A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, written by Holly Jackson and published on May 2nd, 2019, is the first installment of the popular thriller trilogy known as A Good Girls’ Guide to Murder. However, after reading this novel I have found myself with many questions. Is this book as good as people make it out to be? Is it deserving of the fame it has accumulated? Should people be reading this book?

About the Novel

In A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, we follow our main character Pippa Fitz-Amobi, commonly referred to as Pip. She is a high school junior working on her capstone project. The topic she chose for her project was the murder of Andie Bell, a senior in Pip’s village who was presumably murdered by her boyfriend Salil Singh. After the murder, Salil then took his own life. However, Pip isn’t sure that’s truly what happened. This project choice leads her to an investigation where many secrets are uncovered and may put Pip in danger.

Rating 

On a 5-star scale, I gave this book 4.5 stars. This seems to be a common reaction as Goodreads, an app on which you can rate books and also organize books you have read, want to read, or are currently reading, had a rating of 4.4 / 5 stars. This rating is a result of many different elements of the book so let’s go over them. 

Characters

In A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, I found some of the characters to be likable and somewhat three-dimensional. However, some of them weren’t as intriguing. The introduction to many of the characters, excluding Pip and Ravi, feels like you are being told a lot about the characters but rarely ever actually shown. As you read the book, there are also lots of name drops that you’re somehow supposed to remember. I’d understand if they were constantly mentioned but they really aren’t and if they are it’s at the end of the book. 

However, I do have positive thoughts about some of the characters, especially the main character herself Pippa Fitz-Amobi. Pip is a very hardworking and bright, straight-A student. I liked Pip while reading A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and I still do after finishing the book. She was an enjoyable character who felt realistic and relatable throughout the entire novel. She is very determined and doesn’t stop until she achieves her goals. She’s also a perfectionist, but in situations throughout the book, this isn’t the best trait for her to possess. On the other hand, one thing that felt very unrealistic to me about Pip was how she reached certain conclusions. It felt like she knew everything. She made so many assumptions all by herself but somehow managed to be correct. At certain points it felt like she was just extremely lucky. 

Another character I enjoyed reading about was Ravi. Ravi is Sal Singh’s brother and he helps Pip throughout her investigation. I don’t have any complaints about Ravi, he’s likable and adds a significant amount to the enjoyment of the book. His humor, attitude, and so many other things about him make the experience of reading this book more enjoyable than it already is. 

Pacing and Format 

In my opinion, the pacing in A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is close to flawless. It was an easy and quick read with many plot twists. Every chapter left me guessing a new culprit and I wasn’t able to figure out who it was until a chapter before the reveal. However, I do wish that the book was paced more slowly. Everything happens so fast, which at some points isn’t a bad thing, but it can become overwhelming at times. 

I adore the format in A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. There was a mixture between narration, capstone logs, interviews, text messages, and occasionally other formats. The mixed media format helps us better understand Pip and how she thinks, and it’s refreshing from the regular book formats we see so often. 

Plot

The plot in A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is fantastic in so many ways. As mentioned before the plot twists in almost every chapter are so unpredictable. They shock you every time and throw everything you thought you knew and understood out of the window. All of these plot twists are so perfectly connected but you wouldn’t realize it until the investigation has already been solved. This book keeps the audience on their toes trying to guess who the culprit is and it’s revealed that they guessed incorrectly almost every time. The build-up throughout the book is outstanding. The clues dropped that go unnoticed, the small details you thought meant nothing that suddenly do mean something, the characters you thought were added as filler or to deceive you are relevant. So many small details are what make this such an amazing read. 

Final Thoughts

To answer my previous question: Is this book as good as people make it out to be? Yes, it’s amazing. Is it deserving of the fame it has accumulated? Yes, it most definitely is. Should people be reading this book? And yet again, yes. I heavily recommend reading this book because I think it’s one of my best reads this year. I will definitely read the sequel, Good Girl, Bad Blood. Who knows, maybe there will be a book review for the sequel as well.