Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - Moordgids voor lieve meisjes

Reliable narrator.
Mystery gets solved in ONE book (at least it does resolve all the main parts and details given, and from the synopsis of the next it sounds unrelated).
Great secondary characters (good, bad and morally grey).
Not too graphic until the actual evidence reveals.
Many clues.
Mild romance subplot.
Actually appropriate for the YA genre.

Spoilers Ahead!

Few things that called my attention:

The protagonist was solving the case of a murdered mean girl
The chapters that were novel-like had quite a few lyrical descriptions which I loved.
The everyday life wasn’t left behind in the storytelling.
Also, the fact that it changed between narrative prose and log entries made it go by so fast, plus not redundant ;)

Moreover:

~ It was weird that the author was trying to put a romance in there while we were trying to solve a murder-mystery. But I do love Ravi and Pip together, they feel balanced, even with the slight age difference. AND when the author poses Ravi as smart he actually pushes through with it when he gets what’s actually going on with Pip. (When she was going to stop and he put 2-and-2 together and knew what’s going on I was quite glad, it was a “I knew you could do it!” moment).

~ I do hope that as children Pip and Josh gave Barney purple hair.

~ Does Pip get amnesia after all of it and Ravi has to remind her of Becca’s confession?

~ Starving Cara with Spanish words sprinkled in her sentences was completely necessary to my reading experience. Thank you. *not sarcasm*

~ When the application essay for Columbia came up and she actually wrote it, I had really hoped the whole essay would be the end of the book and the title would be “A good girl’s guide to murder”. Imagine that application! (Plus, she could've added the "willing to do anything for an assignment", though I don't know if that would appeal to an admissions officer (?))

Weird details:

~ Almost turned into a plot-hole but was saved last minute: how was Pip coming up with such wild theories when her family is the kind of family that hides their spare key under the doormat??!? Like?!?? Make it make sense. But then, there’s the tiniest mention of her watching crime documentaries and I was “Okay, I guess that’s fair.” But like, tell your family to hide their spare key elsewhere, please.

~ Gotta say, it was curious how Pip put Naomi and Mr. Elliot on the list and actually went through with them as suspects and then decided to tell Becca to escape.

~ The physical description of Andie matched the author’s photo, idk if it was intentional but it did weird me out everytime the book flipped open on it.

~ Totally unrelated to the story: the book came with two dust jackets, exactly the same (I think? I should probably check). It was like Barnes and Nobles knew I would need space for a murder board if I had actually pushed throught with it, still I don’t think I would’ve guessed it.

As a closing/overall thoughts:

I did quite enjoy the book, even if it wasn't totally my sort of book. It was definitely that change in genre I was hoping for when I bought it. Not much was too mindblowing, when the reveals came, I was like “That makes total sense!” and I did remember all the details that led to it which I was proud about. It was pretty straight-forward and it did guide through the whole plot.

On another note, I’m glad the second book is about a new mystery, and I really hope it doesn’t relate to this one so that if I read it time after I will still be able to enjoy it without remembering everything that happened in the first book. It’s interesting for a series for the plot to not be totally connected, but it does have a settled main character to guide you through the plot details.

I feel like it would be cool if in the second or third book the person in question was still alive and found alive, just for a change.

~ Celeste

Content Warnings

jupiter_56's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense 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? Yes

5.0

ç’est tres amusant ! zis waz so tearjerking. Absolutely fantastique… C’était un masterpiece. Ravi and Pip were made for my home country! ( ze ville of love)
Aldough… it was nasty, crusty, dusty, rusty and etc ;)

- french critique
Madame Delecoire Monet
(oui)

Content Warnings