Reviews with content warning for Sexism - As Good As Dead

This book is not for the faint of heart I would recommend reading the TW if you are concerned.

I feel that this book wrapped up the AGGGTM series perfectly. Pip is an ever evolving character. Throughout this book I hated, loved, admired, and feared Pip. She is such a complex character it really made this book different that others. In this book you were constantly left wondering how is Pip going to get herself out of this? While I do think the DT killer was a bit obvious, there were still many plot twist leaving the reader on there toes.

Trigger warning which may contain a spoiler:

the murder which takes place in this book left me with a visceral reaction. I struggled reading the words repeated over and over again. I do think this one page could be skipped if it will induce issues.

Content Warnings

camoo3032's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.75

This series started off as a really interesting murder mystery but over the course of the series it's focus turns to trauma, how it affects you and what it feels like. Holly Jackson's description of PTSD is incredibly well done. All of the characters feel really rich no matter how small they are. It's a fantastic series

Content Warnings

lilliansbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

i am on the verge of a mental breakdown after finishing this but oh my god if it wasn’t worth it

Content Warnings

anielabooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Amazing book. Everyone kept telling me it was the best in the series, and I see why. At first I was skeptical because it was going so slow but around 20% it started picking up pace. Read this book in 4 days, which is super fast for me. Once I got past the first 20% of the book, I couldn’t put it down. There were definitely some scenes that made me want to throw up, so make sure to look at trigger warnings before picking this book up. I’d say I’m satisfied with this ending to the series.

Content Warnings

redroseses's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated

3.5

Content Warnings

lilybuddy's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I have many, many, MANY thoughts. This book challenged everything, and I see in the reviews that not everyone has gotten the point.

So here we go. After two intense cases, Pippa is thrown into her most personal case yet. Her own. A stalker is closing in, and Pip knows if she can't solve this case, she'll be the one who disappears. And who will look for her then?

Very quickly, it is clear that even though she's been correct in both cases she's solved, the police still have no trouble not believing her. Like they didn't believe Naomi or Nat. Like they wouldn't have believed Andie. And Pip, whose believe in the absolute truth and justice had driven her to take on the case of Sal Singh and Jamie Reynolds, sees justice and truth fail. This is the book with consequences. Consequences for the things Pip did, witnessed, lived through. Pip suffers from PTSD, and her doctor, another man, failed her. And so Pip deals with it in a way that is both stupid and unhealthy, and also absolutely understandable.

In part 1, there is an absolute message. A message a lot of people seemed to have missed, even though Pippa hit us over the head with it. The stalker and femicide statistic. The way women aren't believed. The way they are written off as 'emotional' and 'paranoid'. And then people are shocked when women are murdered. Or when they don't come forward. This is extremely important. This is perhaps the most important part of this book: everything in this trilogy happened, because society doesn't believe women. Society will always believe men over women. Even Andie's death and Sal's murder happened because nobody believed women. And even worse: women know. We know you don't believe us. So we don't step forward. Or when we do, we know we increase our chances of being murdered, raped, or kidnapped, or all at once. At all times, we are aware of this. And this book shows what happens in the worst case scenarios.

Something else the reviewers do. Something that made me so irrationally angry, I couldn't sleep for an hour. I've read this sentence a lot: "This is not the Pip I know and love from the past 2 books!" My blood boils just writing it down. Because this is what happens so often, when female characters have character development. If Pip was a white man, nobody would've batted an eye at her choices. Not to say that they would have approved of the choices. But I am 100% sure that if Pip had been a white man, these reviewers would have been so understanding.

Because Pip has PTSD. And I challenge everyone to be traumatized and still remain your happy, energetic and optimistic self. That's not how it works. Especially if you don't get the proper help. You will never go back to who you used to be. Even if the therapy helps. Even if you get better. You will never go back. Trauma is something that is soothed, something you grow around, not something that disappears. If Pip had been a white man, everyone would have understood that. The standard this society sets for women is so high, and the bar we set for men is on the fucking floor. And suddenly, when a woman DARES to have character development, we don't want it. We want women to always be perfect. To remain who she was, even through 3 incredibly traumatic events. Even when we forgive men for not remaining the same. The book does an incredible job in explaining the problems women face in the world. It directly critiques society and still reviewers seem happy to ignore it.

But I'm not ignoring it. I can't. Because I see it happen every day. Society doesn't believe us. And what happened to Nat, Becca, Andie, Naomi and Pip, might happen to any of the women I know. Might happen to me.

I loved this book. I've never enjoyed a third installment of a book that got darker. But I did now.

Funnily enough, I still think this book is the weakest when it comes to the case Pip solves in the first half. Because I solved it. Very quickly, very easily. But I think it's also because we're supposed to see it, supposed to watch Pip miss it, because she's not coping. Either she's exhausted or under the influence. People called her stupid in the reviews. I call her traumatized. I dare anyone to see the obvious when your brain has literally been altered.

I really hope there's a fourth book coming, maybe just a short story like the #0.5, to see where Pip and Ravi end up at the end. It would really help me deal with the rollercoaster of a part 2!

Content Warnings

cepbreed's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.75

I did not think this series could continue in a meaningful way, I'll be honest. The second book was great, but certainly had a dip in quality compared to the first book, so I was expecting the third installment to be even worse. I was mistaken to the most severe definition of the word. Pip is an amazing character whose arc fully rounds out in a way both expected and unexpected from the moment you first pick up the series. Jackson artfully interconnected every character's plot line in this story in an almost incomprehensible way. I swear she must have had the entire series mapped out from the beginning, it is crafted that masterfully. I have to wake up at 3:30 in the morning but at this point I don't care. I picked up this book at 10:30 and could not put it down for the life of me.

From the second I read that Pip had turned back to face Jason Bell my heart dropped. I stared at the book in my hands, too in shock to comprehend that I was holding it open to the middle. Meaning Pip's story was far from over. After that point I was pulled in every direction, I felt my heart beat against my ribs as if I were Pip herself. I just have to applaud Holly Jackson. I am in awe.

Ranking of the books: As Good As Dead, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, Good Girl Bad Blood

Song:

Power & Control - Marina and The Diamonds

Content Warnings

emilysreadingbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

More...