Nothing brings a family together quite like a billionaire patriarch being murdered at his own gala. 👀🔪
I had SUCH a good time with The Heirs by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé. This is one of those YA mysteries that completely pulled me in and kept me guessing the entire time. ⭐️ 4.25/5 stars
The premise alone is wildly compelling: billionaire Leontes Button adopts five infants from orphanages around the world because he believes nurture matters more than nature. At a bizarre “Choosing Ceremony” when they are babies, each child crawls toward an object that supposedly predicts the prodigy they are destined to become. They are then raised and groomed to excel in those fields for the rest of their lives. 😳
By the time they are teenagers, four of the five siblings have become exactly what Button wanted them to be. Romeo, however, is considered the failure of the family. Then during the family’s lavish annual prodigy gala, Button is murdered… and every one of his heirs becomes a suspect. 🖤
This book gave me major Umbrella Academy vibes in the BEST way — dysfunctional gifted siblings, complicated family dynamics, buried resentments, questions about identity, and the lingering damage of being treated more like an experiment than a child. I also appreciated that the siblings all come from very different racial and cultural backgrounds, and the story actually engages thoughtfully with how those identities shape their experiences within this strange family structure.
Perdita was probably the sibling I connected with most, but honestly all five perspectives felt distinct and memorable. That is especially impressive because I listened to this on audiobook, and sometimes a single narrator handling multiple teen perspectives can get confusing. Not here. The narrator did an excellent job differentiating the voices without making them feel cartoonish or overacted. 🎧
The plot constantly shifted in directions I did not expect, but it never became difficult to follow. Even with a fairly large cast, the audiobook stayed really accessible and would honestly make a fantastic tandem read/listen.
This ended up being one of my favorite YA mysteries of 2026 already, and yes… I have already ordered myself a trophy copy. 🏆📚
Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing me with an advanced listening copy. The Heirs publishes June 2, 2026.
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