Let’s Split Up by Bill Wood

Let’s Split Up was the fastest selling UK Young Adult debut of 2024. It’s said to appeal to the demographic that loves both the Scream movie franchise and Scooby Doo fans, but I suspect that this leans more to the former than the latter, at least if my reaction to it has been anything to go by.

Cam is one of those effortlessly cool kids in high school who can be both a jock and a nerd. His best friend is an outright nerd named Jonesy, who moved to their small town of Sanera, California, from England when they were both kids. Lately tho, things between Cam and Jonesy have gotten a little weird.

Amber, the last member of their tight little trio (and who I feel is very Black-coded,) knows that Cam and Jonesy are into each other, but is wise enough not to say anything until the boys figure it out for themselves. She’s smart and empathetic, and tho her traditionally-minded parents don’t understand why and how she could possibly be platonic best friends with two boys, they’re okay enough with it as long as she keeps her grades up and doesn’t get into trouble. She has absolutely not told anyone besides Cam and Jonesy that she’s bisexual tho. It may be 2001, but being out and proud certainly isn’t an option for everyone.

When new girl Buffy moves to town, the gang swiftly adopt her, tho not without some resistance from Jonesy, who’s a little suspicious of new people. Buffy is super perceptive, so it doesn’t take her long to figure this out. A greater mystery befalls them tho when their school principal interrupts lunch period to announce terrible news.

High school golden couple Shelley Jones and Bradley Campbell have been found murdered in the haunted Carrington Manor. Legend has it that Robert Carrington, a landowner from years before, had lived with his family there, in the grand mansion that he had specially built. Unfortunately, he had been wildly unpopular with the townsfolk because of the rents he charged. When his family fell ill and died, he blamed the town for not helping save them. Eventually, he died in an inexplicable fire in the manor, cursing the townsfolk as he did so. The mansion has stood empty ever since, with the exception of the Carrington Ghoul who allegedly haunts it to this day.

When other teenagers start dying outside the manor, everyone is spooked. The authorities seem alarmingly ineffectual, so Cam, Jonesy, Amber and Buffy decide to take matters into their own hands and do a little investigating of their own. The more they uncover tho, the more danger they put themselves into. Will they be able to stick together in their search for a killer, or will they forget Rule Number One of Adventuring: Don’t Split The Party?

Lol, sorry, I know that’s another genre, but this book is such a mishmash that I don’t think anyone would care. And there’s a certain charm to that, an Anything Goes attitude that allows for a freewheeling, Scooby-Doo-esque experience. The suspense is developed nicely, and the red herrings were quite good: I genuinely would not have guessed the actual identity of the killer.

Unfortunately, not a whole lot else about this novel really stands up to anything remotely approaching real world logic. I can more easily buy four teenagers doing stupid things by investigating than some of the other awfully convenient plot twists. And the localizations in this book are so weird that I kept being pulled out of the supposed California setting by all the Britishisms that, ironically, tended to come from every voice except Jonesy’s.

That said, the relationship between Cam and Jonesy is super sweet. I always love the best friends to lovers trope, and it was handled really nicely here. Let’s see what happens in the next book in the series, which I’ll be posting about next in a review double header!

Let’s Split Up by Bill Wood was published September 2 2025 by Scholastic Press and is available from all good booksellers, including