Your Murder Next takes a brilliant premise and spins it into a captivating tale of secrets, lies and murder. It is a quintessential YA thriller that delivers terrific twists and a story that will keep you saying just one more page.
If you are a fan of YA thrillers and you are not already familiar with the work of Ravena Guron, you are missing out on a treasure trove of books. These stories are always so tightly plotted with great characterisation and spot-on pacing. They have hooks that make you sit up and pay attention and then the stories stack up. Your Murder Next is no exception.
Right from that opening scene, Guron has you in the palm of her hand. It is immediate and tense and pulls you in. There are tangible stakes and an intriguing mystery. From there you move between two timelines to uncover exactly what led up to this moment. I enjoyed trying to piece together the jigsaw puzzle of Scarlett’s death with the buildup and aftermath. There are plenty of excellent surprises along the way and the twists were jaw-dropping. They felt earnt and had tangible ramifications for the characters and the wider plot. You felt their emotional ripples as they recontextualised what you may have thought you knew.
At the centre of it all is Myra who is a great protagonist and has a distinctive voice that quickly ensnares you. She is smart, perceptive and doggedly determined to find the truth at all costs. Her desire to become a journalist naturally matches her investigative tendencies, though she has been burned in the past. There is a lot of love there for those she treasures and you get a clear sense that she would go to any lengths to protect them. Besides that, there is this achingly familiar desire to fit in and what she might sacrifice to be considered one of the ‘cool kids’.
I really like how Guron’s work explores themes around privilege and being an outsider. Myra is brand-new to this elite school when everything starts descending into chaos. She is an outsider in this tight-knit and well-established group of friends when tragedy strikes and seems to pull them together. This is a smart choice because as readers, we empathise with her and as a narrative tool, it places her in the best position to start investigating. She is not one of them and this is made abundantly clear in the chasm between them in terms of class, money and power. Guron has this incisive social commentary about the way class quietly influences everything in British culture but goes almost unspoken. It rings true and that is devastating but may also help some readers. Through Myra’s story, Guron also explores issues around friendship and how intensely bright it can burn or how easily it can fizzle out. Myra is carrying a secret that is a heavy burden for her and the gradual unravelling of this perfectly complements her character arc.
Guron nails the voices of teenagers, making them sound believable without dating their language. There is this sensibility that just makes them feel authentic and that is a difficult thing to pull off. You get caught up in the drama and the way that your emotions can often feel exaggerated as a teenager. Of course here those emotions may have deadly consequences. That interpersonal drama is so well-realised and seeing how those dynamics shift as the chapters flow is delicious. Everyone has something to hide.
Your Murder Next is another excellent YA thriller from a powerhouse in the genre. Come for the killer premise, stay for the layered story filled with great characters and surprises in store.
Your Murder Next is available from Amazon, Blackwell’s, Waterstones, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis
From the bestselling author of This Book Kills comes a deadly new YA thriller of murder, mystery and mind-blowing twists. Perfect for fans of Holly Jackson and Karen M. McManus.
When the most popular girl at Myra’s new school is found frozen to death in a walk-in chiller, wannabe journalist Myra is sure of two things:
1. Scarlett was murdered.
2. One of Scarlett’s friends is to blame.
So she infiltrates the popular clique’s world of envy and backstabbing to prove it. But then a strange boy holds her up at gunpoint in the woods, claiming he’s killed the killer. Who is he, who did he kill…and who will die next?
