A review by nolemdaer
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

adventurous inspiring mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This was so much fun! I absolutely flew through it in basically one sitting—the quick pace and production log inserts paired with short, action-packed narrative chapters made it go down incredibly easy, as well as an enticing mystery where it was enjoyable and satisfying to see all the parts fit together. Pip is a fun narrator, although the “good girl” shtick wasn’t really played with (which might have actually been a boon; I don’t know if I could have stood her being referred to as a “good girl” incessantly for the sake of the title). The investigation included Pip and Ravi actually doing a lot, which is always great to see in a murder mystery—and a good amount of what she was doing included nitty-gritty bureaucratic stuff like scanning old Facebook pages or utilizing Rights to Information acts to gain access to old interviews. It added a touch of realism, even if you know many of the clues just fall a little too perfectly into place. I loved the ending and some of the answers we got.

I don’t think this is a thicky plotty mysterious procedural masterpiece, but I also don’t think anyone was asking for it to be. It was a sharp, exciting YA mystery with a likable cast of characters that tied itself up nicely without being trite. Some of the “social awareness” parts were laid on a little thick, like the author suddenly realized she needed to acknowledge how racism and bias might play out in the book and scrawled out a few paragraphs to make sure she was covered, but I’m not going to begrudge that too much. Super enjoyable time.
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