MURDER ON A SCHOOL NIGHT By Kate Weston

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Murder on a School Night by Kate Weston
Published by Katherine Tegen Books on 7/4/23
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 376
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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There’s never a good time to find a dead body, sure. But what about finding a dead body while you’re trying to kiss your crush?

Kerry had different plans for her first high school party—like not going. All she wanted to do was stay home in the safety of retro rom-coms and her strict retainer schedule. Instead her BFF, fiercely outgoing mystery-fanatic Annie, has roped her into going to the party to investigate who’s cyberbullying Heather, the most popular girl in school.

Finding herself getting close with her dreamy crush is odd enough, but when the two of them discover Heather’s second in command, Selena, suffocated with a menstrual cup, things get really weird.

And when a second student turns up dead, this time with a sanitary pad across the eyes, Annie and Kerry—no matter how much she resists—are officially on the case to stop the menstrual murderer . . . period.

Short and Sweet Review

Kerry and her best friend Annie have different ideas about going to their first high school party. Kerry wants to stay home but Annie is determined to go and have a good time. At the party the girls find out that Heather one of the popular girls is being cyber bullied and offer to investigate. Kerry finds herself getting close to her crush but their romantic night ends when they find Heather’s friend Selena dead with a menstrual cup in her mouth. Things only get weirder when another student is found dead with a pad covering their eyes. No matter how hard she tries to resist Kerry knows Annie is right and they have to figure out who the Menstrual Murderer is.

This book was good at points and at other points it was a book that I didn’t want to finish. Kerry and Annie are total opposites, but their friendship works out because opposites attract. Annie is outgoing and Kerry is more of an introvert. The girls are very proud and don’t shy away from the fact that their body positive and sex positive and I got it, it was cool at first but I think they went overboard that it became cringey. Annie and Kerry end up hanging out with Heather and her group of friends after the murder mainly because they think that Annie and Kerry can solve the murder of their friend. Kerry also has a bit of a romance with a guy named Scott, which was okay there wasn’t really sparks flying everywhere in my opinion. The murders are weird and the culprit had a thing for using menstrual items, Kerry and Annie think that they’re the ones who need to solve this murder because they’re able to freely talk about periods and vaginas. Anyway the murder is a cover up for something larger and these girls are in a little deeper than they thought they would be.

Overall, this book was not what I thought it would be. I found the premise interesting, but I think the characters, mainly Annie were off-putting, she just inserted herself everywhere and she was just too much. The body and sex positivity were cool and I can see what the author was going for but it became cringey, it was like someone doing it to get attention and not for the actual cause. Anyway there was a lot of potential for this book to be funny and a good mystery but it ended up being a mess.