Reviews with content warning for Death - As Good As Dead Collector's Edition

Reviews tagging 'Death'

As Good As Dead Collector's Edition by Holly Jackson

741 reviews

laaurenculpan's review against another edition

3.0

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

oh i had SO much hope for this one! i loved, loved, loved the first two and thought this one would be the same. but alas, it did not live up for me.

spoilers below:

i’ll start by saying that i knew this one took a turn. a friend of mine who had read it said “Pip does something that is morally wrong” and my curiosity was peaked. Pip had done many questionable things in book 1 and 2 that i deemed “morally wrong” that i had no idea what could be so bad that it might make the book less enjoyable.

the book starts off well. the description of her mental health taking a turn and the way the author wrote her PTSD from the events in book 2 were written really well. i felt like i was sat alongside her as she started to spiral and was heartbroken alongside her as the death of Stanley started to infest her mind. it made sense that the events from the previous books had taken a toll on her and it was good to see a more human side to Pip as i felt she hadn’t processed everything that had happened to her. the book was a bit slow to begin with and i picked up on a few things before Pip did, such as her having a stalker and what they were doing (i mean the blurb does say it as well so i can’t take too much credit). i loved that previous characters came back, such as Jamie and Nat, Connor and Becca and it was nice to see that many friendships had built as they all joined forces. it was interesting that friends she had previously were glad that Stanley had died and to see the way Pip handled that, particularly as they didn’t know how much involvement she had.

i was on board with the narrative until we reached the end of part 1 and my friends comment finally made sense. this is where the book lost me. again, spoilers to follow!

what the hell? why on earth did she feel the need to kill Jason Bell? i was SO mad at her. i get it, he was a terrible person and the reveal that he was the DT Killer added up (i was surprised she didn’t get that from Andie’s hidden email account and honestly Pip owes Daniel Da Silva an apology for how many times she has suspected him) but killing him was not worth it. i didn’t like the turn this book took and the fact the rest of it was her covering up a murder was completely not what i was expecting. it didn’t feel within her character- yes she had a lot of anger for Max and had had visceral dreams about attacking him but killing someone? no, i was not on board. Jason being the stalker as well was a bit out there, particularly as he didn’t have much to go on except being a creep.
i hated that she got all her friends involved as well. i appreciate she needed the alibi and the story to play out like she had written it in her head but it felt dangerous to me. i’m someone who struggles reading/watching things if i feel my anxiety rising and so this took me a lot longer to finish than book 1 and 2 because i was too nervous to see how it was going to go.

overall i am disappointed this is how the trilogy ends. some might say it was obvious this was where it was always going to end up but i didn’t feel that way at all. i just wanted to read an easy novel about a young woman solving crimes and dealing with the aftermath. i didn’t want to be rooting for someone to get away with it and i felt like it ruined the character arc of Pip for me!

Content Warnings

thesun_h's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

Content Warnings

xandy_lx's review against another edition

2.0

dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A wild vigilante revenge scheme. It lacked the mystery and investigation of the first books and saw Pip make choices that don't align with her character in an effort to save the world. It took me two attempts to finish it. I love the cast of characters so much but this plot lost me!

Content Warnings

maisiem00's review against another edition

4.5

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

girlgone1's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

myweekends_arebooked's review against another edition

3.25

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I have so many conflicted thoughts about this book, I am not even sure how to rate it. This was not what I antecipated, at all, and even though the story kept me on my feet and I was eager to turn the pages and discover what was happening, this book didn't feel as good as the previous ones, and Pip had one of the biggest character's downgrade ever.

At some point in the story I no longer recognized Pip and her decisions. I understand that she is traumatized with everything that happened with Stanley and her lack of confidence in the police force, but I do think she pushed it too far and did so many things that were out of character. Midway through the book I even had to stop reading for a few days as I as that angry with the author's choice, I would love to have a spin-off of this book where everything that happens after

Pip escapes that warehouse

could be rewritten and the story would focus instead on bringing down this serial killer through evidence and investigation, like Pip showed us in the previous books.

I want to see Pip be brilliant and take down yet another assassin through her quick thinking and clever plans, which she proved she can accomplish when she

she framed Max for her crimes

!! I don't want to watch this girl

ruin her life, commit murder, be selfish by putting Ravi and her close friends in danger just to leave them all at the, claiming an almost self exile in uni, and I do not want to see her covering up a muder by blaming someone else

.

Some parts of this book just felt super farfetched or too easily resolved and explained, the plot was not as elaborated as previous books, the mystery was only there for like 40% of the story, there wasn't even a real investigation going on this time so the evidences that are shown-up trought out the book (like pictures, maps, transcipts, etc.) are not that much and sadly, for the 1st time in this series, it was quite obvious who was the killer.

Even though I am disappointed and do not agree with the ending of the AGGGTM series, I still think it is a well written book and I do see how PTS and the lack of support there could lead you down the same road Pip unfortunatelly did.

P.S. Ravi, the man you are ❤

Content Warnings