Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

This was a re-read and I loved it just as much the second time round. Pip is such a loveable character and I see quite a lot of myself in her. The pacing of the book is really good and continues to keep you hooked for the whole book. The ending still took me by surprise. I feel like I will continue to come back to this book for years to come.

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hazel_t23's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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mariareviews's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

Major book spoilers ahead ⚠️⚠️

OH MY GOD. I’m truly in love with this book and truly proud of myself. First of all, I want to give myself a pat in the back since I was able to discover the murderers.

Now, this book is so amazing I don’t even know where to start. You have a great murder and a 17-year-old trying to solve it in the most absurd –but truly realistic– way. Ravi Singh, Sal’s brother, later joins the adventure and together they do a bunch of morally dubious stuff that ends up uncovering the reality of the murder of Addie Bell.

Overall, an amazing experience and you’ll really enjoy it if you’re into immersive books that give you the info as you go so you can judge it for yourself.

I’m so reading the other books. This is most definitely going to my “favourite books” shelf.

btw
ACAB

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kelly_e's review

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dark mysterious 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? No

3.75

Title: A Good Girl's Guide to Murder
Author: Holly Jackson
Series: A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #1)
Genre: Young Adult Mystery
Rating: 3.75
Pub Date: May 2 2019

T H R E E • W O R D S

Mysterious • Quick • Entertaining

📖 S Y N O P S I S

The whole town of Fairview believes Sal Singh killed his girlfriend Andie Bell, and then himself, five years earlier. Pippa doesn't, and she decides to reexamine the local closed case for her senior project. As she begins digging, it becomes evident someone clearly doesn't want her trudging up the past. But who?

💭 T H O U G H T S

Young adult is typically not my thing, but I must say I enjoyed the quick-paced A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. From the very beginning, it was a page turner, where I wanted to figure out whodunit. The formatting, makes this book truly unique, and I felt as though I was helping to solve the case. Holly Jackson does a good job at constructing a plotline without making the culprit obvious, but at times the plot also seemed unrealistic (typical in YA), so I kept reminding myself to push beyond. It is also repetitive at different points and the cast of characters is large, that I sometimes got confused about the suspects. I could see this being turned into a movie, and feel as though it was written in a way where it easily could be. Pip is a strong and brave character determined to seek justice, and her relationship with Ravi took a backseat to solving the crime. In conclusion, I liked it but I didn't love it. I think I'll be reading the sequel at some point, but am also not rushing out to pick it up.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• Fans of Pretty Little Liars
• Infrequent readers
• those who enjoy a good whodunit

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"But sometimes remembering isn't for yourself; sometimes you do it just to make someone else smile."

"If a villain can be made, then be can be unmade."

"'And though this story does have its monsters, I've found that it is not one that can be so easily divided into the good and the bad. In the end this was a story about people and their different shades of desperation, crashing up against each other. But there was one person who was good until the very end. And his name was Sal Singh.'"

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olivialandryxo's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

A complex, intriguing mystery like this makes for a quick read. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder might have even ended up a favorite, if not for one major issue.

I couldn’t stand the protagonist, Pip. She had no personality that I could pick up on. All she did for 95% of the book was work on the Andie Bell case. I know the tagline is “an investigation turned obsession” or something like that, but come on. A character should have hobbies, quirks, something to make them interesting and memorable. Pip had none of that.

I also have no idea why Pip cared so much about the case. Sure, she thinks everyone jumped to the easiest conclusion and wants to prove them wrong, but why does she care? She didn’t know Andie and barely knew Sal.

What bothered me most was her recklessness, which went hand in hand with being disrespectful, ignoring people’s boundaries, and doing incredibly dangerous, even illegal, things. Pip’s teacher specifically told her not to involve either of the two affected families when investigating, yet in the very first chapter, Pip interviews Sal’s younger brother. She interviews Andie’s younger sister multiple times.

This seventeen year old girl has the audacity to blackmail a man, break into Andie’s family’s house, catfish one of Andie’s friends, and pretend to be a news reporter, all for the sake of more information she can use to solve the case. And yet, her project isn’t disqualified for breaking clearly explained rules, and no one questions how she got as much information as she did. You’re seriously lucky you didn’t get arrested, Pip.

My favorite character, the one that saved the book, was Ravi, the aforementioned younger brother who jumps at the chance to prove Sal is innocent. He and Pip become partners in crime, and let me
just say, this guy’s back must hurt from carrying the story. His maturity, kindness,
and sense of humor had me liking him almost instantly, and that never wavered as I kept reading. I really liked his friendship with Pip.

If only they hadn’t kissed! It happened once at the end of the book, completely out of the blue. I don’t know if they’re a couple now or not??? There was zero indication that Pip had romantic feelings for him, yet she didn’t complain when he kissed her or object when he teased that she fancied him. I’m not saying I’m against a romance between the two of them—I could be convinced, honestly—but it would be nice if they stayed friends. They’re good friends and I don’t want to see any lovey dovey drama in their relationship.

Characters aside, Jackson definitely knows how to write a story that will keep you guessing, and I like that. I’m willing to give the second book a shot. Maybe Pip will find a personality next time she’s trying to catch a killer.

Representation

side characters of color (includes Nigerian and Indian-American rep)
sapphic side character

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chaptertraveller's review against another edition

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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

3.5

Content Warnings

aoifeprettypurplepolkadots's review against another edition

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Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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justagirlwithabook's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Overview:
Pippa (Pip) has decided to tackle a local open-and-close homicide case for her senior capstone project. The case involves a popular and pretty high school senior named Andie Bell who was allegedly murdered 5 years ago by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who later was also found dead, an apparent suicide and confessed murderer. But Andie's body was never found, and Pip has some questions. As her capstone project progresses, through countless interviews, research, and a little bit of "bending the ethical rules of investigative journalism," she teams up with Sal's brother, Ravi, and starts to untangle a very messy and destructive web of lies and deception.

The short of it:
What I loved: the fast pace, the format of the story (documents, capstone entries, etc.), the main character's intelligence and quick thinking, the 'whodunit' aspect

What I didn't love: a few plot points towards the end that were very disappointing (spoilers at the end), the lackadaisical characteristics of the main character's parents that weren't as fully believable/realistic

The longer version:
This is a classic 'whodunit' kind of twisty mystery that I love and was honestly very reminiscent to me of the Serial podcast's first season (though that being a TRUE story and significantly more complicated). It was very fast-paced and the format was a bit more unique, which I think added to the feeling of a fast plot. The story was told mostly through Pip's point of view via her capstone project entries (which included snippets of text messages, documents that Pip included throughout her investigation, and so forth). Every handful of chapters the POV would shift to a 3rd-person narrator to give us more insight as to Pip's actions and goings-on. I did have some disappointments in regard to a couple plot points which I have put at the very end (so you can choose to avoid or read through on your own). I realize some of my misgivings/disappointments are based on my own personal reading preferences and might not be of any concern to other readers at all.

Recommended for:
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is classified as a Young Adult Mystery/Thriller, and I would say it's most appropriate for maybe 8th grade and above. There is some more mature content related to the crime in individuals involved, but the female lead herself is very much a straight-forward "good girl" - great grades, responsible, intelligent, etc.

Content Warnings:
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Grief, Drug use, and Death

Minor: Animal death, Vomit, Sexual assault, Self harm, Rape, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Blood, Bullying, Confinement, and Cursing

SPOILERS:
I was hooked throughout the whole story but had some disappointments which I will include as spoilers here.
As an educator of over a decade, I hate seeing the classic teacher/student relationship tropes thrown into mysteries/thrillers as plot points. While yes, unfortunately predators do exist within the education field, their horrible lapses in judgment are not representative of all educators, especially men, who are often perceived within these stories as weak, vulnerable, and entirely susceptible to young, pretty female attention. I was hoping for a different outcome within this story and when it was discovered that a teacher had nefarious doings with Andie, my heart sunk. There were other ways this could've gone instead.

The second, even great disappointment, was the unnecessary death of the sweet Golden Retriever, Barney. I'm a Golden Retriever owner and dog lover, and I don't know why mystery/thrillers continue to insist that dogs must die in a story to make that story better; spoiler alert, it doesn't. If anything, it just makes me angry at the author for making that decision. Should I be more outraged about all the horrible things people were doing to other people in this story? Yes. But am I most appalled that Jackson killed off the dog? Yep. I am. Characters in stories are never fully innocent. Dogs are. Leave them be. Thank you.

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