A review by spearly
Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson

dark mysterious sad 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? No

4.0

Pip tried not to look. She averted her eyes, but there was something about the house that dragged them right back. It could never be just a normal house, not after everything it had seen. It felt almost otherworldly, as though death clung to the air around it, making it shimmer in a way a house shouldn’t, with its crooked roofline and stippled bricks swallowed by ivy.

Sequel syndrome who? Good Girl, Bad Blood keeps pace with the thrilling first novel in the series,  A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. This time, Pip investigates the case of her friend's brother, Jamie, who has gone missing. The police won't do anything about it, so, despite her promise to hang up her detective hat, Pip sets off to find him herself.

I'll admit, this was a little slow to start, and didn't pull me in quite like A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, but once the mystery really picked up, I was hooked. The stakes were high. The clock was ticking. Is this a missing person? A violent crime? Who is seducing all the white, brown haired men in town?

This book did not go where I thought it would. And for that, I was very, VERY happy. I managed to guess the killed (sort of) form book one, and initially thought I'd figured this mystery out before Pip, too, but I did not! Yay! 

What started out as a missing persons case turned into something much more sinister. Readers got a nice curveball at the end there, with an
almost entirely different case, dating back decades. It still related to the present day mystery, and it was interwoven very well, but the target and big bad threw me for a total loop
.

I loved Pip even more in this book! She is so fiery, so persistent, so brave. I love how Jackson didn't ignore the obvious traumas that Pip is now living with after the events of book one,
especially in relation to Max, the assaults and r*pes, and the preceding court case
. I, like Pip, know that life isn't far. I know the justice system fails. Her anger sparked mine, stroked mine, and I wanted to scream with her. I wanted to break windows and cry and, honestly, throw a few punches. 

It was almost unexpected. I think if there's one thing I wish from this series, it's that it was told entirely in first person. I would love to be inside Pip's head, so see how her brain puts together clues, how she deals with the anguish and fury over uncovering the secrets of people she's known nearly all her life. I think it could make the series even stronger.

The side characters are so fleshed out! I don't see that a lot in YA. Even
Stanley
, who I literally HATED in book one, found a way to make my heart break. His story was so difficult for me to parse through, because I truly see both sides of the story. No spoilers. 

I'm honestly shocked this came out this month. I had no idea. And now I have to wait for the 3rd one? What fresh hell is this?
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