Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group for the arc of The Meadowbrook Murders by Jessica Goodman.

This was a fun and twisty young adult thriller in a dark academia setting. I thought I had it all figured out on more than one occasion, but there were some red herrings sprinkled throughout that kept me on my toes! I did feel like the ending happened really quickly, but the author really tried to keep readers guessing until the very end, it seems.

This was a solid 4⭐️ read for me, and I would definitely recommend it for anyone who enjoys YA but wants some darker elements to their stories.

I haven’t read anything by Jessica Goodman, but have always wanted to read <i>They Wish They Were Us</i> by her, so when I saw I could try for this ARC I knew I had to. Unfortunately, this wasn’t for me.

It’s YA, but it felt very juvenile even for YA and the characters were not intriguing enough for me. The MCs Liz and Ally were fine, but I think they were told in a tell don’t show kinda way which I’m personally not a fan of. I did really like when they decided to come together to help find answers about the murder. (I was shouting at them in my head the whole time to just talk lol.)

The actual story was interesting and there was enough information withheld for good reasons to keep the murder plot enjoyable throughout the story. But I think the lead up to the reveal was drawn out too long. The first part of the story was about the day of the murder and the fallout that resulted, but it was all too trivial to be engaging. Nothing new was brought up here in the story or in this type of storytelling device.

Even if you are looking for a book with boarding school/academia stakes I don’t think this delivers.

If you are looking for an easy read with low stakes and low intrigue, you’d like this, but I’ve read better YA murder mysteries.

ARC provided via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first Jessica Goodman book and it did not disappoint. I have heard so many good things about her YA thrillers and I will be reading more soon!

I have always been a fan of murder mysteries that happen at upperclass private schools (huge fan of the Private series when I was in High School) and this gave me so many vibes from my favorites. This was told from dual POVs: Amy, who was best friends with the girl who was murdered/found the murder victims and Liz, the editor of the Meadowbrook Academy student newspaper. While both perspectives were enjoyable and kept the story moving, I preferred the parts told my Liz.

I was hooked by the plot from the start. For most of the book I felt that it was going to be super straight forward and nothing too shocking would happen. About 15% before the end of the book, twists kept coming out of left field. The author did such a good job at not having you suspect the actual murderer at all until it all came to a head at the end, but did it in a way that made it seem all believable when it was revealed.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Group-Penguin Young Readers Group, and Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers for the ARC of this book in

This was my first Jessica Goodman book and it didn't disappoint! At times, the pacing did falter and I felt there were certain points where there was almost too much but, overall, the story was really well written and I found myself constantly being drawn back to it to see how it would end. I felt that the author left just enough breadcrumbs to hint at the real suspect before the big reveal towards the end and there were some big revelations throughout the story that could make readers second guess what really happened. Overall, I enjoyed this story and think that it is a great choice for anyone who loves to read YA Mysteries & Thrillers.

4 stars! Solid, fun, twisty YA Gilmore Girlsesque murder mystery!

Synopsis: Senior year is supposed to be a time of joy, shenanigans, memories, and final preparations for the adulthood just around the corner, but all that memory making is destroyed when two popular prep school Seniors are found brutally murdered the week before school begins.

What I liked:
- [ ] Twisty, fast paced, dual narratives, plus a reflection on the adolescent pressures of keeping up appearances and how the behavior of grown ups can really screw up the way young people navigate the world.
- [ ] I like that dead bodies show up in the first chapter - no need to waste time on exposition!
- [ ] Fast paced, high action climax made the final pages FLY!

What I didn’t like:
- [ ] The title doesn’t do it justice, almost making the novel seem boiler plate.
- [ ] I did figure out the killer and kinda figured out the motive, but that’s fine, I usually do - that’s half the fun anyway!
- [ ] The grown ups sucked in this book. None of these young characters really had reliable adults, and that is always disappointing.

This was such a fun book to read. It really didn’t feel much like a YA novel other than the location and the age of the characters, but I suppose that is the marker of a well written novel - YA or not - as a reader you become invested in the journey of the characters and their circumstances, and it doesn’t matter who the “target” audience is!

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group - Penguin Young Readers Group for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

My first (and maybe last) by this author.
Pretty formulaic, but i expected that from the YA level and genre. I loved the premise, but I didn't like or connect to a single character. The plot was tediously developed and plodding.
I received an ARC from netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Going into a Jessica Goodman novel, I go in expecting at least one thing- an easy read. Typically, her young adult novels flow easily, have nice transitions and I find it easy to flip the page and devour quickly. This was no different.

Liz is hungry- hungry for the journalistic story that will make a name for herself. But if Meadowbrook is known for anything, it’s for being uneventful and boring. That is until two classmates are found murdered in their dorm. In this story, we have two points of view- that of Liz, the fortunate girl, who is lucky to be there and is grateful for what she has. And Amy, the spoiled, typical rich girl who has it easy at a boarding school. However, they are definitely written almost the opposite, with Liz coming across as stuck up while describing others as such. And of course, enter in the suspicious red herrings, where neither of our heroines have ever suspected any of them for anything, until now.

I very much disliked Liz- the outsider who wants to constantly remind everyone she doesn’t fit in, that’s she’s not like everyone else, and she’s just so much better for it.

Like other Jessica Goodman books, nothing really feels too surprising or twisty. Like an entry level young adult thriller. I would probably rank this one in the middle.

Amy and Sarah are best friends, just entering their Senior year at the prestigious Meadowbrook Academy, a private boarding school set in a tiny Connecticut town. It's the week prior to the official school start, but the Seniors have all returned to campus. It's expected to be a great year filled with parties, laughs and their last bit of teenage freedom before becoming adults.

All hopes of that are shattered however, when Sarah and her boyfriend, Ryan, are brutally murdered in Sarah and Amy's dorm suite. Shockingly, Amy slept through it. She didn't hear a thing, but she does discover the bodies the next day. She tells the police she was the only other person in their suite that night, even though that's not quite true. Everyone on campus and in the surrounding community is shocked, and they look at Amy now with suspicion.

Liz is also a Senior at Meadowbrook. She's a scholarship kid, who writes for the school newspaper. Honestly, her entire life revolves around the paper. She's dead-set on becoming a successful journalist someday and her time at Meadowbrook is the first step on that path. Meadowbrook can open doors for her. She doesn't come from a wealthy or powerful family, like the majority of the other kids, and she hasn't always fit in.

Liz breaks the story of the murder. It's too juicy to pass up and this could help her land the scholarship she needs for college. She's determined to crack this case. Liz and Amy have never been friends, but they're thrust together when the school assigns Amy to be Liz's new roommate. Clearly, Amy can't return to her regular suite, it's a crime scene and tainted by the trauma. Nonetheless, Amy is none to happy to be forced to room with the random girl digging around into her best friend's murder; exposing it to the world.

After a bit, with Amy still high on everyone's suspect list, she decides she needs to figure this out as well, and Liz may be her best chance to get to the bottom of it. Two worlds merge as the girls eventually thaw a bit of the ice wall between them and start to share information. Some truly fun and engaging amateur sleuthing follows.

I flew through The Meadowbrook Murders in one straight shot. I had quite an enjoyable little Saturday reading this. As YA Thrillers go, Jessica Goodman is one of my favorite authors, and you can definitely tell this is one of her books. If you've read from Goodman before, you know what to expect going into this, and you won't be disappointed.

We all know I love a private school setting and murder mysteries set a private school are my cake. I enjoyed Liz's character arc most of all. She was one determined cookie. I also appreciate how well Goodman frames these 'haves v. haves not', or 'locals v. outsiders' situations. This is a theme I have noticed in some of her other works, and as a person who lives in a resort community, I can relate to a lot of those dynamics and it feels very genuine to me.

Although I enjoyed Liz's perspective a little more, Amy's perspective added so much drama and backstory as far as the mystery into Sarah's death went. I did grow to like Amy more as the story went on and I'm glad that Goodman wrote this using the dual perspective. I found the who a little obvious, but the why and how, I was way far off from.

Overall, I thought this was highly-entertaining and I would recommend it to any YA Mystery-Thriller fans out there. Particularly if you've enjoyed Goodman's work in the past, or if you enjoy books from Kara Thomas or Alexa Donne. Also, a must for fans of private school stories.

Thank you to the publisher, G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, for providing me with a copy to read and review..

The Meadowbrook Murders was an intriguing YA murder mystery. The story is told from the perspectives of Amy and Liz, both students at Meadowbrook Academy. Amy wakes up one morning to find her best friend and her best friend’s boyfriend murdered in their dorm room. Amy then becomes a suspect. Liz, the school’s newspaper editor, decides to investigate the murders, hoping that she can write an article about it that would get her a college scholarship.

I thought this was an entertaining read. This is the first book that I’ve read by this author and I liked her writing. I liked reading from the perspectives of Amy and Liz. They had such different personalities.

I did predict the killer about halfway in the story, but I still had a fun time reading this book.

I would recommend this book to fans of young adult mysteries.

3.5⭐️

📖✨ Book Review: The Meadowbrook Murders by Jessica Goodman ✨📖
A prestigious boarding school. A dead girl. A best friend who swears she heard nothing. And a small-school journalist desperate for the truth. The Meadowbrook Murders is the perfect storm of dark academia, deep-rooted secrets, and reluctant allies forced together by a crime no one wants solved.

Set against the elite backdrop of Meadowbrook Academy, this murder mystery unfolds through a dual POV—giving us both Liz, a socially ostracized journalist hungry for a big story, and Amy, the best friend and roommate of the victim, who somehow didn’t hear a thing the night of the murder. Suspicious? Absolutely. But Liz isn’t exactly an open book, either. As the two are tangled in the same mystery, it’s impossible to tell who’s withholding the most. The complexity of these characters adds a layer of intrigue to the narrative.

The whodunnit energy is immaculate, with every chapter peeling back new layers of privilege, ambition, and betrayal. The setting? Pure dark academia— mostly empty private boarding schools, secrets around every corner, and students who look polished on the outside but are drowning in hidden agendas. And because no boarding school is complete without its skeletons, Meadowbrook plays just as significant a role as its students.

Fast-paced and utterly engrossing, this book kept me second-guessing everyone, including Liz and Amy. The plot unfolds at a breakneck speed, keeping the reader engaged and on their toes. The reluctant alliance between them is dripping with tension—neither entirely trusts the other, but they need each other. And that uneasy partnership? Brilliant!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | If you love boarding school thrillers and murder mysteries with a dual POV twist, The Meadowbrook Murders should be next on your list!

Thank you to Penguin Group and NetGalley for the ARC of The Meadowbrook Murders. This was a and fun and fast young adult mystery! This dual POV takes you back and forth between two characters on opposite sides of the friend spectrum. There are multiple possibilities for suspects and the story bobs and weaves around this boarding school campus. I do have to say that I figured it out pretty early on, but that's why I love these kinds of mysteries! It's fun to be able to pick out little nuggets along the way that lead you to your final conclusion. This was a really fun story!

as most jessica goodman books go, they are very bingeable and addicting - but overall, not much to write home about 🫠

for YA thrillers, I’m always looking for the next pretty little liars & I fear nothing can live up to that hype I felt in middle school reading those 🤠 BUT private boarding schools are the perfect place for a murder mystery!

I loved the back and forth mystery between roommate amy and school newspaper editor liz who team up to solve the murder of amy’s roommates, ryan and sarah. while the pacing was quick, I didn’t really feel the urgency and felt there were way too many red herrings that were never really explained at all 🤔

the whodunnit itself was fairly obvious to me - I guessed it almost immediately - and the lead up to it could have used a bit more hidden clues rather than plain sight … I mean, the perp clearly throws a victim’s phone at the wall to hide evidence and everyone is like oh he must have anger issues? very odd

a big thank you to netgalley and razorbill for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

rating: 2.5 stars
wine pairing: woodbridge zinfandel

I thought the premise was cool, but this book really didn’t grab me. I immediately disliked the characters, so I wasn’t invested in the story. This was a DNF for me.

Thank you to the publishing teams and PRH audio for review copies. This YA read was a little slow for me, I needed but less and more from the plot: I needed to have a stronger connection, reason to care for the two main characters before the murder happened and I needed perhaps less standard teen/rich kids boarding school tropes and more leaning into the murkier themes about media, adolescents lives, and the intersections of privilege, behind the scenes school themes, and how adolescents at times here were truly hurt by adults and left alone to handle a very challenging time... That's the book I wanted, the darker themes underneath the plot.

Thanks to NetGalley, Random House Children's, and PRH Audio for the ARC and ALC.

This was a super fun YA thriller. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes books like A Good Girls Guide to Murder or Pretty Little Liars. I thought Amy and Liz were well-written protagonists.

As for the audiobook, I thought Jesse Vilinsky and Sophie Amoss did an excellent job with the narration. I think I prreferred Amy's storyline, but both women did a great job bringing the characters to life and I would listen to more books narrated by both of them.

Overall this was a really well written YA thriller and I definitely recommend it!

This was a great mystery. I love a mystery that keeps me guessing. There were multiple times in this book where I thought I knew who the killer was and then I was proven to be wrong. The character development was great and I came to like the main characters and several of the supporting characters. Sadly, I also came to like the killer so I didn’t want this person to be involved but, by the end I was ok with it. The setting was also well developed and I felt as if I knew my way around the campus so when Amy went somewhere, I could visualize.

I love Jessica Goodman’s books and this one does not disappoint.

Prep school and a murder? I obviously loved this one. This wasn’t your typical YA novel. I thought the characters were likeable and the plot was interesting. I can’t wait for Jessica Goodman’s next book!

Captivating mystery with complicated relationships and real-feeling characters who make the kind of mistakes you'd see in a real case. I loved the dual POV, and especially Liz's growth as she struggled to cover the story. So good!

So, I'm going to be honest here: I wasn't really crazy about this book. Was it bad? No. Was it blow-my-mind-amazing? Definitely not. I think the story set up is solid, but the characters didn't feel fully developed and the plot was lackluster in my opinion. 

With the characters, I could find myself mixing up Liz and Amy. If their names weren't at the top of the chapters, I would've had a hard time telling them apart at times, which is not great when you have two POVs. You literally get to know nothing about Ryan (Sarah's murdered boyfriend) even though the book preaches about learning more than just how the victims were killed and getting to know them as people. Most of the other characters were very one-dimensional and I think that's what pulled me out of the book the most. 

As far as plot goes, it felt cohesive for the most part, but was predictable about 50% of the way through. I won't give any spoilers, but I definitely had a feeling about who was the perpetrator a good bit before we get any closure. Most of the things the drove the mystery forward, though, were circumstantial and sometimes seemed random. That bothers me more than anything else when it comes to mystery novels. I don't want it to be a coincidence and I don't want characters to happen upon things. I want them to work for it and this novel didn't really feel like work. 

Okay, so the things I enjoyed. I loved the boarding school vibes you get throughout the whole novel. I also love the hostility (I know, this sounds weird with me saying that I like that) because it totally felt "high school". The atmosphere was on point for sure. I also enjoyed the ending after our murderer was unmasked. It felt nice and realistic (not necessarily the explanation from the murderer, but what our characters do after everything is all said and done). 

Overall, I would give it a solid 3/5 stars. The ending was predictable with who the murderer was and the characters didn't feel fully thought out, but the vibes, atmosphere, and writing for the novel were really good.

📖 : The Meadowbrook Murders-a standalone

✍🏾 Author: Jessica Goodman- I read The Legacies -gave it 5⭐

📅Publication date: 2-4-25 | Read 1-30-25

📃 Format: e-ARC 336 pgs.

Genre:
*Mystery/Suspense
*YA
*Crime

Tropes:
*small town
*dark academia
*the wealthy
*amateur sleuths

👆🏾POV: dual 1st person, Amy and Liz

⚠️TW: murder, bullying, underage drinking

🌎 Setting: New England, CT

Summary: Amy and her BFF/roommate Sarah were enjoying their first week as seniors at a boathouse party but got into an argument about their boyfriends. Amy comes home to their dorm room and when she wakes up the next morning Sarah and her boyfriend Ryan are dead. Amy becomes a suspect and Liz, a reporter for the school paper, is out to find the truth.

👩🏾 Heroine: Amy Alterman-Jewish, senior at boarding school, and soccer player

👩🏾 Heroine: Elizabeth "Liz" Charles-editor in chief at the Meadowbrook Gazette and a loner

🎭 Other Characters:

* Joseph Stone-Amy's boyfriend, a townie
* Sarah Oliver-Amy's roommate, soccer player
* Ryan Pelham-Sarah's boyfriend
* Janet Egan-the headmaster
* Pamela Jensen-Joseph's mother and the soccer team coach
* Peter Radcliffe-BFFs with Sarah and Ryan, always competes with Ryan
* Kayla- a soccer player, dislikes Amy because of her friendship w/ Sarah

🤔 My Thoughts: This had a lot of twists and turns in this whodunit. It takes a real look at the wealthy's prejudice and entitlement. The Olivers and the Pelhams talk down to Amy and Liz in their brief encounters. Liz wanted to make a name for herself by investigating the murders and learned about bias and reliable sources while investigating. Amy found out her friends betrayed her, and was lucky to have found Liz and their unlikely friendship.

Rating: 4/5⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice level 2/5 🔥🔥 off page

🙏🏾Thanks to NetGalley, Penguin Young Readers Group | G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, and Jessica Goodman for this ARC! I voluntarily give my honest review, and all opinions are my own.