The prequel to the A Good Girl's Guide to Murder series definitely was a killjoy to the entire series.
Kill Joy takes us back to where Pippa Fitz-Amobi's detective journey began. Published in 2021, Kill Joy is a prequel novella to the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (AGGGTM) series.
Pippa and her friends are up for a murder mystery party. Dressed in 1920s flapper dresses, the friends pretend that they’re on an island called Joy. The murder of Reginald Remy has sparked attention among the residents of Joy and the friends must figure out who was the killer.
As Pip plays detective, understanding the clues and shifting out the identity of the killer, she finds herself drawn into this make-believe world full of curiosity, deceit and lies. However, the group of friends find that the murder of the fictional Reginald Remi is not the only murder case on their minds.
I found that this book had a very interesting concept. Instead of being sucked into the real world of the characters, we too are sucked into the game these characters are playing. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book like this before and I found it fun to play along with the rest of the gang as we slowly uncover the clues together.
That being said, there was not much plot going on, purely just vibes.
Honestly, Kill Joy seems like an unnecessary book. It was probably written just for that extra money grab on Holly Jackson’s part. However, it does set up the gist of the main series and I probably would have enjoyed it more as a first read rather than a last.
The book was written in a very dramatic way though and it was quite irritating at times. I don’t think any normal human would be screaming and shouting throughout a board game. Seemed unrealistic to me.
I know many people enjoyed the AGGGTM series because of Pip and her sheer determination in solving the cases that were presented to her. But god was she unbearable in Kill Joy.
Pip was so pretentious. I get that she’s the main character so we only get her point-of-view but she was so full of herself all the time. She was a whiny brat that kept complaining about going to hang out with her friends when she wanted to do homework at home. Okay? Go be a loser and do your homework then?
And let’s not forget how delusional her final answer was. It was based on so many assumptions. Then she had the audacity to whine about the whole thing. If you’re not happy with the results then maybe next time you should be the one who makes the game. Her need to always be right is outright annoying. She is unbearably quirky. Like we get it, you’re built different.
I cannot tell you how much I hated Pip in Kill Joy. She was even worse than in AGGGTM and she was already unbearable in that one.
Bless this book for the other characters or else I would’ve had to put this down 10 pages in.
Speaking of Pip and her friends, it was very endearing when the rest of the characters broke out of their character. I found it made them more human. Cara and Jamie were especially fun to read about. I loved their characters very much. And please, I am begging for more screen time for Zach. That poor man barely had two lines.
I would recommend Kill Joy to those who are new to the AGGGTM Universe. It gives you a glimpse of Jackson's writing style and introduces you to the characters of Little Kilton.
And for those of you who can't get enough of Pip (and Ravi), this book is for you. It is the last instalment to the series anyway and it is a very quick and easy read. However, you could skip it if you wanted to because it doesn't add any value to the original storyline and you're not missing out on anything.
★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Genre: Mystery
Series: A Good Girl's Guide to Murder #4
Number of pages: 138
Year published: 2021
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