Scan barcode
A review by lilybuddy
As Good As Dead by Holly Jackson
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I have many, many, MANY thoughts. This book challenged everything, and I see in the reviews that not everyone has gotten the point.
So here we go. After two intense cases, Pippa is thrown into her most personal case yet. Her own. A stalker is closing in, and Pip knows if she can't solve this case, she'll be the one who disappears. And who will look for her then?
Very quickly, it is clear that even though she's been correct in both cases she's solved, the police still have no trouble not believing her. Like they didn't believe Naomi or Nat. Like they wouldn't have believed Andie. And Pip, whose believe in the absolute truth and justice had driven her to take on the case of Sal Singh and Jamie Reynolds, sees justice and truth fail. This is the book with consequences. Consequences for the things Pip did, witnessed, lived through. Pip suffers from PTSD, and her doctor, another man, failed her. And so Pip deals with it in a way that is both stupid and unhealthy, and also absolutely understandable.
In part 1, there is an absolute message. A message a lot of people seemed to have missed, even though Pippa hit us over the head with it. The stalker and femicide statistic. The way women aren't believed. The way they are written off as 'emotional' and 'paranoid'. And then people are shocked when women are murdered. Or when they don't come forward. This is extremely important. This is perhaps the most important part of this book: everything in this trilogy happened, because society doesn't believe women. Society will always believe men over women. Even Andie's death and Sal's murder happened because nobody believed women. And even worse: women know. We know you don't believe us. So we don't step forward. Or when we do, we know we increase our chances of being murdered, raped, or kidnapped, or all at once. At all times, we are aware of this. And this book shows what happens in the worst case scenarios.
Something else the reviewers do. Something that made me so irrationally angry, I couldn't sleep for an hour. I've read this sentence a lot: "This is not the Pip I know and love from the past 2 books!" My blood boils just writing it down. Because this is what happens so often, when female characters have character development. If Pip was a white man, nobody would've batted an eye at her choices. Not to say that they would have approved of the choices. But I am 100% sure that if Pip had been a white man, these reviewers would have been so understanding.
Because Pip has PTSD. And I challenge everyone to be traumatized and still remain your happy, energetic and optimistic self. That's not how it works. Especially if you don't get the proper help. You will never go back to who you used to be. Even if the therapy helps. Even if you get better. You will never go back. Trauma is something that is soothed, something you grow around, not something that disappears. If Pip had been a white man, everyone would have understood that. The standard this society sets for women is so high, and the bar we set for men is on the fucking floor. And suddenly, when a woman DARES to have character development, we don't want it. We want women to always be perfect. To remain who she was, even through 3 incredibly traumatic events. Even when we forgive men for not remaining the same. The book does an incredible job in explaining the problems women face in the world. It directly critiques society and still reviewers seem happy to ignore it.
But I'm not ignoring it. I can't. Because I see it happen every day. Society doesn't believe us. And what happened to Nat, Becca, Andie, Naomi and Pip, might happen to any of the women I know. Might happen to me.
I loved this book. I've never enjoyed a third installment of a book that got darker. But I did now.
Funnily enough, I still think this book is the weakest when it comes to the case Pip solves in the first half. Because I solved it. Very quickly, very easily. But I think it's also because we're supposed to see it, supposed to watch Pip miss it, because she's not coping. Either she's exhausted or under the influence. People called her stupid in the reviews. I call her traumatized. I dare anyone to see the obvious when your brain has literally been altered.
I really hope there's a fourth book coming, maybe just a short story like the #0.5, to see where Pip and Ravi end up at the end. It would really help me deal with the rollercoaster of a part 2!
So here we go. After two intense cases, Pippa is thrown into her most personal case yet. Her own. A stalker is closing in, and Pip knows if she can't solve this case, she'll be the one who disappears. And who will look for her then?
Very quickly, it is clear that even though she's been correct in both cases she's solved, the police still have no trouble not believing her. Like they didn't believe Naomi or Nat. Like they wouldn't have believed Andie. And Pip, whose believe in the absolute truth and justice had driven her to take on the case of Sal Singh and Jamie Reynolds, sees justice and truth fail. This is the book with consequences. Consequences for the things Pip did, witnessed, lived through. Pip suffers from PTSD, and her doctor, another man, failed her. And so Pip deals with it in a way that is both stupid and unhealthy, and also absolutely understandable.
In part 1, there is an absolute message. A message a lot of people seemed to have missed, even though Pippa hit us over the head with it. The stalker and femicide statistic. The way women aren't believed. The way they are written off as 'emotional' and 'paranoid'. And then people are shocked when women are murdered. Or when they don't come forward. This is extremely important. This is perhaps the most important part of this book: everything in this trilogy happened, because society doesn't believe women. Society will always believe men over women. Even Andie's death and Sal's murder happened because nobody believed women. And even worse: women know. We know you don't believe us. So we don't step forward. Or when we do, we know we increase our chances of being murdered, raped, or kidnapped, or all at once. At all times, we are aware of this. And this book shows what happens in the worst case scenarios.
Something else the reviewers do. Something that made me so irrationally angry, I couldn't sleep for an hour. I've read this sentence a lot: "This is not the Pip I know and love from the past 2 books!" My blood boils just writing it down. Because this is what happens so often, when female characters have character development. If Pip was a white man, nobody would've batted an eye at her choices. Not to say that they would have approved of the choices. But I am 100% sure that if Pip had been a white man, these reviewers would have been so understanding.
Because Pip has PTSD. And I challenge everyone to be traumatized and still remain your happy, energetic and optimistic self. That's not how it works. Especially if you don't get the proper help. You will never go back to who you used to be. Even if the therapy helps. Even if you get better. You will never go back. Trauma is something that is soothed, something you grow around, not something that disappears. If Pip had been a white man, everyone would have understood that. The standard this society sets for women is so high, and the bar we set for men is on the fucking floor. And suddenly, when a woman DARES to have character development, we don't want it. We want women to always be perfect. To remain who she was, even through 3 incredibly traumatic events. Even when we forgive men for not remaining the same. The book does an incredible job in explaining the problems women face in the world. It directly critiques society and still reviewers seem happy to ignore it.
But I'm not ignoring it. I can't. Because I see it happen every day. Society doesn't believe us. And what happened to Nat, Becca, Andie, Naomi and Pip, might happen to any of the women I know. Might happen to me.
I loved this book. I've never enjoyed a third installment of a book that got darker. But I did now.
Funnily enough, I still think this book is the weakest when it comes to the case Pip solves in the first half. Because I solved it. Very quickly, very easily. But I think it's also because we're supposed to see it, supposed to watch Pip miss it, because she's not coping. Either she's exhausted or under the influence. People called her stupid in the reviews. I call her traumatized. I dare anyone to see the obvious when your brain has literally been altered.
I really hope there's a fourth book coming, maybe just a short story like the #0.5, to see where Pip and Ravi end up at the end. It would really help me deal with the rollercoaster of a part 2!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Blood, Confinement, Drug use, Grief, Death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Stalking, Violence, and Vomit
Moderate: Rape, Blood, Animal death, and Addiction
Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Emotional abuse