Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

636 reviews

ed_moore's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

‘A Good Girls Guide to Murder’ is the story of Pip, a college aged girl who decides to write her EPQ on how Sal Singh, the murderer of Andie Bell 5 years ago and victim of his own suicide, is actually innocent. It was a murder mystery with so many elements and threads to follow that it was hard to keep track which clues tied to which suspects, but ultimately ended in quite an ungrounded outcome.

The plot was extremely engaging and kept me listening (I audio booked it resulting in one of my main criticisms), however though engaging due to its nature as a murder mystery with so many theories and angles the writing itself wasn’t so great. Jackson’s prose was quote typical of a YA and in no manner anything remarkable, just did the job in telling the story, and her characters were also mostly one dimensional and flat, the suspects were bad and everyone else was good, they served their role in the plot and nothing more.
 

The story itself would probably warrant somewhere between 3-3.5 but it has really been dragged down by the narration of the audiobook. Though this is no fault of the writing it was a format I really didn’t enjoy, dramatised by voice actors for scenes of speech and especially added sound effects, rings and voice distortions for phone calls. I just didn’t enjoy such. The mystery was engaging but everything else was just fine.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Rape, and Child abuse

juan_jc's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Sexual content, Grief, Rape, Body shaming, Murder, Sexual assault, Bullying, Drug use, Death, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Alcohol and Adult/minor relationship

_readwithtee's review

mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

Loved how fast paced it was, especially part 3. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Animal death, Suicide, Murder, and Drug abuse

sjepp's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This book is bussin. Took me a minute to get into it. I haven’t been on a fiction kick in a hot minute, but I can honest to goodness tell you I was hooked after page 67. When Pip shares her four theories of the murder, I knew I’d finish the book before the day was over

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Bullying, Drug use, Grief, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, and Murder

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, Sexual assault, Self harm, Rape, Medical trauma, Bullying, Body shaming, Blood, and Adult/minor relationship

sharlapeggy's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I liked it. A good feel to the book and I enjoyed the twists and turns as you accuse different people and you try to work it out. I wasn’t amazingly keen on the ending - I feel like it was a bit of a let down but I did enjoy it. Not sure I’d pick up book 2 hence why not 5 stars. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Toxic friendship, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Child death, Confinement, Pedophilia, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, and Murder

lunamagicath's review against another edition

adventurous funny inspiring mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Stalking, Drug abuse, and Murder

kimduindam's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Review of the UK Edition of this book. 
Not usually the type of books I like to read so that's why I went with the audiobook but I loved any moment of it! The audiobook was also really good! I loved this book so much and I cried when

Barney :c

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Vomit, Violence, Drug use, Murder, and Kidnapping

Minor: Rape, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Suicide

rosapalskov's review against another edition

funny lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Very easy and fun read, not a single boring moment. I kept trying to guess who the murderer was, which kept me engaged the entire story.

I like how the villains were nuanced, and you could understand why they did what they did, making it more realistic.

It wasn’t super original, and some of the plottwists were a bit pridictable. The main character was also a bit too perfect sometimes, but that does also fit the young adult genre. Even though the target audience is teens, I still very much enjoyed it as an adult.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Drug use, Murder, Kidnapping, Rape, Drug abuse, and Stalking

mnholden's review against another edition

dark mysterious

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Rape, Drug abuse, and Suicide

Minor: Car accident and Self harm

sabrinahlkr's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racism, Kidnapping, and Death

Moderate: Drug abuse and Rape

Minor: Vomit, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, and Stalking