12 year old me would’ve absolutely loved this book! Unfortunately reading it as a 20 year old I don’t think I loved it as much and the characters annoyed me a bit.

The mystery element was fun! It was a very fast paced book so a great one to read if you need a little pick me up. Also reminded me of my fan girl days, it felt like I was in my room reading a one direction fan fic on watt pad again.

This was fun and a book that really grabbed me and I just loved to see how all the characters interacted with each other

This is a well executed and gripping- binge read this book! Loved the interactions between the characters- well thought out!

Harri and her best friends are Half Light’s biggest fans. Frankie, the frontman, is arrested on suspicion of murdering Evan another band member. Harri and the bands fans work together to try to prove Frankie is innocent and that teenage girls should not be messed with.
I found myself skim reading the book. The plot had potential but I got lost along the way! The story line was unbelievable, fans doing illegal things and the investigation wasn’t explored enough. The book jumped all over the place and there was no character development. It just didn’t work for me, but others may love it.

As soon as I read the premise, I knew I had to get my hands on this book. I was getting vibes similar to Alice Oseman's 'I Was Born For This' which is one of my favourites, and who didn't go through a boyband phase?

I think this one will appeal to an array of YA readers with its fun characters and mysterious elements. It's clear from the way she writes that Eldred understands what it means to be part of a fandom and the power it can have both on individuals and the world around us. If anyone was going to write this story, I'm glad she was the one to do it with such care.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy!

This was a really well written YA mystery/thriller that is perfect for people who aren’t necessarily fans of thrillers. The actual mystery/thriller aspect of this book I felt could have been a bit more high stakes for a YA but the plot itself and the characters definitely made up for it.
The main thing I loved about this book was the nostalgia of being apart of a fandom like Harri is. The friends you make through having this shared interest and the dedication to the band you all adore. It shines a positive light on to fandoms because a lot of what you see in the media is the negative side (and yes there is toxicity in every fandom but there are positives too!)

I can't resist a book about a boyband and I went in with no expectations with this book and absolutely loved every second of it. I can't wait to read what Ava writes next.

An enjoyable mystery which will appeal to YA readers who are fans of bands, as well as those interested in the obsession such fanhood engenders.

I did find some of the sections which focused on how much the protagonist loved the band (and knew them!) a bit much, but this isn’t an experience I can particularly identify with.

This was a fun and interesting YA mystery. I liked the characters for the most part but at places, Harri felt a lot younger than her 18 years and she came across as a jerk. The crime element was okay and the hints were well placed generally but it did feel a little formulaic and it didn't really do anything new within the genre. I liked the messages in it overall and can see why it's so popular with YA readers.

An action-packed, thoughtful take on fan culture, this is a story that has something important to say about the intelligence, creativity and dedication of fans. It was so interesting to read while I'm working on my own fandom murder mystery, An Unauthorised Fan Treatise. Ava and I come at the fandom space from slightly different spaces, but I think we're equally in awe of the power of teenage girls.

It’s rare I don’t finish a review book. Really rare. Even if I do 10% a day and trog my way through it I do so with gusto… and a glass of wine.

But this, nah. I couldn’t mostly because I knew that 10 years ago? I’d have loved it. I was the ultimate boyband fangirl (For The Wanted… no 1D fan here thank you VERY MUCH) So I knew, once a past me would have lapped this up. But I’m 26. I haven’t fangirled in a very long time (over heart throb boy bands anyway).

But I could tell 40 pages in this wasn’t for me. So I’m not really reviewing, no stars out of five will pass these lips.

Ignore me… and keep scrolling.

A Miss Marple Mystery if she was a university student and obsessed with a boy band. I really loved the ease of this book! It was so easy to read/listen to. I did a mixture of reading and audiobook for this one as my work schedule has been intense, and I have to say the audiobook was fire!

The premise of the story is rather predictable, however there were genuine moments of suprise throughout the book. I loved the friendships that Ava crafted, both online and in real life, between Harri and the other fans of Half Light. The girls shared a love for the band that was wholesome and true, although on occasion felt a little close to the knuckle of being inappropriate. It was refreshing to see fandom portrayed positively rather than scorned as something silly.

When Frankie is arrested on charges of murder, of killing his best friend Evan no less, Harri and her fellow fans take up the mantle of proving his innocence. No one knows him better than his fans, right? With just enough twists and turns this whodunnit is a wonderful read for the festive season. It gives all the warm feels!

"They don't even know what it is to be a fan. Y'know? To truly love some silly little piece of music, or some band, so much that it hurts." - Almost Famous

This book absolutely does understand what it means to be a fan. The main character and her friends' love for Half Light is so phenomenal that it leads to solving a murder case in an attempt to prove the lead singer is innocent. But more importantly, it's a book about how that love for a band can bring people together, creating friendships and memories. A celebration of the power of young women!

This book is centred around a boyband, friendships, fans and secrets. It's a really fun book. The murder mystery could have been a bigger part of the book. But, overall it was fun, light and entertaining.

I was a big boyband fan in my younger years, and I think it was feelings of nostalgia relating to this that led me to pick up this book. Social media wasn’t a thing back then though, so it was just me and my friends obsessing in our bedrooms.

Although Harri is hard to like at times, I enjoyed her friendship with Jas and can fully understand that feeling of having such a close friendship with someone you have never met and being nervous of not being enough when you finally do meet. The network of virtual friends that form the basis of this book put me in mind of my own posse of kindred spirits from the book world.

The Boyband Murder Mystery is more a story of what we can achieve through strong friendship and love than a real murder mystery but I loved it for that, and it was the characters relationships with each other that really made this book for me. I found it to be a relatively lightweight, fun read, which actually sometimes is exactly what you need to escape from the world.

I used to be/ still am, I guess, a big fan of a certain boyband. That's why I thought I would enjoy books centred around them. I thought it would be nostalgic.

But "The Boyband Murder Mystery" was my last try. It's cringey. These characters say things I said 8 years ago. I can't relate to that at all anymore.

And you might think: but Janna, it's a book written for teens way younger than you, of course you can't relate - no, it's not though. The main character is a university student - so am I. The dialogue regarding the fangirl/boyband dynamics is so so so cringey. That's not how grown up people in fandoms talk anymore.

If this is your cup of tea, go for it. But in the past ten years of my boyband journey, I have come to realise that it is in fact not healthy to love a boyband more than yourself.

I do have good things to say about this book and these are the easy writing style and the location: it's taking place in the UK and that was lovely to read about.

However, I didn't like the representation of queer characters, it felt forced and they were being treated poorly by the main character and most popular boyband member.

Honestly, for a murder mystery there was only little mystery and way more fangirls randomly meeting their favourite celebrities and being unhealthily obsessed with their wellbeings. Everything was literally so far fetched.

I love music, I love murder mysteries but the combination didn't work for me.


I received an ARC by Netgalley in exchange for an honest opinion.

I received The Boyband Murder Mystery by Ava Eldred from NetGalley and Penguin Random House Children’s UK in exchange for an honest review. I have given this book four out of five stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Filled with friendships, fandoms and secrets; I had such a fun time reading this book. Ava Eldred captured what it means to be part of a boyband fandom perfectly. I really enjoyed the murder mystery element to this YA book, it really helped draw me into the story.

The characters were strong and well-developed, especially the relationship between Jas and Harri. I absolutely adored their friendship, I felt as though they were soulmates and really enjoyed the dynamic from them. The friendships between all of the fandom friends from all over the world felt so special. Whilst reading this book I definitely had the feeling of nostalgia; memories from when I was younger came flooding back, the time when I became friends with people from different countries around the world as I was part of some fandoms. I have to admit I wasn’t fully immersed in the fandom as Jas and Harri were, however I can definitely relate to some of the feelings they felt towards the three boys in Half Light; Frankie, Jack and Kyle.

Ava Eldred’s writing kept me wanting to read page after page until I was able to find out who the murderer was and I have to admit, I didn’t see it coming which made me enjoy this book even more. An element of surprise from a book is always a winner in my eyes.

There’s such a special bond between fandoms and I could definitely feel that seeping out from the pages of this book. Thank you to Ava Eldred for creating such a special debut book for myself and other readers who will be able to relate to this brilliant story and to reflect on memories from our past.

I would definitely recommend this book to young adults who enjoy murder mysteries as well as boybands and fandoms.

The Boyband Murder Mystery by Ava Eldred is a YA contemporary about the power of fandom and the ingenuity and passion of teenage girls.

Harri has been a fan of the British boy band Half Light for many years but finds her world turned upside down when the band’s lead singer, “bad boy” Frankie Williams, is arrested on suspicion of murdering his life-long best friend Evan. Unable to accept that Frankie could ever have done such a thing, regardless of his image, Harri teams up with a group of other fangirl friends to prove his innocence. Together they use their near-infinite knowledge of the band to comb through the evidence and find the proof they need to clear Frankie’s name. But will they destroy the thing they love in the process?

Sophie imagines that if you are reading a website named GeekMom, you have probably experienced the passion that comes with being in a fandom at some point in your life. While Sophie has never had the need to use her own fandom knowledge for something as serious as clearing murder charges, she is pretty certain that her twelve-year-old self would have leaped at the chance to team up with other fans and save her beloved band – even if group chats, Tumblr, and many of the other resources relied upon in The Boyband Murder Mystery didn’t exist back then.

Sophie really enjoyed the first two-thirds of this story but with the core plot wrapped up surprisingly quickly, she found that the ending dragged on and petered out in a way that did the rest of the book a disservice, and while the main plot was interesting, she wished the main characters would have been a bit more fleshed out. Overall, this will make for a fun summer read but is unlikely to stick with you for long.

I'm so annoyed. At this book, at myself. But mostly at Harri for being such an awful person and friend. I won't sugarcoat it; I really disliked this book, as much as I wish I hadn't. The way it was written, the constant need to suspend my disbelief (which I quite frankly did not want to do), and the incredibly bland cast of characters.. everything just irked me. So much.

The Boyband Murder Mystery follows Harri and her friends as they try to solve the murder of Evan Byrd, which his best friend Frankie Williams has been accused of. The twist? Frankie is the lead singer of Half Light, an international boyband sensation of which Harri & Co. are dedicated Stans™, and they're hell bent on proving he didn't do it. The premise of this sounded so fun and, as someone who has dedicated many years of her life to being a One Direction Stan™, something I could really relate to and enjoy. Did I do either of those things? No, I did not. And, like I said, I'm really annoyed about it.

Let's start with something that was, and still is, bothering me: I have no idea what demographic this is written for. Yeah sure, it's YA. But is that 12 year old YA? Or 18 year old YA? Because Harri is the most childish and naive 19 year old I have ever come across and it's jarring. I used to think the same way Harri does; that no one knows 'the boys' the way the fans do. But I was 12 years old, and Harri is 19. She constantly puts her obsession with the band above her own personal relationships and, despite how high a pedestal she puts herself on, acts like the very same self-centred and delusional stalkers she condemns. And it makes her so unlikeable. The other characters aren't much better, with most of them being throwaway cardboard cutouts that I honestly couldn't care less about (seriously, who is Ruby?). I only liked Stef because we share the same name, and the poor guy was constantly being blown off because Harri was taking the whole lol ur not *celebrtiy name* trend from 2013 a little too literally.

The mystery aspect of this also wasn't the greatest. The 'big reveal' felt like something out of a fanfic I read when I was 14 (this is not a compliment, unfortunately) and it was such an underwhelming and unsatisfying climax. The fact that a lot of the mystery unfolded because Harri & Jas were somehow able to get in contact with these people who were supposedly incredibly famous? On an international scale?..... yeah, it doesn't add up. Someone with a couple million followers isn't going to see your message and respond within seconds, as much as we all wished they would. This isn't a fantasy, but it sure as hell feels like one.

I wish I could end this review on a lighter note, and tell you something that I enjoyed about this book, but I don't normally like anything about the books I give 1 star. The ending was almost good in a bittersweet way, but it was ruined because of how unsubtle this book is about everything it does. It's hard to appreciate whatever is being said about fan culture when it's immediately pointed out with such little grace that it actually becomes irritating. It hurts my little 1D heart to say this, because I had such high hopes, but I really can't recommend The Boyband Murder Mystery to anyone. I can only hope that, if you do pick it up, you at least have a better time reading it than I did.

This book was… okay.

Honestly the premise is increasingly far fetched and requires a bit too much suspension of disbelief to be entirely comfortable. The main character is actually VERY Unlikeable for most of the book. She is rude to her parents and friends, and unhealthily obsessive about things. There is a big life lesson/moral at the end of the book that is supposed to be uplifting and while it has positive elements, overall it just feels hackneyed and shoehorned in, unnecessary to the plot. (I like my Murder mysteries to be heavier on the murder and mystery.)

One part I did like was the crime itself - I thought it had substance and twists similar to some of the best YA crime thrillers out there. I liked the red herrings which were believable, something that can be hard to manage in a YA crime story.

Overall this book was a light, quick read and I did enjoy it. I just wish the main character was less obnoxious.