholarship. Liz and Amy must find the murderer before they are the next victims.

This is one of those stories that’s full of twists and turns and you find out everyone is lying and hiding secrets of their own. Both Amy and Liz had reasons to be the killer so this made the story even more interesting trying to figure out who actually did it. I think this is perfect for fans of A Good Girls Guide to Murder and who like academic small town book settings. It’s a fast paced mystery full of twists and turns that will keep you guessing.

Best friends and roommates Amy and Sarah are preparing to enter their senior year of high school at the prestigious Meadowbrook Academy boarding school. The school year is set to begin with "Senior Sanction," essentially a day of welcome rituals held specifically for the further bonding of the school's seniors. Amy looks forward to making lasting memories with Sarah over the course of the year.

Then Amy finds her Sarah and her boyfriend, Ryan, lying in her dorm room bed after having been stabbed to death. Though Amy’s room is next door, she never heard the murders. The Academy was on lockdown at the time of the murders, so there's an abundance of fear that the guilty party is amongst the school's faculty, staff, and teachers.

While the police investigate Amy's room as a crime scene, Amy is assigned to room with Elizabeth "Liz" Charles, a low-income scholarship student and editor-in-chief of the school paper. Liz has never been popular with other students and grows even more unpopular when she starts reporting on the murders, hoping to impress herself to a committee that might award her a prestigious journalistic scholarship for college.

Amy is initially very critical and distrusting of Liz, who, for her own part, has difficulty connecting with the struggles of Amy and thee victims' other loved ones, given that she has never been truly accepted by them. Nevertheless, Amy and Liz slowly begin to experience a bond forged in their shared desire to determine who committed the murders and get justice for the victims.

I liked the book's overall story. I'm a major fan of dark academia, particularly of the sort involving private/boarding schools and the twisted secrets of society's elite young adults; and Jessica Goodman did not disappoint with this one.

The mystery aspect, however, was a bit lacking for my tastes, as was the final reveal of the murderer and motive for the crime. The ending also seemed a little rushed and lacked punch. (Mind you, it all still made sense, given the circumstances; and it never beggared belief.) But the social and relational dynamics that played out over the course of the story all but made up for those less positive aspects.

This is definitely the best private/boarding school mystery I've consumed in quite a while.

Thank you to Net Galley and Penguin for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.