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Book Reviews and Recommendations
REVIEW: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
by Holly Jackson
Series: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder #1
Release date: February 4th 2020
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery
Rating: ★★★★☆
Everyone in Fairview knows the story.
Pretty and popular high school senior Andie Bell was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh, who then killed himself. It was all anyone could talk about. And five years later, Pip sees how the tragedy still haunts her town.
But she can’t shake the feeling that there was more to what happened that day. She knew Sal when she was a child, and he was always so kind to her. How could he possibly have been a killer?
Now a senior herself, Pip decides to reexamine the closed case for her final project, at first just to cast doubt on the original investigation. But soon she discovers a trail of dark secrets that might actually prove Sal innocent . . . and the line between past and present begins to blur. Someone in Fairview doesn’t want Pip digging around for answers, and now her own life might be in danger.
This is the story of an investigation turned obsession, full of twists and turns and with an ending you’ll never expect.
I really enjoyed this book! I was honestly really surprised that this was a debut novel because it was written so well and really drew me in from beginning to end. I especially liked the inclusion of Pip’s documentation for her homework and how it was formatted differently to keep things visually interesting as well as made you really try to think it through to solve the case.
Since this is a mystery, I don’t want to give away any spoilers as to how things wrap up, but I loved how all the clues were given throughout the book and you could really form your own ideas and theories as to what happened. There are a lot of mystery books that I’ve read that just throw out the whodunit at the end out of nowhere where you can’t see the links between the clues, but that was definitely not the case with this one!
I also liked the balance between Pip solving the case and her life outside of the case, and how the two bled together. I especially loved the relationships she had with her family and her friends, they were so wholesome and nice to see how they supported each other. There is a relationship in this book, but I never felt like it was taking the spotlight away from the mystery of this book. Rather, I thought it added to the mystery!
I loved how we got to see Pip’s thought process throughout the case and how she came to certain conclusions and her suspect list, and even though I sometimes didn’t agree with her I liked how the book made these scenarios plausible.. I’ll be honest, my idea of what happened was so much worse than what it actually turned out to be, but that may be because I read a lot of darker mystery thrillers.
Overall, this was such a fun and fast paced mystery! I loved the characters and the formatting, and it looks like this will be the first in a series so I’m curious to see what the second book will be about!
Melting Pages 
I have heard great things about this book, Ive been meaning to get it soon
Great review!
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Thank you! Hope you enjoy it if you read it!
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I finished this book just yesterday and totally agree with you! This book is so well-written, it surprises me it’s a debut. And the author is so young, oh my God. It’s very inspiring.
Rather than a relationship, I’d say what there was in the book was a friendship?? And I really liked it stayed that way during the plot’s development so it didn’t interfere with anything. Can’t wait to read the sequel!
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I interpreted the ending as them becoming a couple, but it definitely was a friendship throughout the book!
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I’m definitely going to give this book a go! I love a good mystery book
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