From the Bookshelf of Bitches Doing Readalongs …

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #1)

Holly Jackson

Start date: June 1, 2021

Finish date: June 30, 2021

Discussion: June 2021

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Showing 2 of 4 topics — 6 comments total

June 2021

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
By Taylor · 2 posts · 11 views

last updated Jun 17, 2021 06:38PM

The Ones We're Meant to Find
By Taylor · 2 posts · 12 views

last updated Jun 16, 2021 08:20PM

What Members Thought

Aug 11, 2020 taylor.talks.books rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

I couldn’t put this book down. I felt like Pippa and I had lots in common when it comes to wanting to solve murder mysteries. All of the twists and turns sure kept me on my toes. Can’t wait for Book 2!

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Jul 08, 2020 Amie rated it really liked it

Shelves: cover-love, possible-tw-uncomfy-topics, adults-read-ya-too, mystery-thriller, audiobooks, 2020-reads

A YA mystery that was super twisty, unpredictable, not entirely romance-driven, and had characters that didn't fully annoy me? What a win.

I highly recommend the audio - full cast, sound effects, the works.

The plot itself was interesting and plucks at the murderino in all of us - investigating a murder that happened in your town 5 years later...who wouldn't want to do that? My criticism of this aspect is that as a YA mystery, it comes off a bit Scooby-Doo(ish) at times. Those meddling kids interf ...more

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Dec 09, 2022 Mia Perero Boyer rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: in-a-series, 2022-reads

I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting out of those book, but this wasn't it. But that's not a bad thing.

Pip sets out to solve a murder for a project she has for school, and boy does she solve it, in unexpected ways! There are several twists and turns that leaves your mouth agape, thinking there's no way! But oh yes, there is!

I'm definitely excited to read the next in the series. ...more

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Nov 27, 2021 Stevie rated it liked it

Shelves: young-adult, 2010-s, mystery, contemporary, thriller, 2021

Not a spoiler free review. TW: sexual assault, murder, racism
I finally read this after two and a half years of it being recommended and I gotta say, it was kind of a let down. But not for the reasons you might think.

This book has all the makings of a five-star read for me. Past crime. Detective teen. Chapters that end on cliffhangers. Multiple plot twists. But the problem is, I've already consumed this story.
The crime at the center of this story is very obviously based on Hae Min Lee/Adnan Syed Not a spoiler free review. TW: sexual assault, murder, racism
I finally read this after two and a half years of it being recommended and I gotta say, it was kind of a let down. But not for the reasons you might think.

This book has all the makings of a five-star read for me. Past crime. Detective teen. Chapters that end on cliffhangers. Multiple plot twists. But the problem is, I've already consumed this story.
The crime at the center of this story is very obviously based on Hae Min Lee/Adnan Syed/the first season of Serial. A South Asian boy, Sal Singh, is assumed guilty for the murder of his girlfriend, Andie Bell (Subtle differences between the real case: Adnan is Pakistani-American, where Sal is Indian-American. Hae Min Lee, born in South Korea, was whitewashed as Andie). They had been fighting, there was a threatening note, Andie was seeing an older guy, there was evidence found in her abandoned car, Sal's friend's can't confirm his alibi, Sal (and his brother Ravi to a lesser degree) is racially profiled. If you've listened to Serial, you'll recognize those pieces. If you've gone further down that particular rabbit hole, you'll pick up on even more similarities. Beyond the crime itself, the story is about a journalist investigating the case because because the official investigation was not satisfactory. That's exactly what Serial is. Pippa and Ravi even do the the timed driving experiment that Sarah Koenig and her producer did.

There are also elements lifted directly from Veronica Mars. The main character, Pippa, is a high school senior investigating this crime. Veronica was teen detective. There is a sexual assault incident that happens in the book. It happens identically to how it does to Veronica (S1E21). She’s at a party she shouldn’t have gone to. She’s drugged and raped. She goes to report it to the police, but is turned away because there is no evidence. The guy who did it was the privileged son of a highly respected family in the community. Later, Pippa is drugged while drinking tea from someone who logically should not have even had drugs, and then is almost murdered by them. This also happened to Veronica (S3E09). Andie was also (sort of) killed by a classmate’s father who she was having a romantic relationship with, by blunt force trauma. This is exactly what happened to Lily on Veronica Mars (S1E22, S2E21). There were also multiple times where Veronica was threatened to stop investigating her cases.

There was also an I Know What You Did Last Summer subplot that I could have done without.

So, because of the unoriginality of this story, I can’t give it higher than 3 stars. I really enjoyed reading it (maybe because Veronica Mars is my favorite show of all time), and I will pick up the rest of the series. I really enjoyed the slow burn romance between Pip and Ravi, and I hope that is explored more in the later books. I also really liked the way the family relationships were written. They all felt very genuine and not corny like most YA. There was also one plot twist I didn’t see coming, which is a rarity these days. It ended up being a pretty low stakes twist, but still. Overall, if this book had come out in 2004, I would have loved it. ...more

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