Beth is Dead by Katie Bernet

e-ALC, 10:22:41
Narrated by: Caitlin Kelly, Emily Tremaine, Ferdelle Capistrano, & Piper Goodeve
Release Date: January 6, 2026
Published by: Simon & Schuster Audio
Read from: December 21-24, 2025
Stand-alone
Source: Libro FM (I received this ALC free from the publisher and Libro FM. This did nothing to influence my review!)
Content Warning: Murder, Toxic Friendship, Stalking, Violence, Pedophilia, Death, Sexual Assault, Sexual Content, Dementia
For Readers Interested In: Audio, Full Cast Audio, Family Diversity (Father & Sibling Passed), Realistic Fiction, Retellings, Thrillers, YA

      Beth March’s sisters will stop at nothing to track down her killer—until they begin to suspect each other—in this debut thriller that’s also a bold, contemporary reimagining of the beloved classic Little Women.
     When Beth March is found dead in the woods on New Year’s Day, her sisters vow to uncover her murderer.
     Suspects abound. There’s the neighbor who has feelings for not one but two of the girls. Meg’s manipulative best friend. Amy’s flirtatious mentor. And Beth’s lionhearted first love. But it doesn’t take the surviving sisters much digging to uncover motives each one of the March girls had for doing the unthinkable.
     Jo, an aspiring author with a huge following on social media, would do anything to hook readers. Would she kill her sister for the story? Amy dreams of studying art in Europe, but she’ll need money from her aunt—money that’s always been earmarked for Beth. And Meg wouldn’t dream of hurting her sister…but her boyfriend might have, and she’ll protect him at all costs.
     Despite the growing suspicion within the family, it’s hard to know for sure if the crime was committed by someone close to home. After all, the March sisters were dragged into the spotlight months ago when their father published a controversial bestseller about his own daughters. Beth could have been killed by anyone.
     Beth’s perspective told in flashback unfolds next to Meg, Jo, and Amy’s increasingly fraught investigation as the tragedy threatens to rip the Marches apart.

*MY THOUGHTS*

I have to admit…… I have NOT read Little Women…….. So I really have no idea how close it is to the original, but I can say for the most part I liked this. It was a little weird because I know the original one is like set in the like 1800s or something lol, so this was hella weird to see them talking about their follower count lol

Ok so the actual story itself felt so weird. But again, I didn’t read the original, so I just thought it was weird. And it wasn’t something that was bad, so I didn’t mind it. The rest of the plot was ok. There were so many POVs so there was so many moving parts. I did get a little confused, but Bernet, like Alcott was able to bring it all together. I did think there was a lot happening for it to end the way it did, but I did enjoy it. And like, let’s be for real, the family gets famous because of a book that their dad wrote, called Little Women. It felt like I was reading a big long 4th wall breaking scene lol But again, I hadn’t read the original, so I didn’t know if something like this in the book lol

The mystery itself was ok. I did figure out who it was. But only because I was paying close attention. I do want to point out tho that most of the smoke and mirrors was the multiple POVs. Especially since I wasn’t familiar with who they were in the retellings. There were so many moving parts and so many other storylines that it got confusing. I didn’t think it was bad, just that it took up more of the story than I wanted it to.

After reading this I do think I’ll try reading the original. I think I shyed away from it because of what time period it’s from, but I do think there might be some way I can better relate to this text. It’s so weird, I don’t usually read the classics, but I DO when there’s a retelling. And this one was good enough for me to want to read the real text. So here’s to me maybe giving Little Women a try later this year too lol

Overall, I give this