Just So Stories

Penguin Australia

October 2025

• ISBN: 9781761350641
• Imprint: Penguin
• RRP: $19.99

No doubt about it, Amy Doak has rocketed into ‘force to be reckoned with’ status since Eleanor Jones first burst onto our YA shelves. After three hugely successful titles in that series, we now have a new aspect of Amy’s talent.

Your kiddos who are into the whole Dark Academia vibe will lap this up with gusto and the whole premise of the brainwashing, cultish exclusive school grooming high-flyers could almost be mistaken for at least one school in which I’ve worked [okay, maybe that was just my take on that place].

Meg McLean and her younger sister, Liza, have been accepted into the very exclusive Douglas College, after a highly traumatic episode in their lives has left them without parents. The school does not normally take students later in their academic journey but on the strength of the girls’ guardian being one of the successful graduates are accepted.

It’s not a bad place Meg feels, and given her strong academic results, she fits in quite well but there’s something ‘off’ about the place regardless. Liza, on the other hand, who has always been wilder, seems determined to be expelled with all kinds of rule-breaking.

Until, suddenly, Liza is a different person. Almost quite literally. Overnight, she has gone from the effervescent, flippant younger sister to a serene, emotionless, automaton who goes to the library, catches up on study, reads incessantly and is punctiliously polite to all.

Meg, while she has always been frustrated by Liza’s disregard for social norms, is highly alarmed and then there’s the niggle of Benedict Hargreaves (IV!) on her radar.

Benedict is from the wealthiest family, but as Meg discovers, has a compelete disdain for his family, the trappings of wealth, the college and everything representing it all. Ergo, he is the perfect person to help her uncover the dark secret of Douglas, especially when they stumble into not one, but two murders. In the process, they uncover startling information not only about the college, but about Meg’s family tragedy.

This was great fun, piecing together clues and being side-tracked by red herrings. I loved it. There were a couple of jigsaw pieces I felt had been massaged into place, rather than fitting immediately with that satisfying click but, overall, it is another triumph for this young author. It is definitely pitched at YA but, realistically, I can’t see why you couldn’t offer it to your top end primary kids because, while there are some relationship sub-plots, there’s nothing so salacious as to be a problem for those younger ones.

As long as they can handle some nasty villains, and a couple of unpleasant murders, they’ll be fine. You know your own kids (and parents), always be guided by that.

So for another bit of Halloween mischief, how about an elite school that manipulates promising students by extremely unethical means, in order to provide themselves with an ongoing river of funding from wealthy alumni and draw in more fish. Cracking premise!

I’m giving it a 4 🔪🔪🔪🔪 for readers from around 12 upwards.