A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is not actually about a good girl giving us a guide to murder.
A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder is the first novel in the four-part series of the same name. Published in 2019, the 433-page novel follows Pippa Fitz-Amobi on a journey for justice.
Five years ago, in the small town of Little Kilton, two young lives were brutally taken. Andie Bell was murdered by Sal Singh, who was later found dead in the woods. Andie’s body was never found but everyone is convinced Sal did it. Why else would he have committed suicide?
Pip has chosen to do her final year project on the Sal-Andie murder case. She is determined to uncover the truth of what really happened on that fateful night and prove that Sal Singh is not the murderer that everyone claims he is.
A Reader’s Guide to Holly Jackson’s Debut Novel
I quite liked A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder. However, it just didn’t connect with me. I couldn’t really find myself getting interested in the things that happened in Little Kilton. Of course, I wanted to find out who really was the killer and what actually happened. But honestly, I'd be perfectly fine even if I didn't find out who it was.
The first half of the book was dreadfully slow. I was on the verge of putting this book down because the plot was dragging onto my wit's end. Then suddenly, the pace picked up really quick in the second half. It was more bearable then, even enjoyable if I say so myself.
Also, I thought the reason why Pip wanted to prove Sal innocent was so shallow. Sal was nice to her a handful of times and she decides that he’s her hero. Seems a bit silly that this girl was willing to risk her life for a guy she barely knew.
A Sensible Girl’s Guide to Character Building
One thing that was a huge letdown in A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder was the characters.
Characters are the foundational blocks to any story and in A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder, they were done poorly. I couldn’t care less about what Pippa did because she was just the typical straight As, goody two shoes student. There was barely any depth to Pippa as a character. Furthermore, I felt that her character was not well-developed. It is mentioned (countless) times how smart this 17-year-old is yet she goes out and does the dumbest stuff ever.
What would you do in your evening free time if you've been receiving (multiple) anonymous death threats over the last few weeks? Oh yes, go out for a walk into the forest where someone died in the dark. And make sure to bring along the dog with you because god forbid the dog goes for a walk in the daytime instead.
And let's not forget which 17-year-old would go out and confront an alleged murderer in the murderer’s home unarmed or unprepared. Yep, Pippa Fitz-Amobi would. Genius.
Pip annoyed me. What happened to you know who served her right. RIP though; I shed a lot of tears for you dear old friend.
Besides Pip, the other significant character would be Ravi Singh, Sal's younger brother. I did find myself liking Ravi quite a bit. He was a cool dude that cared a lot about his brother and his friend. He started off as a random side character at the beginning of the book but he took on a bigger role closer to the end when he became Pip's partner-in-crime.
And of course, the character we all love the most is Barney. He can do no wrong in my eyes.
Not only were the characters poorly executed, but the relationships in this novel also seemed forced and unrealistic. The camping trip was so random and seemed like a quick excuse to show that Pip had a life outside of school.
Let’s not forget about the ship that sailed so quickly at the end of the novel. What was that all about? And in school? That was a little confusing and so out of character...
An Empath's Conclusion to A Good Girl's Guide To Murder
I have been brutally honest in the last few paragraphs so let me point out all the good things I appreciated in this book.
I especially enjoyed the production logs and little notes that Jackson included in the book. I found it made her characters more humane (especially after all that they were lacking) and I looked forward to reading those. It was a breath of fresh air after the third-person POV chapters.
Overall, it wasn’t as good as how everyone else claimed it was. I wasn’t having many expectations, to begin with, so you can tell that the standard wasn’t very high to start. However, I did enjoy it; I just don’t see myself re-reading it again.
In other news, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder has been picked up to be adapted into a television series! Hopefully, the TV adaptation would do a better job than the book did.
I will still be reading the other three more books in this series though so I can only hope that it gets better in time.
★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Genre: Mystery
Series: A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder #1
Number of pages: 433
Year published: 2019
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