Jess Choudhary is a student at the exclusive Heybuckle school. As one of the few scholarship pupils she is under no illusions that she fits in- Indian, from a poor family, but very bright! However she is aware of the advantages she has been given & tries to keep her head down! She is pretty much a loner apart from Clementine- an outgoing & amusing member of her year. When Hugh Henry Van Boren- one of the richest & prominent of the students is found dead in the woods Jess finds herself in the spotlight. Along with another pupil she had written an assignment & the murder scene was exactly the way Hugh was found! It's going to take some explaining! I loved this book! Jess was an amazing narrator & the characters were many and varied (I could have done with a few less hyphenated names!) I did guess 'whodunit' as it approached the end but that did not detract from the huge enjoyment I got from this book. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book- it was a cracker!

Wow, this was an incredible debut novel! The writing was phenomenal; the setting was very immersive and the perfect setting for a murder mystery. During one particular scene, my heart was thumping and I had to turn the lights on, which never happens to me! That just shows how well written and gripping this novel is. I did guess the murderer quite early on, however this did not take anything away from my experience of reading this book which I was very happy about as this is a common issue I have with YA mysteries. I absolutely adored the interactive element before the final reveal; it was so cool to turn the page and get to watch a video from the author them self giving you a recap of the clues. The note pages were also a great addition and I think that more books should add this as it makes the whole experience really engaging; it feels like you also solved the murder! As for the characters, I thought they were really well developed, despite there being so many of them. You got given just enough knowledge about the background characters to make them familiar, but not too much so that mysterious atmosphere remains. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it to everyone! Thank you so much to Netgalley and Usborne for the ARC!

This is a corker of a book and I really enjoyed it!. I hardly read YA books but the synopsis on this one sounded so good I had to read it!. So, we meet the female protagonist called Jess and she's at an expensive boarding school after getting a scholarship to study there. She only has one friend so she's left alone if Clem is busy with her other activities .She tells the reader all about students, good or bad and that made me chuckle but felt immediately deeply involved in the story. Jess's creative writing class sets an assignment to write a murder story in pairs. She is with a girl called Summer, who isn't her greatest fan, so they argue over content, finer details etc until finally a story is made. Then all is overshadowed by the news that another student from their creative writing class has been murdered. His name was Hugh, and he was Clem's secret boyfriend who also had another girlfriend called Millie, who had just found out about him and Clem. She had a bit of a fight with Clem whilst playing lacrosse. Hugh wasn't bothered one bit it seemed while everyone else watched from the window whilst in class!!. Millie was relentless in letting people see her anger and where it was aimed!!. The finer details.of the murder scene were revealed and it was a complete double of Jess and Summer's story!. Jess then gets a text thanking her from the killer!!. . She's scared of the repercussions from this, and that people may think she's the killer...... The story continues with more events and other characters, some of which are red herrings to make working out the killer a bit harder!. I did enjoy this story and found all the characters memorable for lots of reasons!!. It was well written and was great at the end as the author asks you if you've worked out who the killer was and tells the story of why this murder happened. Great idea as you really feel more involved with the story. It was really well planned and thought out and made reading it brilliant!!. I received a free ARC book for an honest review. #Netgalley, #ravenaguron, #usbourneya.

Why oh why didn’t I read this book sooner?? It’s phenomenal! I’ve not read many YA Murder Mystery books, but I love the whole murder mystery genre and this book is up there with the best of them! (Well, in my opinion, anyway!) This is fantastically written. I was hooked from the start. Immediately I adored Jess. She is witty, shy, unassuming and likeable. It felt like I was in a race against time WITH Jess to solve the murder before she became the next victim. This is a story full of twists, turns, scandals, corruption and plenty of red herrings. Yet amongst all this we also see beautiful new friendships forming and character growth. The characters are brilliant. I love how it shows the ever changing nature of people. That we are different versions of ourselves depending upon the company. This is very clever and plays a key role in unraveling the mystery. One aspect that was so unique was just before the reveal you get asked about who you think the killer is. Not only is there a dedicated area for you to write your thoughts down, but also a QR code where the author does a recap of key points to refresh your memory before deciding who YOU think killed Hugh. I loved this. It made it even more immersive. Putting you firmly in the role of amateur sleuth. Honestly, I cannot recommend this book enough. Next time I’m in town I’ll be buying myself a physical copy. Thank you, NetGalley & Usborne Publishing, for the arc in return for an honest review.

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 Truly Devious and A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, this is a fun mystery enveloped in the cosy and secluded boarding school setting. I enjoyed Jess as a protagonist and thought that the mystery was well crafted!