A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
Genre: YA Mystery
Blurb (on back of book): The case is closed. Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by Sal Singh. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it.
But having grown up in the same small town that was consumed by the murder, Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn't so sure. When she chooses the case as the topic for her final year project, she starts to uncover secrets that someone in town desperately wants to stay hidden. And if the real killer is still out there, how far will they go to keep Pip from the truth?
MY OPINION: ****
This book is super popular all over social media and with my literary friends but I haven't really ever wanted to read it due to the fact that it's not only YA but also a murder mystery/suspense novel. However, as some of you might have noticed, I've recently been trying to read new genres and get out of the romance-only zone. I've started some thrillers and mysteries and I would love to find more (drop some recs!) but this series was definitely at the top of the list for most people when I asked.
The story follows a seventeen year old girl, Pip, (I believe she's 17) and her quest to uncover the truth behind a murder that happened in her small town of Little Kilton five years before. She is convinced that the person who was blamed for the crime was not the actual perpetrator, leading her to spend countless days and hours poring over case files, conducting interviews, analyzing evidence, and searching for the real killer.
I really liked this premise. It was a little outlandish that a random teenage girl could do something that the police officers and detectives so clearly couldn't but it's YA and I'm willing to forgive most ridiculous plot-lines if it's YA. It's told in a mixture of normal third-person narrative and incorporations of case files, interview transcripts, emails, and other digital media that help the reader along with Pip try to solve the case.
I didn't see the ending coming, which is one of the core things I look for when rating one of these mystery novels. I don't like to know the plot-twists before they happen and while I had my fair share of suspicions, I was very surprised by the ending. While it wasn't the most jaw-dropping sort of thing, it all came together very well and I was definitely in the dark for the whole first parts of the book.
To be quite honest, I didn't like Pip as a character. She was trying so hard to be "quirky" but it came off as annoying and a little pick-me, if you ask me. I found her traits aggravating and her abruptness and blatantly rude behavior towards the people she was interviewing and talking to not the cutest. There were times when I admired her bravery and spunk but at the same time, I was convinced she was one of the dumbest (in terms of her decisions, not her intelligence) people out here.
Ravi was... well, he wasn't what I was expecting. Everyone said it was going to be some epic side love story between Ravi and Pip and quite honestly, I did not see it at all. There was no chemistry between them and I honestly wouldn't have known they were supposed to be love interests if my friends hadn't hyped it up so much. I do know that it gets more interesting in the rest of the series but that was a serious let-down for this first book. But Ravi himself was cute and I admired his determination and bravery in the face of mockery and extreme bullying.
I definitely wasn't expecting to like this book as much as I did. Aside from the pretentious Pip and the severely lacking romance subplot I had expected, this book was full of suspense and twists and turns that I ended up really enjoying. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun, suspenseful YA murder mystery series!
Main Character: Pip
Sidekick(s): Ravi, etc
Villain(s): Murder, unfair criminalization, etc
Mystery Elements: This book is a murder mystery.
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