Oxford Blood is a YA thriller with a dark academia setting, a murder mystery at its core, and a cast of characters that are both likable and frustrating.

We follow Eva, a mixed-race state school student interviewing for a place at the elite Beecham College in Oxford. When her best friend and kind-of boyfriend George is found dead, no one believes her when she says it was murder. So Eva starts digging for the truth herself, uncovering secrets about George and the college that some would rather keep buried...

Honestly, this was such a fun and easy read! The short chapters made it really quick to get through, and while I guessed who the murderer was quite early on, I still think the twist was well done and the reveal landed. I also thoroughly enjoyed the Dark Academia setting (mysterious underground elite groups included).

While I didn’t feel hugely connected to any of the characters, I still really enjoyed reading this. It’s entertaining, keeps you engaged, and has just enough commentary on racism and privilege to add weight without slowing the pace.

It sits just under some of my more memorable four-star reads, but it’s definitely more than three, so I’m settling on four stars for now!

Would recommend it to all fans of A Good Girls Guide to Murder!

Here's my honest review in exchange for an ARC of Oxford Blood.
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This made me visit Oxford so badly, as I am crazy about historical secrets, cults, and mysteries. This book was addicting and hard to put down. If I had a physical copy, I would have eaten this up.
One thing I love is that Eva is such an emotionally complex character and the one who acts, not only talks, like so many female main characters. She was not dependent on anyone to save or solve the murder. She confronts people right away and is ambitious. The only thing I disliked about her was that she was way too confident about her dad. I know her dad is her only family, and he is a great person, but constantly mentioning him gave me the ick.
Oxford Blood made me feel like reading a good girl's guide to murder; it was really well-structured and well-paced. On top of everything, the short chapters made it more hooked.

Easily a 4 stars!!!!!

GOOD NIGHT TO READ MINI REVIEW
An incisive thriller with its own voice that takes a scalpel to the patriarchal system of old Oxford blowing away the cobwebs of stuffy academia and offering something completely different to Dexter’s Inspector Morse. In the hallowed halls of Beecham College privilege is murder. The stakes are high as Eva and George, friends on the verge of romance, gather with other hopefuls for a specialised interview week. They are confident that attitudes are shifting and change is on its way.

But old habits die hard. The secrets of the past are about to rear their ugly head. Someone is watching in the shadows.

A controversial statue, mysterious notes and a secret society complicate matters. It’s slay or be slayed as the race is on to catch a killer and survive the sins of the fathers.

An edgy. savvy plot in a contemporary setting where a message forum thinks it has all the answers and everyone is a suspect.

Featherstone’s story is interlaced with a love of academia as Beecham’s candidates vie for places in Classics and English. Eva is a highly intelligent scholar turned teen detective who must rely on courage and resourcefulness whilst overcoming prejudice to crack the case.

The author has a strong message about inclusivity, the arrogance of privilege and the importance of equality in education. She poses thought provoking questions whilst providing gradual pieces of the puzzle.

Will the perceptive reader solve it and unmask the murderer before the final twist?

An enjoyable page turner with dynamic characters and nail biting moments that makes you think.

GOOD NIGHT TO READ REVIEW RATING- 4 CHOCOLATE LIBRARIES

🎓 Welcome to Oxford: where secrets run deep, privilege rules the halls… and someone isn’t leaving alive.

Oxford Blood is a deliciously twisty YA thriller that had me hooked from the first page. Think A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder meets Ace of Spades, but set in the elite, tradition-soaked world of Oxford interviews—where getting in is murder. 🔪📚

As someone who actually studied at Oxford (and still bears the scars of the interview process 😅), this book felt scarily real. From the overwhelming pressure, to the quiet privilege of private school kids who speak Latin like it’s a party trick—it was like being back at Balliol, minus the body count.

🕵️‍♀️ Enter Eva: a smart, working-class state school student with one dream—Oxford. She’s determined to prove she belongs, but when her best friend (and secret crush) George turns up dead during interview week, her future starts to unravel fast. The police say it’s an accident. Eva knows better.

Between cryptic posts on the elite gossip account OxSlay, a cast of rivals who all have something to hide, and secrets George took to the grave, Eva’s fight for her future becomes a fight for the truth.

✨ What worked:
— A sharp, voicey protagonist you’ll root for
— Elite academia + murder mystery = a total win
— Class tension and academic pressure that feel real, not romanticised
— Enough twists to keep you up turning pages

❗If you like your dark academia with a feminist edge, layered social commentary, and a heroine who’s not afraid to dig deep (even if it means getting her hands dirty), you’ll want to add Oxford Blood to your TBR immediately.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ — Gripping, clever, and painfully relatable. A murder mystery for anyone who’s ever felt like an outsider in a world that wasn’t built for them.

A fast-paced YA thriller that I could not put down. It was A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and Where Sleeping Girls Lie all rolled up into one, and it was brilliant.

The book follows Eva, a mixed-race, state school student who has applied to study English at Beecham College, one of the most prestigious collages in Oxford. She arrives at Beecham during interview week with her best friend, and kind of boyfriend, George. When George turns up dead, no one believes Eva that it’s murder, so it’s up to Eva to investigate herself. But the more she digs, the more she learns about George’s secrets and the secrets that lay within the heart of Oxford that don’t want to be uncovered.

I will say, I did guess the identity of the killer before Eva, but I didn’t understand the why until the end. And the whole book led to an explosive finish.

If you’re looking for your next YA thriller fix, and you like commentary on racism and privilege, then this book is definitely for you.

Fast paced ya-thriller that you can easily read in one sitting.
One thing I absolutely loved about this book was the underground secret society, this paired with the online anonymous threads added an extra layer to what is otherwise a standard ya thriller. Great representation and raised very important conversation topics.
I wish I loved this book, I really do. YA thrillers are some of my favourite reads and they have never failed in the past to save me from a reading slump, I can't say the same for Oxford Blood. With how early on into the book the *event* happens, I was really looking forward to the fast pacing and high stakes, unfortunately it just didn't grip me.
I had a real issue with the main character, she for lack of better words just aggravated me, her emotions and reactions seemed extremely disjointed for someone who had just seen the dead body of their boyfriend. For a character that is portrayed as being extremely intelligent (enough to be considered for Oxford), she made consistent stupid decisions that just made me genuinely dislike her as a person. I felt as though a lot of the side characters hadn't really been fleshed out, which is understandable as a standalone book, but if the character isn't bringing anything new to the plot do they really need to be there?
The entire book is formed around George being murdered and yet I feel like he was forgotton about.
I did guess the killer but I don't really see that as a negative thing, I enjoyed the reveal and the explanation for motive, I was just kind of over it at that point.

Eva and her best friend George are spending the week at Beecham College in Oxford as part of the interview process to earn a place to study there. However, when they arrive, it quickly becomes apparent that there are some people there who believe they are more entitled to a place than others. At dinner, it is clear to Eva that George is behaving very differently and she can't get to the bottom of why. Then when Seb from Reapington Manor College challenges George to a dare, Eva grows annoyed and storms off. And that is the last time she sees George alive, for when she finds him the following morning, he is dead on the steps of a statue in the grounds of the college. The police quickly decide that this was nothing more than a tragic accident but Eva is adamant that George was murdered and sets out to prove she is right.
I love a murder mystery and what better time to read a book set in an Oxford college than whilst on a train taking me to Cambridge for the weekend! (there is a fierce rivalry between the 2 colleges so the irony was not lost on me).

Eva and George are from the same state school and are, rightly so, incredibly proud of the fact that they have both earned a place at interview week. Eva is a dedicated student and it's been a dream to earn a place at Oxford to read English. She wants nothing more than to get her place through her own merit and doesn't want anything to distract her from that and that includes her skin colour and socio-economic status which she worries will work against her and is why she lives with the words of her mother from the night before she died 'You astound me, Eva, there is nothing you can't do.' There is a feisty determination in Eva which becomes increasingly apparent at the plot unfolds - she is forced to draw on strengths she didn't know she had, but ends up putting herself in danger.

What at first seems to be just a murder mystery is in fact a book that delves into some though-provoking topics: privilege and the influence wielded by secret societies; equality and equity in the Oxbridge system; funding from controversial sources... it would certainly be a book that would create debate in a senior school classroom.

I loved Oxford Blood! It's well written and engages from the beginning; the plot is an intricate one with plenty of twists and intrigue that keep you guessing. I found myself completely immersed and gobbled it up in under a day as I just couldn't put it down!

Oxford Blood publishes 28th August and I highly recommend pre-ordering it.

Oxford Blood is described as A Good Girls Guide to Murder meets The Secret History. I have read The Secret History and absolutely adored it and it occupies a space that makes any comparison to it an extraordinarily tall task. Oxford Blood ultimately does not live up to the expectations set by that comparison but that isn’t a negative reflection on the book in any way shape or form.

Oxford Blood is a wonderfully addictive YA murder mystery thriller with some dark academia vibes. I read the first 20% prior to work yesterday and then on my day off today flew through the remaining 300 or so pages. It is the kind of book that holds your interest and makes you want to keep reading more and more. It took me embarrassingly long to figure out who the killer was but on reflection I do believe that it was sufficiently misdirected enough to keep you on your toes and make it harder to guess. There is nothing worse than a mystery where you are able to unravel it within the early stages, it rips out the tension and suspense and kills my interest usually.

Oxford Blood is set almost entirely in the fictional Beecham College at Oxford University and focuses on the interview week for the highly prestigious English and Classics intakes. Disaster strikes though and one of MC Eva’s best friend George turns up dead in the middle of the night. What follows is a whirlwind of murders, attacks, police investigations, amateur sleuthing, secret societies, and college interviews all accompanied by a constant flurry of online hysteria on the anonymous college messageboards.

Eva is a great MC, she is confident in her abilities and knows she belongs and is willing to fight for her place in the face of the systematic prejudice of an old stuffy institute like Beecham College. Simultaneously she is flawed though and is balancing the pressures of living up to her wish to her dying mother and the pressures of her slightly overbearing but ultimately wellbeing and loving father. Eva is pushed to the very edge throughout this week (understandably) and comes across as a very real character. People dealing with grief don’t always just curl up and cry, sometimes they carry on as best they can and keep plugging on before the grief floods them later on. Eva is so preoccupied with everything going on, with investigating the murder of her best friend, with trying to achieve her dream of getting into Oxford, of trying to deal with the various pressures on her shoulders. She does not have time to grieve in the moment and this accounts for erratic decision making at times.

The author does a great job developing the mystery aspect. There are a small group of suspects but no obvious one throughout. It ebbs and flows with who seems to be guilty and there are twists and turns that catch you off guard. False trails are laid, red herring crop up, there are clues but putting them together is truly a difficult task.

The author also takes time to layer in and approach a lot of more sensitive and serious topics. The most prevalent being systematic racism and the continued glorification of a colonial history that a lot of these institutes still engage in. Oxford Blood points out the hypocrisy of some of the affirmative action schemes in place and how they are simply papering over the cracks and not addressing the actual systematic issues in place. There is also commentary on class divides, nepotism, incompetent policing practices, the toxic nature of social media, how rumours can get out of hand, and sexual harassment and assault.

For what is a YA book (and does read in the tone of a YA book) Oxford Blood is staggeringly consistent with approaching complicated and important issues and I commend the author for doing such a fantastic job balancing these contrasting tones.

Really solid YA thriller. After having read and loved both A Good Girls Guide to Murder and Ace of Spades this stands up next to them and fans of those books will thoroughly enjoy this.

I loved the competitive setting of Oxford where people will do anything to get in and while I was sad George was murdered as I loved the relationship between him and Eva it only made the stakes higher. I was kept guessing right throughout the book and it was a satisfying conclusion.

Definitely an author to watch out for.

A Dark academia meets murder mystery combo - yes please!

Eva goes to Oxford for a fresh start, but her best friend ends up dead—and now she’s stuck in a creepy game trying to find the killer. This book has fast pacing, and lots of drama. Perfect for fans of One of Us Is Lying and Ace of Spades. A fun, tense read with a smart main character and plenty of twists!

Thanks to Netgallery for this eARC

This was such a rollercoaster of read, I was absorbed in this YA mystery, my heart went out for Eva as she struggled with the lost of George her friend/love, her feelings of guilt for how they fought before he died and doubts about him when she learns some things that make her question if she really knew him. The twists and turns as she tries to find answers, I would definitely read more of Eva's adventure if their is a another book should this become a series.

This book was AMAZING!! Can I give it 10 stars?

Man, I love books like these. In fact, this might be one of my favourite genres. YA murder mystery set against the backdrop of Oxford. The vibes, the intrigue, the mystery. And that, coupled with amazing writing, makes for one hell of a compelling story.

I kept blacking out and reading 50/100 pages at a time easily, loosing track of time as I got completely absorbed into the book.

We follow Eva as she embarks on her week long residential interviews for Beecham College. The competition is fierce - up against the privileged and privately educated, both herself and her kind of-boyfriend George are both accepted to attend the interviews with the hopes they’ll both get accepted and start their new lives amongst the intellectual elite.

But when there’s a murder on campus, it threatens to destroy everything for Eva. She tries to get to the bottom of the murder and has more depending on it than meets the eye.

I could not give it less than absolute full stars for how hooked I was into this. 5/5 easy. This author absolutely blew this story out of the park and I’m down for whatever she produces in the future - automatic read from me! A sure fire recommendation and I’ve just finished it but want to read it again. A true marker of a great book.

Loved everything about this book! The characters were great, it was quick paced and the story itself was amazing, the plot was so well done and the gripping (I finished it in a couple of hours due to not being able to put it down). Cant wait to read more from this author!