The Meadowbrook Murders by Jessica Goodman is a dark academia murder mystery set in Meadowbrook Academy, a very prestigious boarding school. Amy is all set to enjoy her senior year with her best friend Sarah – they have so many exciting plans for their last year of freedom. But everything changes when Amy finds Sarah and Sarah’s boyfriend, Ryan, murdered in their dorm room, right next door to Amy’s room. Amy of course falls under suspicion, as it would be difficult for anyone to get into the dorm and because she and Sarah had a big and very public fight the night before.

The chapters alternate between Amy’s POV and the POV of Liz, the editor of the school newspaper. While Amy is very popular, Liz is much more focused on academics and journalism and is rather a social outcast. With hopes of earning a college scholarship, Liz focuses on investigating and reporting about the crime. This alienates Amy, who at first refuses to help her in any way. However, Liz and Amy eventually end up forced to share a dorm room and realize they need to work together to solve the murder.

This was a pretty quick read – I read it all in one sitting, in fact. However, I did find it had a pretty slow start, to the point that I almost gave up about a quarter of the way into the book. Fortunately, it ramps up a bit later on. I did not really get much of a feeling of dark academia from this book - overall, it is a fairly straightforward YA mystery.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

It’s the week before another school year at Meadowbrook Academy, the last year for the seniors, who are the only ones on campus. The seniors get a week to bond before the rest of the students join them. But this year is different. This year, Amy woke up to find her roommate Sarah dead in her bed, along with Sarah’s boyfriend Ryan.

As the police investigate, the school moves Amy to another room. There is only one available to her, and Amy finds herself sharing a room with Liz. Liz is editor-in-chief of the Meadowbrook Gazette, the campus newspaper, and Amy knows that she will be looking to write about the biggest thing to happen on the campus.

Liz is someone who devours true crime books, and she is hungry for the story that will put her on the map. She wants to work for a top media outlet, so she has her eyes on journalism school and a top career after. As soon as she hears about the murders, So Amy refuses to talk to her, of course.

Liz realizes that no one has posted a story online about the murders yet, so she writes one with the information released on campus so far, which gets her in trouble with the administration, since she posted it without talking to them. Amy, meanwhile, realizes that there was someone else in the room the night of the murder, her boyfriend Joseph.

Joseph isn’t a student. He lives in the nearby town and works at a local café. He wants to be a chef. And he’d had a knife, a small one, with him in the room. He had been gone when Amy woke up, and she did notice that the knife was also gone. Amy had trouble believing that Joseph would hurt anyone. But she also knew that he wouldn’t be protected the way the other students would be. He would be looked a with suspicion, just because his family didn’t have the money the Meadowbrook students come from. Amy knows that the only way to protect him is to find out who killed Sarah and Ryan.

Liz, in trouble for posting her story online, is meanwhile getting noticed for being the first reporter to the story. Her best chance of keeping that momentum going is to solve the crime herself. If she can figure out who committed the murders, she can write her own ticket after school. But that means she has to be the one to figure out who killed Sarah and Ryan.

As the young women each follow the clues and move towards the killer, the put themselves into more and more danger. Will they be able to protect themselves when the truth ultimately comes out?

The Meadowbrook Murders is a crime thriller about friendships and futures, about class and secrets. It’s twisty and dark, with all the classic notes of a murder mystery. These characters are smart and sophisticated. In fact, I had to keep reminding myself that they were in high school, as they were far more mature than anyone I went to high school with back in the day. But I really enjoyed this story. There were some lovely surprises and lots of tension to keep those pages turning. If you’re a fan of dark academia, then you just might want to head to Meadowbrook to solve a mystery.

Egalleys for The Meadowbrook Murders were provided by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers through NetGalley, with many thanks.

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

This is not the typical genre I choose to read but I'm glad I picked it up. This was a very quick, easy read that kept me guessing until the end who done it. The story takes place in a boarding school, when the first week back her senior year Amy finds herself waking up to her roommate and roommate's boyfriend dead in the room next door. Amy finds Liz the editor of the school newspaper an unlikely ally and they team up trying to figure out who the murderer is.

I will easily give this book a 3.5 rating and look forward to reading more from Jessica Goodman.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!
3.5 stars rounded up

I've learned from Two Sides to Every Murder that I like when the two protagonists in a mystery book just continually have some sort of tension between them even as they grow closer, and it's a reasonable tension. Amy here is dealing with a lot of crap and is a teenager who has no idea how to process it, and so you get why other characters are huffy with her even if you get why she's hurting and so confused (and admittedly selfish in her grieving). Then you also get why Liz approaches the case as she does, even if it is a bit callous and cruel.

I think of the two, Liz definitely has the most growth, but that's because she's more the character meant to grow while Amy is the one meant to be suffering the brunt of the emotional turmoil in this book. And their differences just come together to make this work.

There's also a lot of hard feelings in this book and secrets that complicate relationships, and I like that the consequences to those difficult moments last. There's a relationship between two characters that splinters in a way that doesn't just get repaired by the end, which I feel like a lot of books would do anyway.

I had an inkling of who the killer was by, like, 20%, and the more the book went, the more sure I grew of who it was. It definitely felt like the reasoning could be a bit better. It wasn't bad, per se, but there was a certain way that the character was acting that made me think it would go a more interesting way.

There were some other issues I had with the book, but nothing so bad that it made me decide to round down instead of up. Maybe there's more things that I'd have noticed if I'd read more YA Mystery books, but oh well 🤣

This was such a cool mystery book. I was flipping the pages as fast as I could from day 1. The twists and turns were everything. I liked how this book packed the punch of the mystery from page 1. This book was amazing. The emotion, the drama, it was such a fun time.

"Secrets don't die when you do" This goes against everything you typically think of when people stay the secret died with them. and that's basically how the book goes. This book reminds you of Pretty Little Liars, a good girl's Guide to murder (but about her best friend) in a New England setting!
Jessica Goodman has a way of luring you in like an artist and then saying something that causes you to look at the painting in an entirely different way than before! Very few authors are gifted with this ability and I don't know how they do this! Teach me your ways! A Young Adult with a lot of mystery and suspense! Very relatable and fast pace to read! Thank you Jessica Goodman, the publisher, and Netgalley!

Thank you to Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group | G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I loved this book so much. I read it in one sitting. I never saw the twists coming! I would definitely recommend this book.

I enjoyed this YA boarding school mystery. I loved the mystery aspect but the High school teen drama not so much. However, teens who are looking for a mystery and want to stay in the YA section they will enjoy this one.

3.25 stars

I would say that, if you’re looking for a thriller this isn't one (by the mere definition of thrilling) but still remains a good murder mystery, with some good characterization and a few compelling moments, yet it's worth remembering that things move slowly in this story, so if that’s not your cup of tea, perhaps this one is not for you.

The Meadowbrook Murders by Jessica Goodman is a young adult novel published on February 4, 2025. The story opens with the character Amy discovering the bodies of her classmates, Sarah and Ryan, who are undoubtedly deceased. Told from alternating perspectives of Amy and Liz, both students are trying to find out who and why someone would want to murder two students at a prestigious boarding school.

I received an Advanced Readers Copy (ARC) of this book from NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group for free in exchange for my honest review.

When the story first began, I thought it was taking place at a college or university before I realized it took place at a boarding school. Other than that slight confusion, this suspenseful mystery captured my attention from the very beginning and had me on the edge of my seat. Both of the main characters were vastly different from one another but were likable in their own way. Unfortunately, other than Amy and Liz, the only other character I found to be likable was the soccer coach. The author does a fantastic job of showing the reader the cliquiness and meanness that can be found in high school along with the assumptions students tend to make without all the facts.

From the beginning, I was kind of expecting the story to be told by an unreliable narrator to some degree, and I couldn't have been more wrong in the two people I suspected to be the murderer. The author did provide clues as to who the culprit ended up being, but I ignored those clues!

The descriptions of the school and town were so well done, I could picture both in my mind. It was like I was watching a movie in my mind. I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Meadowbrook Murders by Jessica Goodman and would love a sequel. In my humble opinion, any tween, teen, or adult would enjoy this book. Five out of five stars.

Prep boarding school murder/mystery.

This one just didn’t super grab my attention. It’s told from two perspectives Amy, who finds her best friend Sara and her boyfriend Ryan murdered in their dorm room and then also by student Liz, who is a reporter on the school paper. Both girls are seniors at Meadowbrook Academy.

Again, I can’t really pinpoint what was my issue, but I was not instantly drawn in or captivated by the story. Solid mystery. Not a lot of super activity and was a bit slow for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for my electronic advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Fantastic! Loved it. It's a quick, gripping, interesting read with a somewhat foreseeable culprit. But I mostly enjoyed the two heroines' character development and fast pacing. I definitely recommend it to dark academia fans like me.

I want to thank NetGalley and Penguin Random House Publishers for the ARC of the Meadowbrook Murders by Jessica Goodman in exchange for an honest review.

The Meadowbrook Murders is a young adult mystery\thriller book. Jessica Goodman opens the story with the murder of two students in their dorm room. The chapters are marked by Amy and Liz’s perspectives of what is happening around them. The chapters are easy to follow with whose point of view we are reading. Just make sure to note the name at the top. The story was suspenseful and will keep you guessing on who the murderer truly is.

Amy and Sarah are best friends who are finally seniors and dreaming of this school year and all the memories they will make. A few days before classes start, Amy wakes up and finds Sarah and her boyfriend murdered in the dorm they share. Now the dream of Senior Year becomes a nightmare, and Amy is the main culprit to the crime. Liz, another student on campus and the editor of the school's newspaper is looking for that hot story that will get her the editorial scholarship she wants to a prestigious college. When news breaks about the murders, Liz's instincts are to write about it without consequences to the people in her story (Her classmates). As Liz continues to research into the motive of the murders and help catch the killer who might still be on campus, she realizes that even with death, secrets always try to surface.

The book has many themes like not truly knowing someone, lies, and secrets always come out in the end, as well as forming friendships where you least expect them.

Similar to the series One of us is Lying by Karen M McManus.

This was a well-written and fast-paced YA mystery! It was interesting to follow the events from the two different POVs. The text was easy to read, plot easy to follow and the ending wasn’t too predictable. Sometimes I got a bit confused with all the characters but that didn’t bother me too much.

Jessica Goodman is an auto-buy author for me, and The Meadowbrook Murders is easily one of my favorites. I love a good boarding school/academia novel, and this one delivers with its elite Connecticut setting, close-knit friendships, and a murder mystery that will keep you hooked. The dual perspectives of Amy, caught in a web of lies, and Liz, determined to uncover the truth for all to learn, make for an unputdownable book.

As with the first book I read by this author (They Wish They Were Us), this young adult novel is set at an exclusive boarding/prep school. But for me, I thought this was a stronger, more cleverly written book.

It's senior week at Middlebrook Academy, where the seniors are on campus early, getting ready for the year. Of course, that includes some major partying. Amy and her best friend and roommate Sarah get into a fight at a party and in the morning, Amy just wants to make up and move on. When she goes into Sarah's room to apologize, she finds a grisly sight--Sarah and her boyfriend Ryan have been murdered. Who did this and why? Fellow classmate Liz, editor of the school newspaper, wants to find out.

I was intrigued from the beginning and liked the fast pace and how everything flowed. Secrets are uncovered, friendships and connections are tested, and lies are exposed. The culprit isn't entirely surprising, but I did like how the story was laid out.

Another thing I really appreciated was the look into journalism and the ethics about it. Those sections were surprising. Liz is a go-getter from a modest financial background, going to school with the ultra-wealthy. She desperately wants and needs a college scholarship. But what lines should she cross to get that "exclusive" story, and who is she willing to betray?

If you like young adult mysteries, this one is a wonderful option.

Unfortunatley this was a DNF for me. I got to about 30%, but the story in general felt a little too juvenile for me and was giving Nancy Drew vibes. Overall, the writing decent and I would be willing to revisit this author is she wrote something for an older demographic.

While I did clock the killer pretty quickly, I didn’t guess their motive. I feel like I needed more development between relationships. That was the weakest point for me, I didn’t really feel like anyone actually cared about anyone else so it was hard for me to care about the characters as well. The story and setting was so well done.

Great murder mystery set in a New England private prep school. Themes of class and socioeconomics buried within a good mystery. Goodman develops her characters well and has a plethora of suspects to judge and follow.

My only complaint was that it felt too short! Pacing was fast which kept me engaged, and I finished in two days. Some suspects were closed up too fast and slowing down a little bit, just because I enjoyed the story.

This was my first Goodman novel, but I will be looking into more of her works because of their engagement, excitement, and characters.

3.5/5!

Are you a fan of YA thrillers set in academic settings? I love a good private school that’s located either in the middle of nowhere or a small town. Goodman hones in on the small town aspect for this one and it’s the perfect setting.

The senior class has arrived early and much to their horror two of their classmen have been murdered. How could this possibly happen when Amy was asleep the next room over? How could anyone have snuck in their dorm?

These are the questions that are racing through the minds of Amy and Liz, the editor for the school newspaper, as they become unlikely companions joined by the desire to solve this case. I enjoyed receiving the story through alternating chapters told through the eyes of these two girls. They’re clearly very different, from their backgrounds to their personalities, and Goodman does a solid job of using those differences for a well-rounded story unfolding.

One of the things that hung me up when reading this one was that I felt like it lacked some of the quick pacing and snappy action that I’m used to finding in Goodman’s books. There were parts that felt muddled and weighed down in unnecessary details that lost my attention at times.

Overall, this is a solid story and Goodman remains a favorite YA author for me!