This book has probably the best mystery I have ever read. Throughout the book my mind was captured onto figuring out the killer and I just couden't the book down! The twist and turns in the book left me wondering what will happen next. I think what made the book amazing is why the person killed Hugh Hengry Van Boren, it really left me shocked on how everyone in the story is linked somehow into the murder. If your thinking of buying this book I would definitely go for it because it is truly amazing!

"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.

Jess Choudhary is an underprivileged scholarship student at a prestigious boarding school, where even the ‘new money’ students are looked down on. There’s a real hierarchy and only those who come from ‘old money’ feel entitled to be at there. Jess only has one friend, Clem - no one else will even give her the time of day until in their Gifted and Talented class Jess is writing a murder story with Summer. Suddenly Hugh, a rich, popular boy in Jess’s year, is murdered exactly as described in her short story, and Jess receives a text message anonymously saying she’ll be next. Other attacks on people and property follow and the police seem to be getting nowhere, and the private detective hired by Hugh’s family doesn’t seem much better. Who can Jess trust? Written by ‘Jess’ as a cathartic way of coming to terms with what happened. A thoroughly good YA read, with many twists and turns. From about a third of the way in I was hooked. Towards the end I did work out why the murder happened, but I didn’t get the person right! If you like YA thrillers, give this a go - highly recommended.

First things first: this book had one of the best narrators I’ve read in a long time. Jess had this witty humour as she told the story of how Hugh Henry Van Boren became to be, well, no longer living. At the prestigious Heybuckle boarding school, rich and influential Parents send their kids to attend and seemingly throw money at any drama they cause. But as one of two scholarship kids—and among a few rare non-white students—Jess Choudhary has a different view of the school. Although she’s shied away from the popular crowds, feeling like an “outcast” because of her poorer background, she does have a best friend, Clementine, or Clem for short. Although Clem’s rich, she’s been Jess’s only friend for the longest time. But when Clem and Hugh’s secret relationship “gets out” to his girlfriend, Millie, all hell breaks loose. Clem (and by association, Jess) are targeted by Millie, whilst Hugh seemingly gets off scot-free. Well, until he turns up murdered in the woods outside the school. Suddenly Heybuckle is thrown into disarray—especially since the manner in which Hugh died bares uncanny similarity to a short story Jess co-wrote with Summer, the other scholarship kid at the school. But when the police begin to investigate, and a private investigator is hired by Hugh’s family—along with a secret society within Heybuckle alive and in the shadows—suddenly there are more suspects than meets the eye. And when it’s clear the murders aren’t over, it’s a race against time for the banded team Jess puts together to solve not only Hugh’s murder, but potentially stop her own. Overall, This Book Kills was, in actuality, one of the best YA Mystery books I’ve read (and I’ve read a few fair.) Not only was the eerie plot so good that I kept turning pages into the dead of night, but the character development was rich and well-crafted, with new favourites popping up all the way to the end. It must have been around the halfway mark that I suspected a certain character of being the murderer, and I was right! But that unveiling takes the cake—Ravena had constructed so many solid red herrings and reasons for motive that felt like a timeless enigma of a novel. (I also want to say that I loved Jess/Summer/Tommy as a trio, and that I really liked how Jess feels different at the beginning of the story to the end, and how much she’s not only grown wiser, but more confident.) This was by far one of my favourite reads of YA in such a long time and I can’t recommend it enough! FIVE STARS!

There's a really cool tone to This Book Kills. With it's sometimes larger than life, dramatic characters there's an almost light hearted feel to it. It's certainly not comic, this is after all a book about suspicion and murder, but just this sense that it doesn't take itself entirely seriously. It was a little reminiscent of the St Trinian's remakes or Riverdale at times, though definitely not as over the top as that got. I really enjoyed it, and it made a refreshing change to books like the Bayview books by Karen McManus (which I also love, but you want variety, right?) I mean, there's a character called Clementine-Tangerine, because her parents own a fruit company. This isn't a dour, serious book at all! It does have some serious things to say though. Wrapped up in a gripping murder mystery is a novel about wealth and the sense of entitlement that comes with it,. And something I haven't seen so much of previously is the sense of gratitude from those without entitlement. That "Aren't I lucky to just be here among them, and I'd better be extra good and careful" feeling that comes from Jess, the scholarship student at the incredibly privileged boarding school and our main character. As Jess is both from a working class background and from an Indian family, we get to see various prejudices in action. The "Where are you from?" "London." bit that established her ethnicity was very telling. The mystery itself is great! There were so many different elements all tied up together that it was hard to work out what was connected to what and what was just a red herring. Usborne did a marketing thing where the book stopped and they encouraged you to email in your guess as to suspect, motive, etc. I did so, and I got the motive right, but the suspect wrong. Frustratingly I had it right earlier in the book and then changed my mind. But everything made sense after the reveal, and I was easily able to see how all the pieces fitted together and what I had missed. A very satisfying conclusion, which is what you need from a murder mystery. But there are also secret societies, pranks and forfeits, corruption and secrets, friendships and romance and it all makes for a thrilling mystery.