YMMV / Murder at Homecoming

• Captain Obvious Reveal: Unlike in previous murder mystery stories where the killer suddenly reveals themself (such as Veil of Secrets, The Unexpected Heiress and Crimes of Passion), the reveal of April as Gabbie's killer in Chapter 15 felt quite obvious to some fans, primarily due to the fact that she has epilepsy, which gives her access to the drug used on Gabbie, which is used to treat nervous disorders.
• Catharsis Factor: The premium scene in Chapter 14 where Joanna finally stands up to her homophobic father, calling him out for controlling her and trying to change who she is under the guise of maintaining a happy family image while he himself cheats on his wife. Even better, Joanna can either send proof of the affair to his wife or delete the evidence under the condition that her father never contacts her ever again.
• LGBT Fanbase: While many Choices stories have this in some capacity (owing to its relaxed attitude towards same-sex relationships), this book pulls out all the stops for LGBT representation, and fans applauded it (though disappointed that the main character is still unable to cross-dress despite being potentially transgender or nonbinary). The main character has several different dialogue choices when the topic of LGBT representation comes up that describe their experiences both good and bad (ranging from having a loving community to experiencing queerphobia and people "not getting" their sexuality or gender identity), two of the love interests are canonically bisexual instead of the usual "playersexual", the murder victim is bisexual and in a same-sex relationship with someone who couldn't make their relationship known because of the latter's homophobic parents, there's an entire subplot about one of the love interests realizing he may not be straight if a non-female main character romances him, and the book does not shy away from mentioning the horrors of conversion therapy and what one poor girl had to go through because her parents thought she needed to be "cured" (a boundary that many fans thought Choices would never have the guts to break). All of this makes the book praised for its no-holds-barred discussion of sexuality and gender identity, with just about every facet of the spectrum shown.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Gabbie's death scene in Chapter 1. Blake finds her lifeless body floating in the swimming pool, and her hand appears to be bleeding. Beforehand, she received a threatening note with the message "WE KNOW WHAT YOU DID" scribbled on it and a razor blade inside the note.
  • Most of Chapter 15.
    • April Morris, Brett's sister is revealed to be the killer. As soon as the reveal happens, April's angry face is seen for the first time, and it's terrifying.
    • April spends much of the chapter armed with a baseball bat, intending to bludgeon Blake to death, complete with accompanying sound effects. At one point, Blake has to reach the roof, where Claudia has been taken. If they take the elevator, they encounter April waiting for them, baseball bat in hand. Cue Game Over.
    • Once Blake reaches the rooftop, they find Claudia, who has been tied up and injected with a drug. April reveals that this time, they got the dosage right.
    • April reveals her motives to Blake; Gabbie got Brett arrested, while Claudia broke up with him, and she wanted to avenge her brother. During her motive rant, April reveals that she didn't intend to kill Gabbie, she was merely supposed to be knocked unconscious by the drugs injected into her system so that she'd miss being crowned Homecoming queen. Gabbie, however, fell into the pool, and April just stood there and watched her die. Worse, April shows no remorse for what she did, believing that two innocent people deserve to die for hurting her brother, even though he's hurt many more people a lot worse.
    • Finally, April prepares to kill Blake.
    April: You know the worst part of it all? I feel like we could have been friends under different circumstances. (April flexes the bat) But you're just too smart. Goodbye, Valentine Blake Stone. (Smash to Black)
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: What happened to Perdita? Didn't she disappear like, 4 years ago? Is she still alive, or is she really dead? This plot thread didn't get much focus, and even until the end, it never got a resolution.
  • The last few chapters seemed to indicate there was a criminal conspiracy at the Hospital and Perdita may have been investigating it, but again, it didn't get much focus and was never resolved.
• The Woobie:
  • Mr. Lewis, the kind-hearted chemistry teacher. Despite being well-loved initially, he's falsely accused of being in a relationship with one of his students (who was recently murdered) and arrested. Though he's eventually found not guilty, the incident made him quit his job entirely. He was also disowned by his parents for being gay, with his mother refusing to ever let him back into the family home unless he ended his "wicked relationship" (not with Gabbie, as previously thought, but another man).
  • Joanna Morgan has things even worse. She was sent to conversion therapy at the age of 12, and by the time it was over, she hated everything about herself, but her parents didn't care as long as she was "cured". Her secret girlfriend was murdered on Homecoming night (just before they were about to elope), her teacher (who was helping her through the whole ordeal) was arrested for something he didn't even do, and she's forced to out herself to prove him innocent (after which she is disowned by her parents).