thank you netgalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review!!

i loved this!!! i was hooked from the beginning and finished this in just 2 days!! in this book we are following Dulce and her friends as they go to an elite private school that specializes in criminology. Every year, the students team up to play and solve and “murder” of one of their students. this year, when the student is found,Xavier’s not just pretending to be dead, but he is actual poisoned and murdered.

all the evidence points to Sierra, Dulce’s ex-best friend and Xavier’s ex-girlfriend. Claiming she is innocent, she begs Dulce and her friends to find out who really did it. Even though the game is now canceled, Dulce is determined to win.

this was so twisty!! i honestly didn’t guess who the killer was and i was on the edge of my seat the whole time! i loved all the characters and learning their backstories and potential motives. and the dark academia of this book was so good!! this is the perfect book for the fall and back to school season!!

This YA boarding school mystery was full of red herrings, secrets, and just the right amount of tension. While I guessed the culprit fairly early, the twists and atmosphere kept me hooked, and I really enjoyed watching Dulce and Zane’s relationship develop along the way. The setting had a moody, almost gothic feel that added so much to the story.

Dulce is a compelling, relatable lead, though I was frustrated by how quickly she forgave her friends after the way they treated her - they definitely owe her more groveling! Still, the layered cast, suspenseful pacing, and emotional undercurrents made this a fun and gripping read. If you like thrillers with messy friendships, family drama, and dark secrets, this one’s for you.

I love a fun whodunit, especially one involving precocious teens and private schools so the idea of Very Dangerous Things, so the idea of a detective-focused boarding school really appealed to me. That said, I went into this hoping for something that was Truly Devious meets Veronica Mars and while that comparison is likely apt on paper, I think this book fell a bit flat for me.

I found the characterizations here a bit odd. While I appreciated the effort to create flawed, unlikeable, morally grey characters all around and depict adults as not always having all the answers, I often thought the teens were too mean to each other, the adults too flighty, and the friendships completely toxic. It as hard to feel invested in the characters because they were all so off-putting, despite the fact that the plot itself was intriguing.

This was a very fun and well paced thriller that kept me guessing until the very end of the book. It was so clever that characters also were familiar with mystery tropes and so my expectations kept being subverted page after page. The setting of a private school that had a detective/crime solving track was so interesting and added layers to the story. Dulce was such a wonderfully complex character, as were all her friends and classmates. This is the first book I've read by this author and I cannot wait for more. I also hope this book continues as a series, as I would love to follow Dulce's further detective adventures.

Cape Cherry’s J Everett School is not your typical high school. Every student enrolled there is looking forward to pursuing a career in investigation, whether it be via criminology, forensics or another related specialty. Dulce Castillo has always wanted to be a detective, and with her best friend Emi Nakamura is determined to win this year’s annual murder mystery competition. The grand prize is thirty thousand dollars, a phenomenal amount that is likely the only way Dulce will ever be able to finance the English pilgrimage her late mother dreamed of, to walk in the footsteps of the fictional classic crime detective Lord Peter Wimsey.

But to do that, they’ll have to recruit more players for their team of two, fittingly named after Dorothy L Sayers’ most famed creation. One promising new guy gives them a chance to show off their investigative specialties:

QUOTE
“Dulce collects facts, and I read people’s emotions,” [Emi] says.

The boy grins. “You know what I’m feeling?”

“Of course, new kid,” Emi says. “You’re nervous, but not too nervous, because you’re tall and good-looking, so you know you’ll be popular anywhere you go, but you’re also worried your public-school classes might not have prepared you for the academics here.”

The boy raises his eyebrows. “What makes you think I’m not from another private school?”

Emi points to me, and I pick up my cue.

“You’re too dressed up,” I say. “You picked your clothes based on the idea of a private school, not on the reality.”

“Might want to lose the sports coat.” Emi smirks.
END QUOTE

With their new team member, it looks like the Wimseys actually have a decent shot at the prize this year. The whole school is caught off-guard, however, when Xavier Torres, the popular kid who’ll be taking on the role of the victim, is found sooner than expected. Trouble is, he’s not just playing dead: he’s actually been murdered.

Suspicion almost immediately falls on Sierra Fox, his girlfriend and Dulce’s former best friend. Xavier and Sierra had been fighting a lot recently, plus Sierra was the one who found his body. Worse, the physical evidence against her is looking increasingly incriminating. A desperate Sierra wants to hire the Wimseys to find the real killer, and offers them a hefty reward to do so.

With the competition cancelled, this might be the only shot the friends have at earning the money for the trip. Trouble is, Dulce and Sierra fell out for a reason. Sierra is a liar who’s hurt Dulce before. Can Dulce risk being burned again, especially when investigating could put her own life on the line?

This phenomenal book messed me up in the best way possible. Aside from being a brilliantly plotted murder mystery and hilariously crafted look at teenage misadventures, Very Dangerous Things is an ode to the deep, unbreakable bond between true friends. I lost my own best friend from boarding school – who was coincidentally named Emi – to an unthinkable act of violence when she and I were both too young, and so cried buckets when Dulce and Emi have a conversation about the latter’s growing closeness to another friend:

QUOTE
“I didn’t realize you’d been spending that much time with her.” I wish the jealousy in my voice wasn’t so obvious.

For once, Emi doesn’t turn my insecurity into a joke. She leans into me, making our shoulders touch in a way that feels warm in the cold air. “You’re my forever friend; you know that, right?” she says.

“I guess.” Sierra told me the same thing before she torched our friendship.

“Sierra is a narcissistic bitchwitch,” Emi says, reading my mind again. She unclips the Magic 8 ball from her bag and shakes it. “Will I ever abandon Dulce to the horrors of living without me?” The triangle flips over until it lands on YES, DEFINITELY. I groan as she stuffs it away. “It’s a liar,” she says. “I may move through boyfriends like sugar packets, but my girl loyalty is boundless.”
END QUOTE

I’m not sure which deeply personal-to-me vein of the collective unconscious Lauren Munoz tapped to write this smart, sensitive book but it gave me some necessary catharsis in imagining that Emi’s bold, beautiful spirit lives on in the character who shares her name. That said, I’m pretty sure that I’d love this novel even if the characters had different names! Ms Munoz talks in her acknowledgments about how Young Adult mysteries, like Ms Sayers’ works, are not afraid to meld intellectual plots with “a beating heart,” a combination that she definitely carries off with aplomb here. I can’t imagine that Ms Sayers would be anything but proud of having inspired a book that engages both the heart and mind as well as this one does.

There were a few things I didn’t quite love about this one. The protagonist is an amateur sleuth and known for being perceptive and making correct deductions, but there were a few things that she was completely oblivious to for the sake of making the plot work. I didn’t love this. The characterization overall was a little odd in this one, with the characters all being quite quirky or just odd to the point of not feeling realistic, which was disappointing.

There’s a lot more teen drama incorporated than I thought there would be. At time sit elevated the read, but it also got to be a bit much at other times. It turned this read into less of a high-stakes mystery and more of a slower mystery.

This young adult mystery was decent overall, and I recommend checking it out if you like YA reads. My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for a honest review. I promise my review is 100% mine.

I enjoyed reading about this game gone wrong. The characters are fun and have the personalities you expect out of a group of students. The fact that the book is age appropriate for most older middle schoolers and high schoolers was my favorite part. A real murder mystery geared to them.

Very Dangerous Things takes all of the drama of high school and turns it into an intriguing murder mystery. But while readers will enjoy digging for clues with the young crime solvers, they may find the over-the-top conclusion to be a little far-fetched.

Full review published on NightsAndWeekends.com and aired on Shelf Discovery.

Thanks to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam’s for the digital copy of this book; I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I swear I’ve read so many mystery books that I can pick them apart and figure out the ending. Very Dangerous Things by Lauren Munoz kept me guessing! There were quite a few red herrings that I absolutely fell for. I LOVED the idea of a school for detectives and is definitely something different. The intersection of fractured friendships, high school micro-politics, and murder was familiar for me, as I’ve read a few books like this lately.

The emphasis on teenaged romance entangled with death is not an original idea, but Munoz has a great writing style and paced the story perfectly. Another thing I appreciated is the fact that this could have been just another dark academia mystery, and this novel is much lighter. There’s definitely heightened stakes of adolescent relationships, but despite a murder, it’s more of a YA cozy mystery.

Dulce Castillo goes to J. Everett High, a school that is known for staging murder mysteries to test their criminology students. Dulce is set on winning the grand prize. When this year’s murder mystery game turns into a real life murder, Dulce’s dreams go up in smoke, but she ends ip investigating the real case instead. With the new prize of putting a killer behind bars Dulce will stop at nothing to uncover the truth.

I always enjoy YA mysteries and this one hit the mark for me. I loved the idea of a high school with a pretend murder mystery, but when it turned deadly the story got even better. Dulce was a good lead characters and I liked her way of investigating. I was pulled in from the beginning of this book and my interest was held throughout. The twists and turns kept me guessing until the end and I loved how everything tied together even though I was shocked. This was an enjoyable YA mystery and I’m glad I read it!

I would like to first extend a heartfelt thank you to Penguin Young Readers Group and NetGalley for the e-arc of this YA mystery novel.

I really enjoyed this dark academia murder mystery set in a private mansion turned private school.

When a student ends up dead in the campus greenhouse before the annual Clue like murder mystery game, everyone's a suspect.

I did not see the twists and turns coming. It included a lot of complicated and fleshed out teenage characters. Muñoz does a great job writing believable teenagers, and the adults of the town were less than cartoony as well.

This is a quick read for a whodunnit and one that fans of Karen Mc Manus will enjoy!

Thank you for a copy of this ARC!

I loved this one! One of my favorites of the year. It kept me guessing until the end and it has made me a big fan of the author. Super happy to have gotten to read this one.

Thank you to Penguin Group and NetGalley for the ARC of Very Dangerous Things in exchange for an honest review.

Although I was hesitant to read this one due to its YA & Teens categorization, I’m beyond impressed with the plot line and impressive twists and turns that keep the reader guessing. I have to admit, I did not figure out who the killer was until they were actually confessing, and even then I was on edge waiting for another sharp left turn. I would firmly put this book into the Teen and YA group as there is no other suggestive content that would make me feel otherwise (unlike some other YA novels I’ve read recently that are most certainly not filled with YA content😳). I especially loved the idea of a high school geared entirely toward high schoolers who want to pursue a career in forensic science. I have no idea if this is legitimately a thing, but it certainly should be! And the idea of staging a school wide crime scene to solve sounds like an even more impressive idea! Really, so many aspects of this book pulled at my personal interests and I was hooked. A solid 4.5 out of 5 star read all around!

I love a good ya mystery, especially if an unlikely band of teens get together to solve a crime.

This one was interesting, but a little predictable. The mystery itself was fun and I really enjoyed the different motives and red herrings that kept popping up. The culprit tho was easy to pick out but the journey getting there was entertaining. I really enjoyed the budding relationship between Dulce and Zane!

The one thing that did irritate me was how Dulce's friends treated her. From the backstory with Sierra to the way that Emi was just kinda shitty to her during the investigation. I honestly think she forgave them way too fast - they need to do a whole lot more groveling. Hopefully if this turns into a series (fingers crossed it does) they will grovel some more.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Loved the idea of this book and I know many readers will really enjoy it! I will recommend it for people looking for a good old mystery!

I've never read anything by this author in the past, but I sure look forward to future books!

I read a lot of mystery books, and I can often figure things about before the end, but this one had some unexpected twists! The detective school is a unique premise, and I'm sure many readers wish it existed when they were young enough to attend it! Characters were well drawn, likable, and realistic. Some of the character details added to the red hearings throughout the story. There are a few plot points that weren't as developed as I expected (such as the death of Dulce's mom), so it was harder to see the connection to the main storyline.

The pacing is perfect for the genre, and the writing style pulls readers in and keeps them sleuthing along with Dulce and her friends.

Well, I didn’t see that coming.

I can frequently figure out the culprit in mysteries, but this one was sneaky. It’s not that it was unbelievable…just that it was a surprise.

Dulce and her late mother loved the detective novels of Dorothy Sayers, and Dulce attends a magnet school for forensics and criminology. Each year, the school stages a fake murder, and teams race to solve the case. Dulce is tired of taking second to her former best friend. But when the murder turns out to be real, and the former bestie is the prime suspect, Dulce grudgingly takes the case.

She turns out to be…not that great of a detective. I won’t tell you exactly how, but, while she does some things well, she bungles others. Nontheless, she and her friends do solve the case.

The idea of a magnet school for future crime solvers is an interesting premise. The school still has things like band and PE, so it’s not totally out there.

Overall, I found the characters interesting. They all have their flaws and are real and human. Zane’s sketchy past before transferring to Dulce’s school is a strong motivator for his actions in the story, although his attraction to Dulce is an equally strong motivator for other actions.

All in all, it’s a fun detective novel with imperfect people who still find a way to be successful.

I love Dulce’s dad, by the way. We don’t see him much, but I love what we get.

Possible objectionable material:
Swearing, including the F-word. Teenage partying. Teen sexual activity (off page). Some teenaged petty crime. Kissing. A parent died in a car accident. Same sex couples. Murder, poisoning, and assault. A smear campaign.

Who might like this book:
Fans of mysteries and true crime.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

#BookReview #NetGalley #YA #Mystery #VeryDangerousThings #LaurenMunoz #biblioquacious

This book is also reviewed at https://biblioquacious.blogspot.com/2025/08/jinkies.html

I enjoyed this book as it was not about solving a mystery but about the kind of dread that hides behind the everyday, and how young people carry truths no one wants to hear.

Dulce is a junior at a high school that specializes in crime - students who attend are interested in becoming detectives, coroners, forensic scientists and more. While the school is getting ready to solve the annual murder mystery, it goes very very wrong.

This was so fun! I've read a lot of mystery books this year and honestly think this is one of my favorites. I thought the idea of the school for students interested in crime was unique and thought the author did a really great job of writing teen characters. I feel like these characters acted their ages (while maybe a little precocious) and there was depth and growth throughout the novel. I really enjoyed it!

If you are looking for a new dark academia young adult mystery, then this is the book for you. After one of her classmates is murdered and her ex best friend, Sierra, is arrested, amateur detective Dulce Castillo reluctantly agrees to help clear Sierra’s name.

I really liked Dulce as a main character. She was smart, intuitive, and loyal, but also a little stubborn. She relied on the methods of Lord Peter Wimsey, a detective in a book series by Dorothy L. Sayers, who was also the inspiration for this book.

Throughout the story, Muñoz cleverly plants clues and little details that make you suspect everyone. There were so many red herrings that I could never guess who was the perpetrator. I also enjoyed the flashback chapters as they gave more background and insight into the motives and actions of some of the characters.