Another month, another book! This time we took a dive into A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson. I’ve had this book on my list for a while now, I’ve heard really good things about the series overall. I also saw that it got turned into a show on Prime which is every writer’s dream. It’s definitely mine, I would love Identity Crisis turned into an HBO or Prime show. Fingers crossed! I enjoyed this book a lot, I’m a sucker for a good murder mystery. The concept of solving a murder for a school project is hilarious to me and I had to see how this turned out cause whaaat?? Who does that? This novel was published in May of 2019 by Electric Monkey (UK) and Delacorte Press (US). It’s the first book in a series created by Holly Jackson. After checking out the first one, I will definitely be reading the rest of the series. Maybe I’ll even check out the show and review it as well. I wanna try to keep my reviews free of major spoilers, but some small stuff may slip out. So let’s get into it!
This novel follows the investigation into the Murder-Sucide of Andie Bell and Sal Singh that occurred five years ago in the town of Little Kilton, Buckinghamshire. We meet seventeen year old Pippa who is fully convinced that Sal is innocent. She decides to investigate the case herself as part of her school project. In her search for the truth, she enlists Sal’s brother Ravi to help, who also believes his brother didn’t murder Andie. The concept of two teenagers solving a high profile case before the town’s police department is hilarious to me. The police are too incompetent to solve cases like these but the teens always can in a matter of weeks. I eat that trope up, every single time. Of course, Pip finds herself in danger the closer she gets to the truth. What I love is that, they not only solve the case, but they also uncover a whole other crime linked to the original one and let me tell you…that reveal is AMAZING. Honestly the last thing I was expecting, the people in this town are messy and that’s all I’ll say on that. There’s so many layers to what happened to Andie and Sal that night, it gives a similar vibe to the night that Alison DiLaurentis went missing in Pretty Little Liars. Complicated nights like that are the best type of stories to tell in my opinion. There’s so much that can be done and I think Holly did a great job with it. I highly recommend this book, it held my attention way more than I thought it would. Many times when I wasn’t reading and just sitting at work or something, I was thinking about possible suspects or worried about Pip’s safety every time she discovered something new. Andie’s killer…great reveal. When it comes to murder, I need the motive to be strong and emotional. And it needs to make sense. I understand why Andie’s killer snapped and did it. Doesn’t justify their actions, but man I get it. They didn’t wake up that morning planning to kill her but when those emotions take over, anything can happen. When solving her murder, we also get more background into who she was and she’s not the perfect popular nice girl everyone made her out to be. She was a young girl who didn’t deserve to die, but just because she’s dead doesn’t mean she was some saint. I like that narrative in stories like this. When in search of the truth, always be prepared for what you might find. One last thing I’ll say…Pip’s dog Barney deserves the world. You’ll understand once you get to that part.
Our two main characters outside of the victims are Pip and Ravi who become friends while working to solve this case. As their relationship develops, we obviously start to tap into the romantic side between this pair. Personally, it’s the one thing I’m not a fan of. Don’t get me wrong, I think Ravi and Pip are cute and they definitely have a lot in common. I’d rather they just stay friends though, they go through a lot of trauma during this mystery and turning it romantic feels forced. It doesn’t feel like young love, it feels like a trauma bond between these teens. I know Ravi is “technically” twenty but like, cmon, he’s a teenager guys lmao. And Pip is seventeen going on eighteen like. They’re children in my almost twenty-six year old eyes. Ravi is still grieving his brother and solving the case is cool but it also reopens that wound that never truly healed. A girlfriend should be the last thing on his mind. My girl Pip goes through hell during these few weeks. The town is thankful for her but she’s still a child that needs to now go through intense therapy and *checks notes* still needs to graduate high school. I think them as friends work perfectly, they compliment each other so well. That’s the only thing I didn’t like about this book, everything else was perfect and I’m intrigued to check out the rest of the series down the line. I need to see the fall out from this and where Pip goes from here.
Thanks for taking the time to read my review, it means a lot as you all know. March’s book is all picked out and I’m enjoying this read as well. This was another book on my list for a while. We’re taking a trippy dive into this post apocalyptic world and it’s scary how realistic it is, but I love it! Can’t wait to share that one with you guys! If you haven’t already, please check out my insta where I’ve been posting more Identity Crisis character charts! I’m almost done with those, then I’m gonna get into some behind the scenes of the writing process itself. We got some exciting stuff coming soon! Appreciate you all!
-Lexi Xx
RealisticDreamer 