A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder by Holly Jackson
Format: Paperback
Pages: 387
Start Date: February 5, 2023
End Date: February 9, 2023
My Ratings
Overall: ★★★
Character Development: ★★★
Ending: ★★★
Spice Level: 🌶
Suspense Level: 🔪
Tear Jerk-ability: 💧
Put Down-ability: Medium
Readability: Easy, Quick Read
Tiggers:
Summary In My Words
5 years ago, Andrea Bell disappeared without a trace. Several days later, her boyfriend at the time, Sal Singh, turns up dead by suicide. Right before his body was found, his father received a text from Sal in which he confessed to killing Andie. Fast forward to the present time, Pip Fitz-Amobi is a senior in high school, doing her capstone project on the case. In her gut, she just knows Sal didn't kill Andie. As she embarks on this investigative journey, it quickly becomes clear that there is way more to the story then someone wants her to know. Threats start to appear, trying to warn her off the case. If she continues to ask questions, she will not only be putting her own life in danger, but others' as well!
My Thoughts - Contains Spoilers, Continue at Your Own Risk
What a cute little book. Did it blow me away? No. Did I dislike the book? Also no. It was easy to read, which made the "pick up ability" of the book nice. The chapters were short, which made me feel like I could get a few pages read here and there since I knew I could finish a chapter quickly. Sometimes if the chapters are super long, I didn't like I have time to devote a significant chunk of time to sitting down and reading.
Part of what I didn't like about the book was that some parts of it didn't feel plausible. For example, if I started receiving death threats due to my research, I probably would be going straight to the police instead of shrugging the threats off. Maybe I could see feeling like the first note was just a prank, but given I also thought I saw someone watching us in the woods I probably would have taken it more seriously. Also, some of the details surrounding the murders and the evidence just didn't seem feasible to me. Placing dried blood under a corpse's fingernails? Hmm.... I don't think so. How did the killer transport the blood? Wouldn't the blood crumble under the pressure of tweezers? How would the killer be able to plant evidence without any indication that would tip off the police that it was planted?
Another thing that got me thinking, was the mistaken identity of Andie Bell. I understand Elliot subconsciously willing Andie to still be alive could be the cause of his clouded judgement at first. Especially since he didn't know for sure she had died after she left his house. I just feel like after all that time, wouldn't at some point he have realized it wasn't her? He never once had any doubts about the identity of this girl? He never once thought that it wasn't who he thought it was?
I do understand that it is a fictional book, but I guess I'd prefer a little less "far fetched" theories and behaviors within this genre of book. Don't get me wrong, I did still enjoy the book. Given it was a young adult mystery thriller, it was predictable and not too deep in regards to the writing of it. It still had a few fun twists that took me by surprise, but I think those also left me feeling "how realistic is this?". This is the first book of a three book series, which I will read the other two.....eventually. I just won't be running to start the next book.
I'm Curious
If you were Pip, do you think you could continue your "investigation" given the threats Pip received? At what point would you have started taking them seriously?
What did you think about Pip's decision to not involve the police? Or at the very least her parents for that matter? Seems a little far fetched to me, personally.
Do you find it odd that no one in the community seemed to question Pip's relationship with Sal's brother, Ravi? If Ravi and his family were such outcasts, wouldn't her association with Ravi leave her own reputation tainted?
How were you left feeling about the police and investigation? Did you ever feel like they dropped the ball in regards to the investigation or the drugging allegations? Do you feel like they acted accordingly given the lack of evidence?
Next Book: The Christie Affair by Nina de Gram
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