Book Description 

All it takes to ruin someone’s life is the stroke of a key. Just ask Iris Henley. Her life is destroyed when someone posts an anonymous message on her high school’s subreddit thread: “Iris Henley is a killer. I’ve been too scared to come forward until now, but I saw her murder Rocky and Lynette last summer.”

Just like that, Iris loses everything. Her reputation. Her friends. Her hope of getting into college on scholarship. Even, possibly, her freedom, once the police start to investigate. After all, she’s the perfect suspect: Rocky was her boyfriend, and Lynette was her ex-best friend—and the girl he was cheating on her with. But Iris didn’t do it, and now it’s up to her to clear her name by finding out who did—before it’s too late.

Propulsive, sharp, and absolutely twisty from the New York Times bestselling author who brought readers the Veronica Mars duology, Jennifer Graham’s YA thriller is unputdownable.

My Review 

I’ve been into mysteries and thrillers lately, and I’ve always been a fan of YA (even though I am woefully out of the target demographic), so this book piqued my interest immediately. 

As the story begins, Iris is trying to regain a sense of normalcy after a tragedy at the end of the last school year: her boyfriend and ex-best friend were found dead. The police assumed it was a murder/suicide, but then the message board post appears accusing Iris of the crime. Since everyone has turned against her, Iris needs to work (mostly) alone trying to figure out how to prove that she didn’t kill Rocky and Lynette.  

The pace moves pretty quickly and there are several big twists, introducing new possibilities and widening the suspect pool. I certainly didn’t see the denouement coming, and you probably won’t either, although I will say that getting to the end made me want to go back and read a second time to see if I missed anything. Also, one would think that a key piece of evidence would have been looked into during the initial investigation, but if it had, we wouldn’t have a book, would we?

I would absolutely recommend The Fall of Iris Henley. I want to take a moment of appreciation for the title. First of all, there’s the metaphorical “fall from grace” as the popular cheerleader is scorned by those around her, costing her the social cache she depended upon. Second, there’s the literal interpretation since the story takes place during the autumn months. Such a good title! In any event, I will be keeping my eye out for more books from Graham in the future. 

I received a digital ARC of this book from St. Martin’s/NetGalley.