Madeline
Hello Mr. Twists and Mrs. Turns! Do not let the high school good girl storyline of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder fool you. This book is no joke. The storyline was so brilliant and well pieced together. The writing, let a lot to be desired, but that is okay, because it was good enough for me to read well past my bedtime. I had a hard time putting this twisted book down.
The Premise of A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder
For her high school senior capstone project, Pipa decides to review a five year old closed murder case that is close to her. In this case, a then highschool senior, Andie, disappeared and her boyfriend Sal did not have an alibi for her murder, so he confesses to the murder, and then kills himself in the nearby woods. Everyone buys this version of the story. Everyone except for Pipa. And Pipa wants to prove that Sal was framed and did not murder Andie like everyone thought.
Many of the developed characters in A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder are the suspects in the case, including a drug dealer, a teacher, Andie’s arch nemesis, a journalist, and many more. But none are as developed as Pipa’s side kick and Sal’s younger brother, Ravi. Ravi is the good humoured outcast who pushes Pipa to keep going even when the going gets tough. He is used as the tool to get Pipa’s thoughts out on the pages.
Why I Loved This Book
There are so many pieces to this story. There are a lot of events, a lot of characters, and a lot of details to keep track of. None of which is not easy to put together, let alone write it up in a way that is suspenseful and can keep the reader going. My work productivity went down during my reading this book because I kept thinking about the book. Who had done it? Where did all the clues and pieces fit? The easiest solution to improve my productivity is to remove myself from whatever I was doing and continue to read this book to the conclusion.
On top of it all, the story was water tight. When I finished A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, I could not find a hole or a “but what about this detail” moment like in many other murder mystery stories. All the pieces and details fit together snug as a bug with few redharings. In my opinion, the whole story was ironclad.
What Was Left To Be Desired
Perhaps it was intentional, but there were a lot of moments that I felt belonged in a B rated cartoon. Many of the “Aha” and “The killer is…” moments felt cliche. The speech at the end felt like every teen television show and teen movie I have ever seen but never experienced in my own high school. That being said, those eye rolling did not ruin the story for me, similar to what I had to do with The American Royals series, I had to take it as it was and move on, then I could enjoy the story.
Final Thoughts
Directly after reading A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder, the second book in the series, Good Girl, Bad Blood, was immediately added to my “to-read” list. I am hoping the author, Holly Jackson, is able to deliver this type of story again and again. And if the second book is just as good as the first, I will be reading the third and the 0.5 books as well. Stay tuned.
