They’ll Never Catch Us proves author Jessica Goodman is a YA force

You may have heard of author Jessica Goodman, thanks to her debut novel They Wish They Were Us, which is now getting adapted as a Netflix series titled The Player’s Table. But it’s her second release, the very different They’ll Never Catch Us that fully establishes Goodman as a force to be reckoned with in the world of contemporary YA thrillers.

Another twisty and suspenseful murder mystery that’s about a lot more than just the crime in question, the novel is also a story about the force bond between sisters, the weight of history on a small town with few options for those that live there, and the way that a thread of misogyny often runs through female athletics, as girls are repeatedly pitted against one another even as they’re shamed for being too aggressive or too competitive.

They’ll Never Catch Us follows the story of Stella and Ellie Steckler, two sisters who are also talented cross-country runners. Both girls hope to use their athletic prowess to secure a way out of their small nowhere town of Edgewater, a place that’s memorable largely for the trio of girls – also cross-country runners – who were killed there.

That their murders were never solved still haunts the place some still refer to as “Deadwater,” and casts a long shadow over the girls who run now. (After all, it’s the girls who must be more circumspect, must keep themselves indoors at night, must not run alone. The boys? Can pretty much do whatever.)

The arrival of new star runner Mila Keene shakes up the girls’ team, during a season when Stella is already struggling to impress the college recruiters after a summer at a camp for troubled girls and Ellie is dealing with her own summer drama – an affair with one of her teammates’ boyfriends. But when Mila goes missing and everyone’s suddenly a suspect, the Steckler sisters will have to come together and support each other in a way they haven’t since they were much younger.

Though the mystery of what happened to MIla – and who’s responsible – drives the buzziest bits of the novel, They’ll Never Catch Us is primarily driven by the relationship between the sisters at its center. Stella is intense and constantly furious – at her family who can only afford to send one of their daughters to college, at her sister to whom everything seems to come so easily, at her teammates who don’t take running as seriously as she does, even at Mila, for arriving during what was meant to be her standout senior season.

Ellie is softer, kinder, and more open than her sister. She has a natural, easy talent that means she never acquired the relentless drive of her sister. Instead, she craves connection – friendship, love, approval from her parents and her coach. She genuinely cares for Noah, the boyfriend of her friend Tamara, and believes he returns those feelings, despite the repeated actions that prove that his is the only future he’s thinking about.

Yes, They’ll Never Catch Us is a whodunnit on multiple levels – who’s responsible for Mila’s disappearance, does it have anything to do with the cold cases of those dead cross country girls who never got anything like justice. But it’s also a story of sisterhood and survival, the horrors of high school, the cruelty that young women are taught to show to one another. The book covers issues that range from abortion to alcoholism, and its depiction of the way that the actions of one family member can tarnish everyone connected to them in a small community is painfully accurate.

Plus, the ending is genuinely surprising, and one I wasn’t expecting at all. Well played, Jessica Goodman. I’m looking forward to seeing what you do next.

They’ll Never Catch Us is available now. Let us know if you’re going to give it a look!