ARC Review--Beth is Dead by Katie Bernet

 

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.

I received this ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. I was in no way compensated for this review.

Katie Bernet's debut, Beth is Dead is a modern reimagining of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women but with a murderous twist! I never got around to reading the classic myself, but I saw one of the movie versions growing up to get the gist of the story and felt like Bernet did exceedingly well in keeping true to the story placed in a modern time. The murderous twist, of course, is what drew me in the most!

As we should all know by now, Beth, from Little Women, dies. Bernet takes that thread we knew and turns it on its head and makes it a murderous plot indeed! This is how the story begins and we're all left reeling that the sweetest of the March sisters dies so horrifically. The biggest question of all, of course, is who would've done the deed?

We get to have each of the March sisters' point of view in this one and it definitely paints quite the picture. Each sister is harboring secrets of her own, some very dark indeed. Each of them even has a motive to possibly want Beth out of the picture, as the blurb would say. But even with that, the story of Little Women at its heart was about sisterhood and the bonds of family. So this idea didn't jive with me from the get-go. It was obvious there would be better suspects as the story moved along, and oh boy, were there plenty of suspects to go around!

I feel like most people, when it comes to this story, always hate on Amy. She's a spoiled, selfish brat. Which is true. But then I seriously do not get all the love for Jo, because to me, even as I read this reimagined retelling and think back on that one movie I saw, Jo is just as spoiled and selfish too. She was just older and we were supposed to think she was just grand and had ambition. Well, her ambitions lead her to look pretty suspicious in the grand scheme of things. But really, even Meg (in this rendition) is pretty selfish too. Everyone has their own desires and they will all go to whatever lengths needed to see them come into fruition.

What was even more intriguing about this one was how their father wrote Little Women, in this world. And yes, in this one Beth dies at the end too. I felt like this was by far one of the more intriguing twists to the book as well. That book became the center of the girls' universe and how it changed how people viewed them. 

The story does focus on the murder mystery for the most part. Each sister taking a turn at trying to figure out whodunit while also dealing with their own chaos. Even though I never read the book myself, I remembered enough details, for the most part, of the one movie (which yes, I know, never judge a book by its movie or at least read the book first, but I was young! I didn't know better, lol) to see the parallels of the classic versus this story. There were nods to moments of the past, familiar side characters...it truly was a spectacular take on the classic!

After much debate and at least three major suspects (on my list), I will say that I figured out who the murderer was and I believe it was my second guess. I changed my mind with the third suspect at one point, but then almost immediately went back to the second because it just made better sense! Lol. 

Beth is Dead is a twisty murderous tale based off a loving classic. That Bernet could make what I felt like was a happy (for the most part), loving story of sisterhood into something this dark is astounding! When I say dark, I don't mean the uber creepy kind of dark, but that generalization of dark when it comes to a murder mystery, because in every murder mystery you have a murderer hiding among you, which is actually pretty scary! Needless to say, if you want to read an edgy and murderous take on a beloved classic, than Beth is Dead is the book for you!

Overall Rating 3.75/5 stars--yes that awkward rating. Though I did enjoy the mystery element, there were times that the sisters annoyed me a bit and I feel like that stems from its contemporary vibe as well.

Beth is Dead releases January 6th, 2026