The Boyband Murder Mystery by Ava Eldred

'I have long believed that loving a boyband brings with it a wealth of transferable skills, but I'd never imagined solving a murder would be one of them...'

Harri and her best friends worship Half Light - an internationally famous boyband. When frontman Frankie is arrested on suspicion of murdering his oldest friend Evan, Harri feels like her world's about to fall apart. But quickly she realises that she - and all the other Half Light superfans out there - know and understand much more about these boys than any detective ever could.

Now she's rallying a fangirl army to prove Frankie's innocence - and to show the world that you should never underestimate a teenage girl with a passion...

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The first thing you should know; the murder isn't really the point of this book. It's what starts everything off, but it's not what the book's about. What it's about is the awesome power of late teen girls, and the sheer joy of fandom, and how online friends are just as valid as offline.

This book is really good fun, but I do have a couple of reservations; first of all, Harri is frequently mean to people for no particular reason other than 'I'm stressed' (which, fair enough, we can all be stressed, but accusing her father of being happy someone died and someone else went to jail? Not cool.)

I also would have loved to have seen a guy in the Superfriends. I know fandom in general, and very particularly in boybands, is seen as a female space, but there are plenty of boys in there too. Adding a boy to the group would have been nice.

Those are minor things, though. Ava obviously has a real love for fandom and it shines through in her writing, raising up a group that's more often torn down because they dare to enjoy something. I loved watching this group hold each other up and help each other out, and I'm really glad they plan to stay together at the end. I wish I could put in my favourite quote, but it's a spoiler, so I'll just say; definitely read this one. It's fab.

 

(There is some minor, mostly implied sex.)

The Boyband Murder Mystery publishes on the 27th May, 2021. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.