Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

180 reviews

mishasbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Animal death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Addiction, Mental illness, Murder, Body shaming, Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Drug use, Rape, Stalking, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child death, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Self harm, and Sexual assault

lifeonasofa's review against another edition

hopeful mysterious 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? No

4.25

4.25 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Worth the hype. I really didn’t think a YA thriller would be my cup of tea any more. But I just loved this 😍

The perfect a balance of mystery and thriller, I never felt bored, the story kept moving forwards. 🏃🏻‍♀️

I loved the notebook, email and cut out sections, I kind of wish there was a bit more of that, it added to the detective vibes 🕵🏻‍♀️

I think the characters were written perfectly for the target audience too, they were super likeable and believable. 🥰

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Cancer, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Car accident, Child death, Self harm, Bullying, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Blood, and Drug use

broccoli_j's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated

5.0

Holly Jackson took the question „if the romance wasn’t part of the book anymore, would there still be a plot?“ way to seriously and the romance is the smallest part of the novel. 

But apart of this cute little love side story, this book is filled with great relationships, well developed characters, thrilling events that aren’t far fetched at all and a chapter concept that guarantees a one of a kind reading flow. 

Would highly recommend this young adult thriller and already feel exited for the second book! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Sexism, Bullying, Death, Violence, Child death, Grief, Murder, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, and Mental illness

Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Addiction, Self harm, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, and Eating disorder

niamhrowanch's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

augh that was crazy ive never actually experienced that sort of atmosphere at a game before it’s absolutely electric the passion

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Death, Rape, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Murder, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Bullying, Death of parent, Drug use, Drug abuse, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

faeriefox's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

2.0

I started this book with high hopes. I had heard very good things about it, but was fairly disappointed. It wasn't all bad, but I had enough issues with it that it lowered my rating significantly.

Firstly, the writing style. As a book aimed toward the YA audience, the prose was far too immature, especially for the dark and possibly triggering themes with, such as SH, suicide, and rape. It felt like the book did not take truly seriously and tried to make light of these things. This was my biggest issue, and brought down my rating the most. 

No matter how much I enjoyed the plot, the aforementioned is a huge problem and I hate that anyone could be exposed to that without advance notice. The content warnings on StoryGraph are not thorough enough, and I feel like most of these people who read the book must not have these types of triggers. There is a detailed explanation of how a suicide was allegedly committed, many mentions of rape, an adult-minor relationship, and more.

Also because of this writing style, dialogue felt very forced and unbelievable, and because of this these 17+ year old characters acted and sounded like they were no older than ten. It was really difficult to really fall into the story because of this. The characters were all also very flat and had little to no development throughout the story.

I also felt that most of the solve kind of came out of nowhere, and that there were too many suspects at time during the story; I didn't even really try to figure out what happened because I was quite confused.

All of that being said, there were some good points. The premise was overall interesting, and while I was too confused to actually figure out what happened, I was interested enough to finish the book and hear the solve, especially as I got further in and more invested. The writing quality also improved slightly towards the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Cursing, Death, and Suicide

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

ashleyvaleria's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

omg i  loved pip. my true crime loving self absolutely loved this book. even though in some parts seemed unrealistic, who cares i read to be entertained lol. following along with the case and getting everything slowly pieced together from different perspectives was everything and when i thought the story and mystery was over i got more questions answered and a very fulfilling ending. i love this style of writing with the timeline being pieces together slowly so everything come together perfect at the end. kinda reminded me of pretty little liars alison tbh and that’s a compliment. the character depth of all the characters and especially andie was fascinating and discovering more and more abt andie was so fun. also, pip and ravi are the perfect partners in crime🫶 excited to start “good girl, bad blood”!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Rape, Emotional abuse, Death, Kidnapping, Racism, Mental illness, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, and Murder

suzysreadings's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

A fun, mysterious novel with a fascinating plot and interesting twists and turns. Clearly aimed at a younger audience but still a fun read that keeps you interested.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Suicide, Animal death, Adult/minor relationship, and Death of parent

acebooknerd_07's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Rape, Sexual assault, Drug use, Kidnapping, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Grief, Addiction, Death, and Emotional abuse

itzme's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Rape, Drug abuse, Drug use, Kidnapping, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Sexual assault, Blood, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Violence, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Self harm, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Car accident

rainydayswithbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

4.0

A fast-moving story, with surprising twists and turns. Pip is a very likeable protagonist who lightens up the serious subject a little with her funny, dry sayings. The layout of the book is varied with the notes and inserted "evidence". I would never have guessed the ending and was shocked - however, realistically it is very unlikely that all interviewees/suspects always answer Pip's questions more or less openly. The fact that the police could not solve the case is also strange. Reduced purely to the fun of reading, I still think it's a great book that reads quickly and stays interesting :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Mental illness, Drug use, Grief, Death, Murder, and Blood

Minor: Vomit, Animal death, Child abuse, and Adult/minor relationship