Review

Meg and her younger sister Liza are scholarship students with a secret tragic past, attending Douglas College, an elite K-12 boarding school in the Australian countryside. While Meg is a straight-A student, Liza is a charming rebel, a party girl and troublemaker. Meg wishes that Liza would apply herself more, but when Liza suddenly changes overnight into an eerily perfect student, dedicated and docile, Meg knows something’s very, very wrong.

Benedict, a fellow student, also thinks there’s something weird going on. A rich, well connected student, he’s been hacking the school’s computers for fun, discovering a lot of secret encrypted files. What are they for? And now he’s been put on detention in the school’s lavish greenhouses… and there’s some strange things going on there too. Then someone dies in mysterious circumstances.

Can Meg, Benny and their friends find out what’s going on… before more people die?

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I was really looking forward to reading this one, but it wasn’t what I’d hoped. Based on the cracking cover (yes, I know) and the publisher’s copy (yes, yes…), I was expecting a thrilling YA dark academia, along the lines of Krystal Sutherland’s House of Hollow or The Invocations. I was excited. I like a Stepford Wives kind of plot. But it turned out to be more like cosy dark academia, in the same way that Doak’s excellent Eleanor Jones books are cosy crime.

The pace I found a touch too slow for my liking, without the jokes or madcap action of EJ, but without the suspense or darkness to keep me ripping through the pages. The narrative’s told through Meg and Benny’s alternating first person perspectives, but without much distinction between their voices. As the novel goes on, the two main characters gather a little team of friends around them, similar to the EJ books. It really does remind me of those books (not surprising), but with a slightly sinister boarding school setting and less sparkle.

On the plus side, it’s an easy read, short chapters and generous margins on the pages, and only 322 pages in length. There’s a touch of romance and it ends on an intriguing note – don’t want to spoil it by saying more.

Appropriate for Year 7 & up.

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A few mysterious deaths; some cold/sinister parents, grandparents & teachers; a bit of blink & you’ll miss it underage drinking; mention of vaping; a few minor swear words; a couple of chaste kisses. Main relationship is mlw.

*

Doak, A. (2025). What have they done to Liza McLean? Penguin Books.

Images are used on this blog post under the “Fair dealing for criticism or review” provision of the Commonwealth Copyright Act, 1968.

I read this novel for free thanks to my local library — support your public library by visiting & borrowing!