lnzava 's review for:

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

3.75

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I have mixed feelings! While it’s well written and the plot is intriguing enough, I find it a rip off plots from the TV Show Veronica Mars (amazing show for the first 2 seasons at least) and the True-Crime Podcast Serial. I understand being inspired by them but this feels like a crummy copy. Also I didn’t love how the author who isn’t from the US chooses to set this in CT. Just because American media portrays High Schools, this felt like a knockoff. Plus why bother mentioning characters who aren’t white  - names aren’t enough to have diversity in your book. I would have liked something more about the Indian family or the fact that Pip’s father Victor is originally from the African continent. Ok so what? This seemed lazy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse