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For some kids, high school is a time for fun and friends—while others take their education more seriously. But in This Book Kills by Ravena Guron, a girl who’s just trying to keep her head down and get a good education finds herself at the center of a murder investigation.
The story finds Jess Choudhary fighting to keep her scholarship to the prestigious Heybuckle School after Hugh Henry Van Boren, one of her most popular classmates—and her best friend’s boyfriend—is found murdered on school grounds. Jess never liked Hugh, but she certainly didn’t murder him—though it’s hard to convince anyone of that after the killer makes it clear that the murder was inspired by a short story written by Jess and another scholarship student, Summer. And when Jess’s life is threatened, she sets out to find answers before it’s too late.
Unfortunately for Jess, there are so many different clues to follow and just as many people with a motive—from Hugh’s bitter ex-girlfriend to the mysterious secret society that’s been running the school for generations and is keeping the police from fully investigating the murder. At this exclusive boarding school, attended by generation after generation of the same celebrated families, there are plenty of mysterious characters and long-held secrets. And everyone has a theory about what happened to Hugh.
For Jess, though, the situation is desperate; as a scholarship kid from a different culture and a poor neighborhood, she makes the perfect scapegoat for the school’s elitist board members. If she doesn’t get to the bottom of this campus chaos soon, she’ll be sent home—and that gives the whole story a sense of urgency. But no matter which way she turns, there’s another clue and another suspect—and another threat to her own life…or her future at the Heybuckle School.
It’s definitely a complicated story—and the complexity makes it move along at a fast pace. But, at times, the overabundance of suspects and secrets (and red herrings) also makes it feel a little overstuffed. And there’s so much at play here that when it comes to an end, the solution isn’t entirely satisfying.
With its student body full of suspicious characters, the Heybuckle School makes an intriguing setting for a murder mystery. Readers will race to follow the clues along with Jess—but, with so many possibilities in so many different directions, This Book Kills may leave readers feeling fatigued.
Listen to the review on Shelf Discovery:
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