Title: Secrets of the Blue Hand Girls
Author: Rowana Miller
Publication: October 7, 2025
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: Mystery/Thriller, YA Fiction, Teens, LGBTQIA+
Pages: 368

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SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)

When the first letter appears in Kay Anderson’s locker it carries one instruction: Dye your hand blue. She definitely shouldn’t obey it. Kay doesn’t have time for secret societies: As a scholarship student at up-and-coming Manhattan prep school Davison High, she knows her job is to work hard, get into Northwestern University, and ignore her wealthy classmates’ fun-filled Instagram stories. Besides, her first and only real friend at Davison died suddenly freshman year.

Still, Kay’s intrigued, so she stains her palms with ink to join the mysterious “Blue Hand Girls,” sharing an unspoken thrill with the classmates who do the same. More letters show up, assigning risky initiation tasks, and Kay realizes the group is set on exposing the shady business that Davison’s founders would rather keep hidden―things that her dead friend might have known about.

REVIEW:

**A copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

If you’ve read many of my previous reviews, you probably know that I absolutely LOVE a good prep school or boarding school mystery! I don’t know what it is about these settings, but there is just something about wealthy students, secret societies, hidden scandals, and mysterious happenings that always grabs my attention. So when I came across Secrets of the Blue Hand Girls by Rowana Miller, I was immediately intrigued. The story follows Kay Anderson, a scholarship student at an elite Manhattan prep school who receives a mysterious note instructing her to dye her hand blue. What starts as a strange invitation turns into something much bigger as Kay becomes involved with a secret society determined to expose some of the school’s darkest secrets. Add in the mysterious death of Kay’s former best friend, and you have all the ingredients for a fantastic YA mystery! I really liked the overall concept and thought the premise had a lot of potential.

Unfortunately, while the plot was interesting, the story itself just didn’t hold my attention the way I wanted it to. For a book with so many things I typically love, I expected to be completely hooked, and that just wasn’t the case. I think part of my issue was Miller’s writing style. It wasn’t terrible by any means, and I’ve certainly read worse, but something about it just didn’t work for me. There were moments when the pacing felt slow, and I found myself wishing the story would move along a little faster. I also felt like some of the dialogue and character interactions were a little unnatural, which made it harder for me to connect with the characters. The secret society aspect was probably what intrigued me the most, but I think I was expecting something a little more suspenseful and mysterious than what I actually got. I wanted that feeling of constantly questioning everyone and everything, and instead, I found myself just waiting for the story to really take off. It had all the right ingredients, but the finished product didn’t quite come together for me.

With that being said, I do think Rowana Miller has some creative ideas, and I appreciate what she was trying to accomplish with this story. I liked the way the book explored the differences between wealthy students and scholarship students, along with the secrets that can hide behind the walls of an elite school. There were some interesting twists, and I can definitely see other readers enjoying the mystery more than I did. Considering this is Miller’s debut novel, I think there is potential for her writing to continue developing, and I would be open to giving another one of her books a try in the future. Ultimately, this was a pretty average three-star read for me. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t one that left me desperate to keep reading either. If you enjoy YA mysteries, secret societies, prep school drama, and stories filled with secrets and suspicious characters, I would still encourage you to give Secrets of the Blue Hand Girls a try and see what you think!