Holly Jackson, author of the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series, recently released her third and final book, As Good As Dead.
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, the first installment in the series, was published on May 2, 2019. The series consists of three novels and one novella about the adventures of Pip Fitz-Amobi, a teenage girl who solves different mysteries around her Connecticut town. Although Pip is only a senior in high school at the start of the series, she’s a better journalist than the police officers who have attempted to solve these mysteries and failed.
In A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, Pip starts her investigation when looking to review a ‘solved’ murder from five years ago. Pip revives the case of Andie Bell and Sal Singh for her Senior Capstone Project. As the book continues, she finds that the conclusion her town chooses to believe is not only false but very far from the truth. Throughout her first mystery, Pip learns that the people involved can’t be put into simple moral categories.
This YA murder mystery is a spectacular start to the series, creating context for events and interactions to come in later books. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say this is one of my all-time favorite books because it leaves you not being able to stop once you’ve started, just like Pip and her investigation. I found myself making fake promises of ‘just one more chapter” and then finishing the novel in just one day.
The only thing that made me wary was the presence of some mature themes and topics. If you don’t feel comfortable reading about some mature topics, this may not be the series for you. But if some mature events don’t bother you and you’re looking to be hooked and read a well-written book, consider checking this one out! To the book that started it all for Holly Jackson, I’d give it 5 out of 5 stars.
In the second novel, Good Girl, Bad Blood, Pip vowed not to get involved in any investigations since it was not her responsibility to do so. She breaks this promise when one of her friends approaches her after his brother has disappeared, starting the thrilling cycle all over again.
When it comes to books, no story in a series can beat the original, though this one came pretty close. It’s yet another gripping mystery that takes a completely different path than what I originally expected and maintains that nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat quality.
Good Girl, Bad Blood ends leaving an uncertain and bittersweet atmosphere that sets up the start of the next novel. Although it wasn’t as satisfying of an ending as the first book, this was still an eventful story with an intriguing plot.
When compared to the prior book in the series, I would give the second book 4.5 out of 5 stars. Because of the high expectations I had after reading the first book, I’d have to take half a star off since A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is still superior. If this had been a stand-alone book, and I was not comparing this to any other of Jackson’s works, it would receive a 5 out of 5.
The trilogy comes to a close in Jackon’s third novel, As Good as Dead. Pip is now college-bound when some new, chilling events occur. Armed with the phrase “who will look for you when you’re the one who disappears?,” a stalker haunts her, eventually taking more drastic measures to frighten her. Pip is simultaneously battling trauma from events in the last book, and with this new threat, her list of problems continues to grow.
Surprisingly, the way this book played out shocked me the most. Since the first half follows the same formula as Jackon’s previous books, while the second half strays from the original path, it was much less predictable, though I still enjoyed it.
With the plot twist that occurred, I know that any of the possible ways it could have ended would have left me unsatisfied, so it’s unsurprising to say that I was disappointed in the way the first half concluded. As the book continued, I was able to gradually accept the action done a bit more, even if it could be debatable to some, to say the least.
The book may have ended positively, but I was still left feeling unsatisfied and longed for more chapters to find adequate closure. It may have had a more positive ending than Good Girl, Bad Blood, but it was still much harder for me to settle with.
Despite my previous statements, it was still a great read. It left me in suspense and even got me to audibly gasp at some parts, making anyone around me at the time concerned. If I weren’t used to the enthralling grip of Jackson’s other books and had no context of what the other two books were about, this would have been an amazing stand-alone book. But because it diverted from Pip’s characterization in the previous books, it wasn’t the best book in the series. Because of all the drastic changes that made As Good as Dead more unique than the other A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder books, I’d rate it 4 out of 5 stars.
In all the books of the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series, each book’s main event spans over a period of about a week. Still, everything is always fast-paced, and I was bored or left counting the pages remaining in the chapter. The plot is never lacking, and it’s nail-biting until the very moment before the murder is revealed. Sure, there were many times when I was ready to yell at Pip for making certain decisions, but that just means Holly Jackson crafted a story well enough to make readers feel strong emotions towards a fictional situation with fictional characters. Overall, though I may be nit-picky about certain parts and did not praise the series at every turn, I still love this series to death, pun intended. I may not be planning to commit murder anytime soon, and I may not need a guide to it, but it was an amazing read, nonetheless.
Because of this series, I’ll rush to the shelves if Holly Jackson decides to release another book since it would surely be another captivating read. All things considered, though some books have a lower rating than others, the series is still a 5 out of 5 as a whole for me.
