Review | A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson | a small town murder mystery
“But sometimes remembering isn’t for yourself, sometimes you do it just to make someone else smile. Those lies were allowed.”FORMAT READ: Audiobook
GENRE: Mystery, Young Adult Thriller
PUBLISHER: Delacorte Press
PUBLISHING DATE: February 2, 2020
READ DATE: August 24, 2020
┈ overall thoughts ┈ 3.5/5
tw: rape, drugs, death of an animal, kidnapping
For once we have teenager interactions that don't feel forced and aren’t cringey. All rejoice!!
I really enjoyed the way the story was told and Pippa’s perspective was the perfect way that it could have been told for me. The fact that it was we were following the way she was writing her capstone project was also really creative and made it more interesting.
My favorite part of this book is definitely the direct commentary on how media affects our prejudice against certain people and issues. There were even discussions on racism and other cultural biases that went into the actual murder incident. Being in Pippa’s head, seeing the way she thought about these issues was very compelling to me. She definitely isn’t one of those protagonists that just don’t notice clues as she tries to figures out who the murderer is. Which I LOVE because I’m sick of those protagonists that just don’t see the clues and we have to watch them run around.
Ultimately, it was the ending that knocked this down for me. Everything ended so abruptly. And this is probably a personal preference but I got put off by the fact that most of the plot twists happened around the last 10% mark??
I mean there were other twists along the way and I always love plot twists. But they were just one after the other towards the end and it just didn’t give me enough time to think about them and absorb it.
“As if they think I don’t already know. I came out of the womb knowing how to do academic references.”
The group of teenagers in this book was also one that I surprisingly didn't get annoyed of like I thought I would. They were very amusing to me and added a somewhat lighter feel to the overall tone.
There is a death of an animal here that I just can’t forgive and found completely unnecessary. This was one of the weak points in the plot for me, aside from how I just hate reading these kinds of things.
This definitely reads more like a contemporary YA than I wanted which I wasn’t the biggest fan of. I also wasn’t as shocked as I expected to be with who the real killer was? I don’t know this is probably just me though.
Other than that, all in all, this definitely falls on the better side of YA mystery/thrillers if that’s something that you are looking for. It was pretty exciting to say the least and like I said, the commentary on the influence of media was just intriguing to read! In case you were wondering, the mystery does get solved in this book so you don’t need to read the next book and see the plot drag on just to know who the murderer is.
The audiobook was also very well performed and I loved the narrator. There was also this effect they did whenever the scene is a phone call and I definitely recommend listening to it if that's something you are into.
plot: ★★★☆☆
writing style: ★★★★☆
world building: ★★★☆☆
characters: ★★★★☆
themes: ★★★★☆
pacing: ★★★☆☆
page turner: ★★★★☆
Thank you so much for reading!
What are your thoughts on this book?
Do you have any mystery/thriller recommendations?
