A review by khloereads86
As Good As Dead by Holly Jackson

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Ahh I want more! The ending felt so abrupt I wish we got a little more after that. That last little bit was heartbreaking for Pip & everyone she loved. 
I was hooked the first half of the book trying to figure out who it was. I really enjoyed the stalker part of it even though it was frustrating to see Pip not take her safety that seriously and keep going out alone. 
I did notice a few main hints early on, like the necklace and the hairbrush and when Jason was standing at the door watching when she got the (second?) call, but I wasn’t 100% sure if it was him or Hawkins for a while.


The second half of the book I’m not so sure about. I definitely didn’t enjoy it as much as the first half or the previous books. 
I really wasn’t expecting the killer to take her so early on, and for her to end up killing him instead seemed really out of character for Pip. It was made very clear too that it wasn’t totally in self defense, she made a conscious decision to go back and kill him instead of getting free and providing the police all the evidence of what had happened. I understand her mistrust of the justice system somewhat but if she had given them everything she’d found on the DT killer and they had found the evidence at his house (trophies) and in his car especially, they would have had to arrest him. They figured out he was the killer and a rapist at the end of the book anyways. It was really interesting to see her work through the steps and come up with ideas to get her and anyone she involved out of trouble, but I didn’t like that she brought her friends into that situation either. It was something she decided to do, and she brought them into danger directly by involving them in the coverup even if they had ‘plausible deniability’ technically. They obviously all knew she’d killed him and even before that that she’d committed a serious crime, and she put them at risk anyways to save herself instead of doing everything she could to fix it herself (usually to her own self-detriment) like she would have in previous books to protect them.


I also really liked that Pip’s ptsd was somewhat addressed, although I really don’t understand how her parents thought she would be okay enough to stop talking to a therapist after such a short amount of time considering what she’d been through. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings