Thank you to NetGalley and Usborne Publishing for the arc of this book in exchange of an honest review

3,75/5 ⭐

This Book Kills follows Jess Choudhary, a scholarship student at Heybuckle a boarding school filled with rich kids and she sees herself in the middle of a mystery when a short story she wrote becomes inspiration for a murder.

I really liked the premisse of this book and it gave me high hopes. I overall liked the story and the plot was well thought, but I think it maybe lacks something more in execution. I do think most people will be caught by surprise when they discover who the murderer is, but for me the road to this revelation was a bit too long and a little chunky, at some point I was overwhelmed by so many things happening and nothing leading to its solving. I also liked the critiques the author does about society in general.

"I'll make it clear from the start: I did not kill Hugh Henry Van Boren.
 I didn't even help. Well, not intentionally."

My thanks to Usborne Publishing for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘This Book Kills’ by Ravena Guron.

Set in an elite English boarding school, this lively YA murder mystery is narrated by sixteen-year-old Jesminder (Jess) Choudhary. She is a student at Heybuckle, an elite boarding school in the English countryside. Jess is a scholarship student and as such is subject to strict conditions of behaviour to retain her position.

The death of Hugh Henry Van Boren, one of the most popular and richest students, leaves everyone stunned, including his girlfriend, Clem, who is Jess’ best friend. However, when Jess realises that Hugh died in the exact manner as a character in a short story that she co-wrote with a fellow student she is unsettled.

Then Jess receives an anonymous text thanking her for the inspiration. As the police and a private detective hired by Hugh’s family seem to be going around in circles, Jess and her friends undertake their own investigation. No further details to avoid spoilers.

This proved to be a great deal of fun. I found Jess an intelligent, witty narrator. She is quite philosophical about her outsider status. One encounter she relates is the all too familiar “but where are you really from?” exchange when she first met Hugh, who rejected her initial reply about being from London.

Overall, ‘This Book Kills’ proved an entertaining mystery that kept me guessing as to whodunnit until the final reveal. While marketed as YA, I felt that Ravena Guron has written a novel that is bound to will appeal to lovers of mysteries of all ages.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

Wow what a fantastic book with twists and turns all over the place such a good book I would definitely recommend it

This Book Kills is written from the perspective of Jess, a student attending an elite boarding school. When the murder of Hugh takes place, she receives a text thanking her for the inspiration of the murder; he died in the same way the victim in her short story did. Jess must solve this mystery or else, much like Hugh, she will soon be dead.

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley and Usborne for sending me an e-arc to read and review. The premise of this book sounded very interesting to me and I can definitely say that this book lived up to my expectations.

Throughout the book, I genuinely had no idea who the murderer was. Towards the end I did become a little bit suspicious of them, but I still never would have guessed who it actually was. The atmosphere and tension created in this book is extremely addicting as well as the many twists and turns in the plot; I couldn’t put it down!

I also really loved Jess, the main character. I thought she was a very well written and developed character; I particularly enjoyed reading from her pov! I’m glad everything turned out well for her in the end.

This was overall a really great read and I’d definitely recommend it to lovers of murder mysteries! I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for future books by this author.

5/5 ⭐️s

"I'll make it clear from the start: I did not kill Hugh Henry Van Boren.

I didn't even help. Well, not intentionally."

Jesminder (Jess) Choudhary is one of few scholarship students at the illustrious Heybuckle boarding school. The other scholarship student in her year, Summer, seems to think of her as a threat to her scholarship and the spoilt privileged rich kids look down upon her. But that's ok, she's got her best friend Clem and doesn't need anyone else.

Then, after a dramatic altercation in the dining hall, Hugh Henry Van Buren is found dead. Worse yet, his death mirrors a short story Jess and Summer wrote together as part of an extracurricular class, and Jess receives an anonymous message thanking her for the inspiration. At risk of losing her scholarship, Jess begins to investigate...but is that the only thing she risks losing?

The story is told from the first person, as Jess talking about the events as they happen. The clues/information/red herrings?? are all there to help work out who committed the murder. Is the elite club that anonymously make students do dares involved? Or are they just misdirection? Is everyone Jess interviews telling the truth? Is Jess telling the truth?

Near the end, before the big reveal there's some blank pages to write down your suspect and motive (don't recommend this for kindle!!) and a QR code which will lead to a YouTube video that the author gives a brief summary. I'll be honest, it's quirky but I'm not overly interested. What I did like about it though was it stopped my traitorous eyes from skipping ahead and ruining it for myself as usual!!

It's a young adult, it's at boarding school, it's not edge of your seat reading but I did really enjoy it and I wanted to keep reading to find out who dunnit...and there's always some characters you just LOVE to hate (I'm looking at you Millie).

#ravenaguron #thisbookkills #netgalley

Read this over Christmas and it is a wonderful whodunnit with a clever and amusing class commentary and a really surprising outcome. Sort of like a cross between The Secret History and Knives Out, this is enormously entertaining and creates an entirely convincing and even cosy world (despite its sinister aspects). Boarding school books always appeal to me and the school at the centre of this story, with its extracurricular activities for gifted and talented students, had an air of Bennington College. Extremely well-written and fast-paced, and full of interesting perspectives and unexpected twists, this book thrills - highly recommend!

This Book Kills is such a slick, smart and compulsively readable YA thriller that you need to have on your TBR.

It is a known fact that I am a bit of a mystery fiend. So, when I say that I finished This Book Kills and just sat there in complete and utter shock, I mean it utterly floored me. Guron has crafted a suspenseful, sinister and shadowy mystery that completely pulls you into its orbit. Just the premise alone is so captivating and instantly makes you want to uncover everything. The twists are immaculately executed, genuinely shocking and upend everything you thought you knew. It instantly shot up to become one of my favourite YA mysteries of all time.

Jess Choudhary is an iconic protagonist. She is smart, driven and detail orientated, so has all the integral qualities for a teenage detective. However, she is also emotionally vulnerable in a position of isolation and instability, as a scholarship kid and a person of colour in an elite school that weaponises its privilege against her. I utterly fell in love with her infectious engaging voice. She leaps off the page, with a three dimensional character arc and arresting narration.

I love the exploration of privilege Guron weaves in as well. It’s an incisive and insightful look at manipulation and the way power allows you to twist situations and people to your advantage. That feeling of alienation Jess experiences is one that rings true for so many reasons and reiterates how the system tolerates rather than fully accepts diversity. The inclusion of marginalised groups is a shallow tokenisation, where they can be thrown out on a whim. Guron counters this with a strong message of empowerment and challenging the system.

This Book Kills is an electrifying and exceptional debut novel, with an incredibly addictive mystery and a protagonist that refuses to let you forget her.

📚Review📚

I do love a well-written YA novel and this one ticked all the boxes for me. Well paced, full of suspense, characters you love to hate, secret societies, a hunt for a killer and a female protagonist who transformed before my eyes into a strong and confident young woman who wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself against some powerful people.

My only teeny gripe with this was the constant lack of urgency from the adults. A killer was literally on the loose in a school full of kids, but none of them thought the death threats aimed at one girl in particular warranted a proper look into? 🤔 But it wasn’t really enough to negatively impact the story.

I liked that towards the end there’s a pause and a QR code for you to scan to put forward your idea for who the murderer is and their motive; I always try to figure it out with any kind of whodunnit book but I thought this was a cute little extra incentive to play detective🕵️‍♀️

Overall an excellent read, I’ll defo be keeping an eye out for other books by this author 🫶

Thank you @netgalley and @usbornepublishing for my free ARC in exchange for an honest review 🙏🏻

this had an interesting plot that i’ve never seen done before which kept me intrigued from start to finish and did not disappoint. i really enjoyed reading about what life was like in a boarding school for Jess as a scholarship student and how she coped with the sudden attention. Her character was written amazingly and developed great. i loved the idea of having note pages at the end for the reader to try solve the mystery
this is a quick and fun read for fans of a good murder mystery and i definitely recommend

thank you NetGalley, Usborne Publishing and Ravena Guron for sending me this e-arc.

What an amazing debut! An elite boarding school, POC characters, murder and mystery, what ,ore could you want? Seeing this recommended if you love Holly Jackson I wanted to scoop it up immediately. The pace is swift and keeps you turning the pages as you get to know each character and they become fully fleshed out. The twists and turns had me on the edge of my seat and I had no idea who the murderer was till towards the end of the book. If you are looking for a new author to jump into this new year, I recommend grabbing this book. Jess will make you laugh and in my case, snort, as she sets out to find out who it is before she becomes the next target.

It took me a little while to get into this book but I have to say that once it drew me in, I found it hard to put it down. I haven’t really read a murder mystery set inside a boarding school before and I liked how the author managed to come up with a really good mystery just using the students from the school and very little police involvement. It certainly kept me guessing until the end and although I didn’t try the code for a summary of the case, it was a nice addition to get you thinking about how the killer was. I’m pleased that I got it right although it was more of a last minute a ha moment rather than something I had suspected all along. I also liked the conversational style of writing that the book had, overall I really enjoyed and will be looking out for more books by this author.

This was such an enjoyable and gripping read! I love young adult fiction that delivers a royally good read, and this fit the bit perfectly!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The concept of this book had me intrigued even though it isn't my go to genre. There was incredible pacing and I didn't realise how quickly I had gotten through the book as you just couldn't stop reading. The only downside was that I feel like the first half of the story managed to keep you on edge and still guessing who the murderer could be but then there almost felt like a shift in some characters which to me made it obvious who the killer would be and when we finally got the big reveal it wasn't a shock like I wanted it to be as I had hope that we were just given a lot of red herrings but sadly not.

This didn't stop my enjoyment of the book but can see why this would appeal to a younger YA demographic.

Perfect for fans of Karen McManus, Chelsea Pitcher and Holly Jackson, This Book Kills is a fun, pacy thriller with plenty of twists and turns. This one will be an easy recommend for teens looking for a new thriller, and I'd love to see what Ravena can come up with next! It definitely reads on the younger side of YA and some phrasings feel a bit off for the age group but overall, it's well written & more-ish.

Although this book is pegged as young audience, I am way passed the target market, however I really enjoyed this story. The unique voice of a young girl who is isolated in a very exclusive fee paying boarding school is strangely compelling. From the get go we know that a murder has occurred and we know the narrator isn’t the murderer but all the other characters could be. The relationships and motivations are revealed in timely fashion to keep the reader guessing whodunit. A very accomplished book, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

This Book Kills is a great, twisty YA thriller. I'd definitely place this on the younger side of the Young Adult genre. Perfect for fans of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder and Truly Devious, this is a fun mystery enveloped in the cosy and secluded boarding school setting. I enjoyed Jess as a protagonist and would read more from this author!

My immediate thought was if you enjoyed Netflix’s Wednesday then I think you will love this murderous mystery too!

The main character Jess is on a scholarship at an exclusive boarding school. After writing her own murder story, not only is her place at the school at risk, but also her life.

It certainly kept me guessing at every turn of the page! The characters are not always as they seem on the surface, which makes this a thrilling and relatable read. I couldn’t put it down, desperately needing to get answers!

She wrote the perfect murder. Someone carried it out. Now she's next.

Jesminder never meant to kill anyone. And she didn't, not technically. She's been trying to mind her business and keep out of the way - making sure not to do anything that could jeopardise her scholarship at the Heybuckle School and the future she's worked so hard for.

But then, Hugh Henry Van Boren, the heir to a wealthy family and the most popular boy in school is murdered. And all eyes are on Jess when it's discovered the scene where he was found was taken straight from a short story she wrote ... a story only a few people have ever seen. Jess thought it had to be a startling coincidence, until she receives a text thanking her for the inspiration.

Jess didn't kill Hugh, but now she's in the centre of a murder mystery just like the one she wrote about - so she knows how this goes. And when another threatening message appears, she knows she's in danger. If her and her friends can't uncover the secrets lurking around Heybuckle, she might just end up buried with the rest of the skeletons.

"I hadn't killed Hugh, but I had helped set the stage for his death."

Fast-paced, thrilling and darkly funny - this immersive and intelligent novel gives a fresh twist on the locked-room murder mystery. The school setting was masterfully thought out - it was stifling and suffocating, you could feel the tension and fear that Jess felt every day trying to exist in a space she wasn't welcome.

Jess herself was a great protagonist - clever, thoughtful and complex. She comes across as shy and quiet, but isn't afraid to use her voice to call out racism and classism when she sees it. She's suffered and struggled through her life and the crushing pressure placed on her shoulders but keeps going. Now of course, she does stupid things, says stupid things - but remember she's a teenager who's trying to work out who she is even is while being expected to figure out her entire life. Everyone in this book was larger than life, loud, some even almost caricature-like but it worked and left no question about who they are and their distinct identities.

The style of writing made it feel like Jess was talking directly to us - inviting us into her thoughts and even breaking the fourth wall occasionally to almost talk off-page to us. This tone made it very easy to read and deeply person, although at times things were over-explained with a lot of verbal exposition.

While trying to work out the mystery, you also get deeper puzzles to think about - how often guilt and innocence overlap and get mixed together. How responsible is jess for this? Does she have a duty to help avenge Hugh? Did he deserve it? This book asks you to think about how being guilty doesn't always mean pulling a trigger, it's more complex than that.

This mystery was drawn out despite the fast-moving story, slowly revealing pieces and dispelling any notions about who you think is guilty. Now, towards the end I did figure out most of this puzzle, but was still anxiously waiting to see if I was right and how on earth everything would come to a head. As a character told us, "It's not about who. It's about why."

I absolutely loved ‘This Book Kills’. I definitely did not see the twist coming, my guess was someone else entirely!! Jess is a great protagonist , I hope we hear from her again soon.

This book was brilliantly written with enough red herrings to populate a zoo. Also, the character development of being rather meek to being able to solve a murder is what every young adult reader needs. Dark academia is a hard genre to write for, despite there being many books in that genre at the moment, mainly because once one is written it is hard to make the next unique. However, Guron was able to turn her book into a thoroughly unique adventure with brilliantly formed characters, well thought out subplots and even a knitting club (a school after my own heart).
I loved the interactive nature of this book as just before the killer is revealed there is a qr code to scan and submit who you think is the killer and why? My answer was thoroughly wrong. Which is why this book is so brilliant. I probably would never have reached the answer to who was the killer ever. Crime books are perfectly written if you, the reader, is shocked by the outcome or the crime.
If you enjoyed Holly Jackson's "A Good Girl's Guide To Murder" then you will love this.