A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder

Holly Jackson

Book Review


 

 

good girl guide

 

Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend Sal Singh. The small town was so sure of it. The case is closed.  But Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn’t so sure. She takes this case as her high-school final year project.

As she starts to uncover the secrets one by one, someone in her little town doesn’t want these secrets to come out in the open. Now that she is getting closer to the truth, there is still a killer on the loose watching over her every move.

Who is the killer and what was the reason? To what lengths would this person go to stop the truth from coming out?


 

“And in the dead silence of the night, Pip whispered, “Who’s taking the picture?”

– Holly Jackson, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder

 


I picked this book when I DNFed 1984. I was in desperate need of a crime thriller. This book has been popular on book-stagram for quite a while now and curiosity got the better of me and I had to check this book out.

You can also check out this review: https://gentlepages.com/anxious-people-book-review/

It was only after I had finished about fifty pages, had I realized, this was a book series and not a stand-alone. Personally, I have been leaning more towards stand-alones than series since you may never know when the plot may go downhill and also it is quite a commitment to stay around for the entire series.

I continued reading nonetheless and I loved it. It was a good thriller book. It kept me on alert throughout. I had my suspicions on a few characters but it was not that person at the end, which meant the ending definitely took me by surprise.

 

There were moments where it was too thrilling to read. I felt as if I was the main character and doing all these reckless things.

 


 

“The people you love weren’t algebra: to be calculated, subtracted, or held at arm’s length across a decimal point.”

– Holly Jackson, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder

 


Writing:

This is my first time reading Holly Jackson’s work and I like it.

At first I found it hard to keep up as it switched from first person perspective during diary entries to third person perspective during narration. The way the plot unravels is just so beautiful. It wasn’t too cliché.

Plot:

This is the type of book that you would want to read when it is gloomy and raining outside. This book has a dark undertone and based on the other two books in the sequel, it looks like it only gets darker.

It also gave me a bit of Pretty Little Liars vibe.

This book will keep the reader glued and can very well complete it in a single sitting. I couldn’t guess what would happen next in the book and that was good.

Characters:

The protagonist of the story, Peppa takes detailed notes and keeps logs of her ongoing investigation which is such a relief to the readers instead of a web-string bulletin board.

It is like as if Pippa is the modern day Nancy Drew.

The only thing which did not sit right with me is that to get the truth out, she does some illegal things herself too. As in, breaking into people’s houses, catphishing people, blackmailing drug dealers etc.

Ravi is the brother of Sal, the alleged murderer of Andie Bell. I was so interested in this character and he gave me butterflies every now and then.

Andie seems to be the opposite of what the media portrayed her to be. She has dark secrets and her overall personality is really bad. She is a bad person, bad sister, bad girlfriend, and bad student.


 

“I’ve already learned my lesson here: when you catch someone lying about a murdered girl, you go ask them why.”

– Holly Jackson, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder


 

Final thoughts:

Since the first book kept me glued on throughout, I’m going to start the second book and only later would I know if the series is worth it or if the plot lost its core and it is just dragging.

You can get your copy of the book here: https://www.amazon.in/Good-Girls-Guide-Murder/dp/1405293187

 

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