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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Where do I even start?
This book. . .infuriated me so much. And disappointed me so much. I was really excited to read it and then it was awful.
You know what's even worse than this book? The fact that I wrote an entire review and it didn't save so now I need to rewrite it.
Annie and Kerry are two best friends and the book starts on their first day of their junior year of high school. I already hate the first page, looking back. Annie and Kerry ride their bikes to school. First of all. . .okay, I guess? It feels very juvenile-not that there's anything wrong with riding bikes, but it really feels strange. But also. . .Annie's normal bike broke or something (I don't remember exactly what happened) so she was riding her six-year-old sister's bike. HER SISTER IS MENTIONED ONCE. ON THE FIRST PAGE. NEVER AGAIN. WE NEVER GET A NAME. I'm not even sure Annie and Kerry have last names. I don't remember them having them. Annie's parents are also nonexistent, and Kerry's parents aren't in the book much, either. Again, very strange.
Let's talk about the writing style. Very quickly I realized that the author was trying way too hard to be relatable. I'm close in age to Annie and Kerry and this book made me cringe so much. From characters calling Instagram "the gram" to actually saying "OMG" unironically, this was not relatable in the slightest. It almost feels like something I'd write in fourth grade, but I still can't imagine little nine-year-old me writing something like this atrocity. DON'T WRITE ABOUT TEENAGERS UNLESS YOU REMEMBER WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE ONE.
Oh, right. Let's talk about the characters next.
Annie. Annie. Annie. Whywhwyhwywhwywhywhwywhy. Why. Annie is a total jerk. She's a horrible friend to Kerry, and Kerry's the only POV character so we don't know her motivations for anything. At first I hoped that Annie would go through character development but she doesn't. She's a jerk at the beginning and a jerk at the end. Full circle, am I right? Hahahahaha I hate this book so much. Annie uses three murders for her personal gain, and doesn't mourn the dead at all. She makes everything about her-wait, no, that's not true. She makes everything about herself, sexism, and misogyny. Sorry. Anyways, there's this one part where Kerry finds a body and Annie goes with her to the interview even though she wasn't there and she makes the death about her instead of the dead person. It's so annoying.
And then there's Kerry. Kerry's not awful, but she is the stereotypical shy, introverted main character. Oh, and she has anxiety. It was mentioned thrice. That's it. It was not shown. It was barely told. WHY? Kerry also never really stands up to Annie. There's this one part where she sort of does, but not really. I hate that.
I'm not going to write about all the other characters, I've written so much already. But I will mention Les Populaires.
The popular kids at the school go by Les Populaires. At first, I thought everyone referred to them as that, as a joke or something. But no. THEY CALL THEMSELVES THAT. People at my school would never. And there's this one part when a character says "Haha that can't be a correct French translation" but it IS. You know what would've been funny? If they called themselves Les Peupliers, which means "the poplars" in French. It would've been ironic, at least. But of course the author didn't do that.
Maybe I should talk about the actual mystery now. It was fine, I guess. The whole thing was that they were "menstrual murders"-that's not a spoiler, it's in the synopsis-but it was sort of weird because only one character was killed with a menstrual cup. The rest were killed normally and then were found with period products. The mystery ended up going in a direction I sort of predicted and I hated, but objectively it wasn't bad.
You know what was bad, though? The constant complaints of sexism and misogyny.
I am a woman, so I definitely agree that sexism and misogyny do exist and suck. But like. . .I won't be complaining about misogyny when I'm a gunpoint.
Yes, a character complains about misogyny when a gun is pointed at them.
Everything was turned into a way to yell about how every man is sexist. Literally yell-whenever characters raised their voices, it was written in ALL CAPS. It was really annoying. Anyways, the weirdest things were called misogynistic. Like, one male character calls Annie and Kerry "girls" and they got mad. But it's not like a group of boys wouldn't be called "boys". It wasn't said in a condescending way, either, if I remember correctly. It was ridiculous. Also, the first person murdered was a girl, and the cops said it was an accident. When the second victim was killed, a boy, they decided it was a murder. Annie and Kerry decided it was misogynistic, because it was only considered murder once a boy was dead. But like. . .the first death could've been an accident. But when the second victim showed up obviously it wasn't. So it really makes no sense. There's this one character called Mr. C (oh, by the way, there's a Mr. C, a Mrs. R, a Mrs. S, and a Mr. S. JUST USE THEIR NAMES) who's Annie's and Kerry's teacher and is misogynistic. That's his personality. And he's literally misogynistic for no reason. It doesn't even matter. Why make such a big deal of it if it doesn't matter?
That's my biggest gripe about this book. It's not subtle. The humor isn't subtle (oh, don't worry, we'll get to the humor), the themes aren't subtle, IT'S NOT SUBTLE. (Yes, I AM a hypocrite for using all caps after complaining about that.) The talk of sexism would be fine if it wasn't constantly outright talked about.
Now for the humor. My god, was it atrocious. I never smiled while reading this book. Wait, that's not true. I smiled when I realized I was on the last chapter. Anyways, the humor was either just Annie being ridiculous and acting like a six year old or Annie yelling about vaginas. It was not funny at all.
Last, but certainly not least, the talk of periods. Ugh. Okay. Let's start out with the fact that one of the characters owns a period product company. Annie and Kerry complain about how it's misogynistic because the slogans mention being discreet about your period. I'm all for period positivity or whatever, but like, I don't need people to know when I'm on my period. I would love them to NOT know, actually. I don't think it's misogynistic to advertise products as being discreet. Just because a man owns the company doesn't mean it's inherently sexist. The fact that period products should be called that instead of feminine products was brought up a few hundred times. The first few times it was fine, makes sense, sure, but. . .STOP. SAYING. IT. WE KNOW. Every point about sexism was brought up so many times that I just didn't care anymore. Again, not subtle at all. There's this one part when Annie's annoyed that people referred to period products as "sanitary products" but then the synopsis literally says "sanitary pad" so like. . .I GUESS THE AUTHOR IS MISOGYNISTIC, THEN. Oh, and here's my favorite thing. During that conversation, Kerry (or maybe it was Annie, I'm not sure) brings up how in commercials for period products they use blue liquid instead of blood/red liquid. WHY??? NO ONE WAS TALKING ABOUT BLOOD. NOT A SINGLE SOUL. The author clearly wanted to make a statement about how periods are unfairly ostracized, and I do agree, but. . .it was so annoying and boring to read about. It was brought up so much and so often and here I thought I signed up to read a "murder mystery rom-com".
Well, I guess that's it for now. I can't think of anything else that's worth mentioning. I don't recommend this book.
This book. . .infuriated me so much. And disappointed me so much. I was really excited to read it and then it was awful.
You know what's even worse than this book? The fact that I wrote an entire review and it didn't save so now I need to rewrite it.
Annie and Kerry are two best friends and the book starts on their first day of their junior year of high school. I already hate the first page, looking back. Annie and Kerry ride their bikes to school. First of all. . .okay, I guess? It feels very juvenile-not that there's anything wrong with riding bikes, but it really feels strange. But also. . .Annie's normal bike broke or something (I don't remember exactly what happened) so she was riding her six-year-old sister's bike. HER SISTER IS MENTIONED ONCE. ON THE FIRST PAGE. NEVER AGAIN. WE NEVER GET A NAME. I'm not even sure Annie and Kerry have last names. I don't remember them having them. Annie's parents are also nonexistent, and Kerry's parents aren't in the book much, either. Again, very strange.
Let's talk about the writing style. Very quickly I realized that the author was trying way too hard to be relatable. I'm close in age to Annie and Kerry and this book made me cringe so much. From characters calling Instagram "the gram" to actually saying "OMG" unironically, this was not relatable in the slightest. It almost feels like something I'd write in fourth grade, but I still can't imagine little nine-year-old me writing something like this atrocity. DON'T WRITE ABOUT TEENAGERS UNLESS YOU REMEMBER WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE ONE.
Oh, right. Let's talk about the characters next.
Annie. Annie. Annie. Whywhwyhwywhwywhywhwywhy. Why. Annie is a total jerk. She's a horrible friend to Kerry, and Kerry's the only POV character so we don't know her motivations for anything. At first I hoped that Annie would go through character development but she doesn't. She's a jerk at the beginning and a jerk at the end. Full circle, am I right? Hahahahaha I hate this book so much. Annie uses three murders for her personal gain, and doesn't mourn the dead at all. She makes everything about her-wait, no, that's not true. She makes everything about herself, sexism, and misogyny. Sorry. Anyways, there's this one part where Kerry finds a body and Annie goes with her to the interview even though she wasn't there and she makes the death about her instead of the dead person. It's so annoying.
And then there's Kerry. Kerry's not awful, but she is the stereotypical shy, introverted main character. Oh, and she has anxiety. It was mentioned thrice. That's it. It was not shown. It was barely told. WHY? Kerry also never really stands up to Annie. There's this one part where she sort of does, but not really. I hate that.
I'm not going to write about all the other characters, I've written so much already. But I will mention Les Populaires.
The popular kids at the school go by Les Populaires. At first, I thought everyone referred to them as that, as a joke or something. But no. THEY CALL THEMSELVES THAT. People at my school would never. And there's this one part when a character says "Haha that can't be a correct French translation" but it IS. You know what would've been funny? If they called themselves Les Peupliers, which means "the poplars" in French. It would've been ironic, at least. But of course the author didn't do that.
Maybe I should talk about the actual mystery now. It was fine, I guess. The whole thing was that they were "menstrual murders"-that's not a spoiler, it's in the synopsis-but it was sort of weird because only one character was killed with a menstrual cup. The rest were killed normally and then were found with period products. The mystery ended up going in a direction I sort of predicted and I hated, but objectively it wasn't bad.
You know what was bad, though? The constant complaints of sexism and misogyny.
I am a woman, so I definitely agree that sexism and misogyny do exist and suck. But like. . .I won't be complaining about misogyny when I'm a gunpoint.
Yes, a character complains about misogyny when a gun is pointed at them.
Everything was turned into a way to yell about how every man is sexist. Literally yell-whenever characters raised their voices, it was written in ALL CAPS. It was really annoying. Anyways, the weirdest things were called misogynistic. Like, one male character calls Annie and Kerry "girls" and they got mad. But it's not like a group of boys wouldn't be called "boys". It wasn't said in a condescending way, either, if I remember correctly. It was ridiculous. Also, the first person murdered was a girl, and the cops said it was an accident. When the second victim was killed, a boy, they decided it was a murder. Annie and Kerry decided it was misogynistic, because it was only considered murder once a boy was dead. But like. . .the first death could've been an accident. But when the second victim showed up obviously it wasn't. So it really makes no sense. There's this one character called Mr. C (oh, by the way, there's a Mr. C, a Mrs. R, a Mrs. S, and a Mr. S. JUST USE THEIR NAMES) who's Annie's and Kerry's teacher and is misogynistic. That's his personality. And he's literally misogynistic for no reason. It doesn't even matter. Why make such a big deal of it if it doesn't matter?
That's my biggest gripe about this book. It's not subtle. The humor isn't subtle (oh, don't worry, we'll get to the humor), the themes aren't subtle, IT'S NOT SUBTLE. (Yes, I AM a hypocrite for using all caps after complaining about that.) The talk of sexism would be fine if it wasn't constantly outright talked about.
Now for the humor. My god, was it atrocious. I never smiled while reading this book. Wait, that's not true. I smiled when I realized I was on the last chapter. Anyways, the humor was either just Annie being ridiculous and acting like a six year old or Annie yelling about vaginas. It was not funny at all.
Last, but certainly not least, the talk of periods. Ugh. Okay. Let's start out with the fact that one of the characters owns a period product company. Annie and Kerry complain about how it's misogynistic because the slogans mention being discreet about your period. I'm all for period positivity or whatever, but like, I don't need people to know when I'm on my period. I would love them to NOT know, actually. I don't think it's misogynistic to advertise products as being discreet. Just because a man owns the company doesn't mean it's inherently sexist. The fact that period products should be called that instead of feminine products was brought up a few hundred times. The first few times it was fine, makes sense, sure, but. . .STOP. SAYING. IT. WE KNOW. Every point about sexism was brought up so many times that I just didn't care anymore. Again, not subtle at all. There's this one part when Annie's annoyed that people referred to period products as "sanitary products" but then the synopsis literally says "sanitary pad" so like. . .I GUESS THE AUTHOR IS MISOGYNISTIC, THEN. Oh, and here's my favorite thing. During that conversation, Kerry (or maybe it was Annie, I'm not sure) brings up how in commercials for period products they use blue liquid instead of blood/red liquid. WHY??? NO ONE WAS TALKING ABOUT BLOOD. NOT A SINGLE SOUL. The author clearly wanted to make a statement about how periods are unfairly ostracized, and I do agree, but. . .it was so annoying and boring to read about. It was brought up so much and so often and here I thought I signed up to read a "murder mystery rom-com".
Well, I guess that's it for now. I can't think of anything else that's worth mentioning. I don't recommend this book.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Drug use, Sexism, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder meets Georgia Nicholson in this fast paced, feminist and wickedly funny YA murder mystery. If you love your suspense with a healthy does of humour then I definitely suggest checking this out.
Navigating friendships, first love, and period positivity (as well as being packed with Kate Weston’s signature brand of British humour), we follow two socially awkward teens (Kerry and Annie) as they try to solve the recent spate of tampon and period pad-based murders plaguing their small town.
Firstly, I just want to say, the marketing and PR for this book has been insanely creative (the period pad bookmark is quite possibly my new fave and should you buy from a UK store definitely check to see if they still have any left.) And I’m glad to report that it also lived up to all my expectations with its satirical, Holly Jackson meets Sex Education style premise.
Our protagonists, Kerry and Annie were refreshingly relatable (and endearing) in all their teenage awkwardness. Especially Kerry, who would rather stay home and fantasise about cute boys, than risk the humiliation of trying to hang out with the popular kids.
Her introverted nature really resonated with teenage me and her ride or die loyalty for bestie (and resident sleuth) Annie was soo adorable. Given Annie’s determination to become popular by finding the killer, leads them into soo much danger—I applaud their Pretty Little Liars-level of curiosity, as I could never have been that brave.
The murder mystery aspect was also well explored with plenty of suspects and red herrings to keep us readers on our toes. And I can honestly say I didn’t work out who the murderer was, which is rare as I usually manage to (at least partially) guess correctly before the big reveal.
Like most YAs, the adults are for the most part absent, with the town’s local Police officers being woefully inadequate and condescending. But their interactions with Kerry and Annie though infuriating at times were also quite entertaining—one officer actually thought a menstrual cup was a shot glass, which make me chuckle.
The conversation around menstruation and periods is an important one (and pretty pivotal to the book’s narrative), so I was impressed with openness and humour with which Kate Weston manages to explore it.
I’m not the target audience for this (given I am in my 30s) but I’m confident a lot of teens will enjoy this and hopefully come away with a more positive outlook on periods, I just wish I’d been able to read this when I was teen.
Overall, a fun and entertaining read that’s perfect for YA loving fans of Holly Bourne, Holly Jackson or Sex Education.
Also, a huge thank you to Electric Monkey for the proof.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Infidelity, Misogyny, Stalking
Minor: Death of parent
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a fun young adult murder mystery! I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone over 18 as the characters read super young and a little annoying, but I overall enjoyed the story.
Thank you to the publisher and net-galley for providing an e-arc in exchange for my review.
Thank you to the publisher and net-galley for providing an e-arc in exchange for my review.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced