This story follows Beckett and her daughter Delilah as Delilah heads off to college for the first time choosing, the same college and town where her mother once lived. What she doesn't realize is that Beckett left behind a trail of dark secrets, and as the story unfolds, those secrets slowly come to light.
I really enjoyed the constant sense of discovery throughout the book. The pace picks up quickly once Delilah arrives on campus, and from that point on, the story moves fast and kept me fully engaged. Megan Miranda does a great job weaving together past and present, creating a layered mystery that kept me guessing. There were plenty of twists I didn't see coming, and while I did anticipate the major reveal near the end, it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story. Overall, this was a solid, suspenseful thriller that I would definitely recommend to fans of the genre.

I really adore Megan Miranda’s writing! This one sucked me in immediately and had an eerie feeling throughout. The flashbacks of Beckett’s days in Wyatt Valley were my favorite. I do feel like the ending was a little rushed so I wasn’t obsessed with that, but it did tie up all of my questions! I think this would be a great addition to anyone’s fall TBR. 4 stars!

Thank you to Megan Miranda, Simon Element, and NetGalley for the advanced e-copy in exchange of my honest review.

This wasn’t a hit for me. It didn’t grab my attention and I struggled to get through it. Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

You Belong Here is an atmospheric mystery about a mother returning to her past when her daughter disappears from college. Suspense builds steadily, with well‑drawn characters and an emotional core, though the slow start keeps it from five stars. While I understand that this is a slow burn mystery, I wasn’t truly hooked until the story gets going about 70% in which is a bit late for me. Despite the pacing being a bit slow, but the twists and layered characters make it worth the read.

Beckett’s college roommate, Adalyn, sets fire to building that kills two people. Then, Adalyn flees. Beckett avoids the town for years until her daughter, Delilah, applies to and gets into the college. Delilah doesn’t know what she’s walking into.

This one started slow and then once the mystery unfolded, there were many suprising twists. It was hard to put down.

Beckett Bowery leaves Wyatt Valley, Virginia under suspicion after a deadly fire at her college. Almost two decades later, she reluctantly returns because her daughter Delilah secretly applies to her alma mater. Delilah receives a full scholarship and refuses to consider other options. During her first semester, Delilah disappears after a dropped call to her mother at 2am. Beckett frantically returns to her hometown to find her daughter and must confront her past in order to save her.

There were lots of twists, turns, and false flags, making it a fast and fun read. Miranda has a knack of making the characters likable even when they do morally questionable things. The characters feel alive so it's easy to connect to them. The ending felt slightly rushed and the epilogue could have been more satisfying, but readers will enjoy the ride. Every time I put the book down, I couldn’t wait to get back to it and kept thinking about the story for days after finishing it.

I’ve been a fan of Megan Miranda since her smash hit, All the Missing Girls, so I was excited to read her latest mystery/thriller. While I did enjoy this book, I keep hoping Miranda will bring back her reverse storytelling technique from All the Missing Girls to future novels!

Final Verdict = Fans of Megan Miranda will enjoy this book.

Thank you to Simon Element for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Ho, hum. This is the first time that I’ve been disappointed by one of Megan Miranda’s stories. Here it is a mother-daughter legacy pair of students at a private southern university. The mother has been haunted after the disappearance of her roommate some twenty years ago, and now her daughter is having similar bad things happen. It’s not a bad concept, but I was just never drawn in and the now and then and different characters were hard to follow. Overall, just a 😔

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You Belong Here starts out like a puzzle whose pieces don't quite fit. But give it time and they fall into place. Megan Miranda's latest novel focuses on Beckett, and what happened twenty years before while she was in college. The scent of suspicion has followed Beckett since, and she has never been back to the place where two men died because of it. But now her daughter Delilah is starting her freshman year at the same school, forcing Beckett to return. When Delilah becomes a suspect in another death Beckett realizes the two cases are related. But who wants revenge for a decades old crime, and why involve her daughter? The who in "whodunit" is a surprise, and this revelation puts all the pieces of the puzzle together. You Belong Here is told in dual time frames, giving the reader the chance to learn more about Beckett and what really happened, and how it impacts her life and Delilah's twenty years later. It is a fast read, and while the plot lags early on, the last third of You Belong Here is tense and jam packed as Beckett tries to figure out who doesn't want her here at all.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon Element Books | Marysue Rucci Books for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest thriller by Megan Miranda. All opinions expressed in this review are my own – 4.5 stars!

Beckett Bowery never thought she’d return to Wyatt Valley, a picturesque college town in the Virginia mountains steeped in tradition. Beckett’s parents taught at the college so she was able to attend free. But her senior year ends tragically when her roommate is accused of setting a fire that kills two men before disappearing, and Beckett is suspected of being involved. Two decades later, Beckett’s daughter, Delilah, secretly applies to Wyatt College and receives a full scholarship. Beckett is convinced that something is going to happen to Delilah.

I am always ready to read a dark academic tale, and this one had creepy vibes from the beginning, with mysterious tunnels underneath buildings, to rituals based around the first day of howling winds through the valley, to secrets galore. I liked how the book went back to the past when Beckett was in school to the present, ramping up the suspense that things are circling back. You can feel Beckett’s anguish over fears for her daughter’s safety, even as she remembers what it was like to be at Wyatt as a teenager. I was completely in the dark as to how things were going to resolve until the very end.

Beckett has not been back to Wyatt Valley, where she grew up and went to college, since tragedy struck her senior year leaving 2 local men dead and her roommate missing. But when her daughter Delilah secretly applies and is accepted, she must return to her parent's home to see her off to school. After returning, she starts to sense danger is looming and then she starts receiving weird messages. She must get to the bottom of what is going on, before someone else is hurt.

Megan Miranda is an auto-read for me and this book was one of my favorites of hers! I loved the strong characters, the book pacing, and the realistic ending.

Thank you NetGalley for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I loved the dark, atmospheric campus setting in this novel - it gave the story a creepy tone that helped me power through the very slow burn that was the first half of this book. I found some aspects of connecting the past and present to be hard to follow at times, but overall I enjoyed this thriller and found the ending to be satisfying.

Beckett returns to her small town home when her daughter Delilah decides to attend her alma mater. She hasn't been back in twenty years and is shocked when Delilah reveals her school of choice. Beckett's reluctant homecoming is punctuated with running into past classmates, boyfriends, and townies. They're as surprised to see her as she's uncomfortable seeing them.

The first paragraphs of the prologue tell us that something bad happened back then.

After Delilah moves in, bad things start happening again. Are they related? We're in Beckett's head, and she sure thinks so!

There were some genuinely creepy moments in this story. But I was left more confused than anything, even after re-reading the ending more than once. The events from the past were too vague to be satisfying, the events in the present convoluted. It could have been so much better with some editing (it took forever to get to the action) and tighter plotting.

My thanks to NetGalley and Simon Element | S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books for the Advance Reader Copy. (pub. date 7/29/2025)

A suspensful mystery set in a small college town with a dark past. The main character, Beckett, hasn't returned to her hometown since a mysterious hazing ritual left two of her college classmates dead - and her closest friend (suspected of being involved) vanished without a trace. But when her daughter recieves a scholarship to attend the very same university and Beckett begins receiveing anonymous messages about the cold case, she is forced to confront her past. This would make a great read in the Fall, especially because of the academic setting. I enjoyed the small town suspense, but had a difficult time picturing the hazing ritual/ details about the underground setting. A fun read, but not one that will stand out to me over time.

3/5 stars

Thank you Marysue Rucci Books for the advanced reading copy!

Very disappointed to report that this one felt very mid to me overall. I have only read two others by Megan Miranda and both were very solidly 4+ stars, but this one just fell a little flat.

I decided to listen to this, and didn't love the narrator, which was my first barrier. I was definitely intrigued by the story and this format helped me to keep trucking along with more ease!

I really enjoy a dark academia/college setting, and this was a major win for me. However, the connection between past and present felt a bit... tenuous. I couldn't really tell how things were going to play out, which felt more like confusion rather than being riveted.

In general, I'm not a fan of a slow burn, which this book totally was. If that's your thing, I bet you'd love this one! The first half was more entertaining for me. While I did like this one, I never got fully "hooked" like I would expect/hope for in a thriller.

Thank you for the opportunity to read & review! Megan Miranda is talented and I found this atmospheric & enjoyed the dark academia. However, the slow burn pacing didn’t work for me so I liked it but didn’t love it.

Some things are never really forgotten

Dropping one's child off at college for the first time can be a daunting, even somewhat traumatic event for the parents; when it's an only child, and the parent is a divorced mother, it can be even more so. For Beckett Bowery, bringing her daughter Delilah to Wyatt College in Virginia's Blue Ridge mountains is far more wrenching than that. Back in the day Beckett was herself a student at Wyatt, having grown up nearby (her parents were professors there), but t all went horribly wrong during her senior year when she and her friends took part in a tradition (more of a hazing, really) that caused a fire and resulted in the deaths of two local men. Beckett's close friend and roommate, Adalyn Vale, disappeared that night and immediately became a "person of interest" in the tragedy. When she stayed missing, Beckett too came under suspicion of involvement in what happened, at the very least of knowing what Adalyn was going to do and/or knowing where she went. Wyatt was the only school Beckett had ever wanted to attend, but the uneasy relationship between "town and gown" there completely exploded after the tragedy and Beckett transferred to a school overseas to escape the backlash. She has spent the rest of her life avoiding the campus, and while she never shared with Delilah the full details of what had happened she was sure that Delilah was on track to go to one of the colleges near where they currently live. Unbeknownst to her, Delilah applied to Wyatt...and not only was accepted but received a full scholarship to attend. After all these years, Beckett has to return to the one place she has tried so hard to leave behind...and when Delilah goes missing from campus, Beckett must deal with long buried secrets and a town with a very long memory if she wants her daughter to survive.
You Belong Here contains the well-plotted and atmospheric elements for which author Megan Miranda is known. The narrative unfolds across two timelines, the period when Beckett was a college student involved in the hazing ritual gone horribly wrong and the present when Delilah arrives on, and then disappears from, campus. The tension builds as Beckett explores her memories and the guilt she feels over what happened all those years ago, all against a vivid setting. The relationship between mother and daughter is a complex one, and the one between Beckett and Delilah feels genuine; the clash between school and town is also a dynamic which plays a major role and is chronicled effectively. Not all characters are developed as well as I might have liked, and as a seasoned reader of thrillers not every plot twist (nor even the ending) came as a complete surprise. It isn't necessarily my favorite of Miranda's books, but it is still a solid and enjoyable tale overall, 3.5 ⭐️ rounded up to 4. Fans of the author as well as readers of Ruth Ware, Lisa Jewell and Tana French should find this a good summer read. My thanks to NetGalley and Simon Element - Simon & Schuster/Marysue Rucci Books for allowing me access to You Belong Here in exchange for my honest review.

so creepy!!
After a tragedy and police investigation during her senior year at Wyatt College, Beckett Bowery left the college and Wyatt Valley, Virginia, planning to never return. Her parents were professors at the college and still live there but Beckett rarely visited. Now Beckett's daughter, Delilah, has received a full scholarship at Wyatt and Beckett very reluctantly helps Delilah settle in on campus.
This fast-paced mystery keeps the pages turning, delivering satisfying answers and well-placed puzzle pieces. While some twists are predictable and the biggest mystery unfolds as expected, the story remains an engaging small-town thriller that can be devoured in one sitting.

This is a fun mystery about facing the sins of your past and the legacy we leave behind. I liked the twists and the turns in this mystery and felt attached to the daughter. This was a fairly quick and enjoyable read, that kept me guessing, without leaving me frustrated. A solid read when you're in the mood for something a little twisty.

Who says you can never go home again? Beckett Bowery thought she would never go home again after that tragic night when two men died, and her roommate went missing! When she left her coege where her two parents taught, in Wyatt Valley, Virginia, she never looked back - until now! Her daughter, Delilah, applied to Wyatt College allnd was awarded a full scholarship. Most parents would be over the moon and excited for their child, but Beckett is not feeling the warm and fuzzies about it. Wyatt Valley is a small town, and small towns are notorious for their secrets and long memories. Small towns are places where everyone knows everyone and their business. There are things that Beckett would not like to face. Told in two timelines, You Belong Here gives readers insight into Beckett's past and her time at the college while showing her as a mother who is concerned about her daughter......

Dark, atmospheric, full of tension, dread, and unease, You Belong Here was gripping from the very beginning! I was intrigued by what happened the night of "the Howling" when Beckett was in college. It was a night that changed everything in Beckett's life. Megan Miranda has another solid suspenseful and riveting book on her hands. I thought she did a great job showing a mother's concern for her child, her quest for answers, and her unwavering drive. I also enjoyed how Miranda showed how secrets effect people those keeping the secrets and those seeking out the truth or reasons for the secrets. This book had many twists which kept me engaged and turning the pages!

Wonderfully written, well thought out, gripping, and hard to put down!

3.75 stars……… 423 days served. Who is finally going to serve time for the murder of Charlie Rivers and Micah White that occurred nineteen years earlier? Megan Miranda’s newest book You Belong Here takes place in a Virginia college town on campus. Beckett must return to her college town when her daughter receives a full scholarship there. She knows it is a mistake to go back where she will face her past and relive those horrible days.

There is something about the way Megan Miranda weaves a story that I enjoy. I loved Beckett and Trevor’s characters. All in all an enjoyable read. It kept my attention. I must say it has been my favorite mystery that I have read in a while. Finally one I would recommend,

Thank you NetGalley and Simon Element/S&S/Marysue Rucci Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Another enjoyable read by Megan Miranda.