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Book: “Beth Is Dead” by Katie Bernet
Publishing Info: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, January 2026
Where Did I Get This Book: I received an eARC from NetGalley
Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound
Book Description: 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.
Review: Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this novel!
As an elder Millennial I have a very special place in my heart for the 1994 “Little Women” film. I just love the story of the March Sisters growing up and experiencing love, loss, and growth. But I’ve always found the character of Beth to be a little twee, so good and so angelic, only to die a tragic death that is so unfair because she was just SO good. Beth has had some great performers behind her, don’t get me wrong (Claire Danes is perfection), but as a character, to me, she’s there to be a tragedy. Suffice to say, when I saw the book “Beth Is Dead” by Katie Bernet on my various social media and book feeds, it caught my eye. At first I was thinking ‘well that’s a LITTLE grotesque’, as turning a death from a weakened heart due to illness into a violent murder seemed perhaps a little crude. But, as you all know, I’m really big into thrillers and mysteries, especially if the mystery involves murder, and the idea of making “Little Women” into a modern murder mystery was just too fun. I jumped in with no expectations, but ended up really enjoying this re-imagining. And it may surprise some of you to learn that a book that makes Beth March a murder victim actually humanized her more than I’ve encountered in other adaptations and reimaginings!
They mystery at hand is what I will talk about first, just to get it all out there, because to me that was one of the weaker aspects of this novel, if ONLY because if you are familiar with the source material you will probably be able to discern what is going on for basically all of the characters. But that isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy this book, because I found it hard to put down, mostly because I wanted to see how Bernet was going to fit the themes from the original text into a 21st Century murder mystery. And overall she did it very successfully. We have the March Sisters of Jo, Meg, Amy, and yes, Beth (more on Beth in a bit) jumping from their Victorian personalities into a whole new world, but Bernet managed to fit all of them into new boxes in believable ways. For Jo we have an aspiring author who has found her voice in becoming an influencer, creating stories of her day to day life for a hungry audience. For Meg we have an Oldest Daughter Syndrome people pleaser who wants to live up to the lofty expectations of her family and herself, though she can easily be taken advantage of by those around her because of it. For Amy it’s a rebel child who stirs up trouble, dreaming of getting to Europe to pursue and artist’s life at any cost. And for Beth it’s a painfully shy girl who feels like others don’t know her so well, but aches to come out of her shell. I also really liked how in this the father isn’t a soldier who is off at war, but is an author who has taken the lives of his daughters and written a literary novel that is based on their lives, which has set off a firestorm of controversy that causes him to leave in hopes he will stop hurting his children (or perhaps in hopes it will all blow over). It’s things like this that feel like they echo the source material while feeling relevant to our modern world.
But it’s the way that Bernet tackles Beth that worked the best for me in this novel. While the crux of the story is Jo, Meg, and Amy trying to solve their sister’s murder (while also hiding their own secrets from each other), we also get flashbacks to Beth’s final months, and the road that led her to her unfortunate end. I’ve seen this kind of thing in other “Little Women” reimaginings, getting Beth’s perspective at least a little bit, but even in those that I’ve read it feels like Beth is still otherworldly and angelic in those interpretations. In this story where she is murdered, ironically enough, I felt like we actually got the most humanized version of Beth that I’ve seen put to page. She still feels true to her original characterization, preferring her piano and being introverted to being more out there, but it isn’t the only thing we learn about her. We also see her own hopes and dreams, which don’t keep her limited to being the kindest and most loved March Sister due to her inherent goodness. She doesn’t want to just be good, and I really, really liked that.
“Beth Is Dead” was entertaining and suspenseful, and it was a successful twist on a classic that has been so well loved for so many generations.
Rating 8: A fun and suspenseful modern re-imagining of a beloved classic, where sisters keep secrets and a long martyred and beloved March Sister gets a voice.
Reader’s Advisory:
“Beth Is Dead” is included in the Goodreads article “204 Retellings with New Spins on Old Stories”.
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