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

Mar 14, 2022 Ashley rated it really liked it

Shelves: epistolary, mysteries, class-gender-race, young-adult, shop-on-your-own-shelves-2022, addictive, murder-most-foul, a-dog-is-in-this, guide-accountability-index

I was so pleasantly surprised by this one. It was an excellent choice to be reading on my birthday* to make up for the fact that my body is slowly succumbing to the forces of entropy.

*Which was now over a month ago, whoopsie.

I'm wary with YA these days, especially contemporary YA, because I want a good story and good characters, not plot gimmicks and sensationalism, and books that are read by people like I used to be as a teenager (no discernment whatsoever). This book absolutely delivers. It's I was so pleasantly surprised by this one. It was an excellent choice to be reading on my birthday* to make up for the fact that my body is slowly succumbing to the forces of entropy.

*Which was now over a month ago, whoopsie.

I'm wary with YA these days, especially contemporary YA, because I want a good story and good characters, not plot gimmicks and sensationalism, and books that are read by people like I used to be as a teenager (no discernment whatsoever). This book absolutely delivers. It's so full of all these wonderful specifics. The main character is a such a huge, procedural kind of nerd and the story is formatted like it is her school project, because it is. There are transcripts of phone calls and chat logs, and interviews. The story is also extremely emotionally affecting, and perfectly balances between that excitement that good mysteries give you where your brain wants to go oOOoOOh that's neat, and also your brain wants to feel feelings.

Literally the only reason I didn't give this book five stars is that it features the absolute WORST attempt at Americanization I have ever heard of from a British author. It was so BLATANT. Like, did you guys even try, American publishers? Also, why was this even set in America if the author is British? Set it in the UK! Or get whatever the equivalent of a fanfic Brit-picker is for Americans (Britpickers are people who essentially beta read Americans' Sherlock fanfics to make sure we're not making stupid American mistakes, and no I'm not telling you where my Sherlock fic is, you can't make me--anyway, I'm one of those a-holes who didn't get their fics Britpicked because I'm antisocial, mostly, not bc I think I know British culture all that well). I do not "ring" my friends, I call them. I do not go anywhere on the Saturday. I go somewhere on Saturday. Those are just two very small examples; there were a bunch.

Anyways, ultimately, I super enjoyed this and will be reading the second two books in the trilogy later this year. My TBR is crying.

"The ____'s Guide to _____ a/and ______" Accountability Rating: I have decided to start holding books accountable for frivolously using the extremely overused title construction this book also uses. This book gets a 8/10. This was published near the beginning of the trend, so we can give it some leeway. Additionally, there is actually a guide in this book! Pippa starts a podcast and calls it A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. Also also, if you've read the last book, the title works very very well with the overall arc of the series.

Alternate Titles for This Book: None needed! ...more

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Jan 12, 2024 Obsidian rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2023-library-books

Hmmmm

I guessed what happened at the ten percent mark. It was just to obvious to me. The best part was the drawing and interactions with some of the graphics that Jackson included. I think the biggest issue I have was with the main character just deciding in the end that someone was allowed the ability to escape and others were not.

Full review. Well that was a bust. Honestly I think the reason why this didn't work was because I guessed at everything and was right. I also thought the lead characte ...more

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Jan 30, 2023 Malin rated it really liked it

Shelves: my-books, all-books-2023, cbr15, diversity-2023, cbr15-passport-challenge, mount-tbr-23, tackle-my-tbr-23, read-my-bookshelf-23, name-23, keyword-23

CBR15 Passport Challenge - New to me author

Five years ago, blonde and beautiful high school girl Andie Bell was murdered, although no one ever found her body, despite careful searching. However, Andie's boyfriend Sal Singh confessed in a text message to his dad and then committed suicide before he could be arrested by the police. So everyone knows that he did it, and the case is closed.

Pippa Fitz-Amobi remembers Sal Singh as a kind and considerate young man, with a promising university career a CBR15 Passport Challenge - New to me author

Five years ago, blonde and beautiful high school girl Andie Bell was murdered, although no one ever found her body, despite careful searching. However, Andie's boyfriend Sal Singh confessed in a text message to his dad and then committed suicide before he could be arrested by the police. So everyone knows that he did it, and the case is closed.

Pippa Fitz-Amobi remembers Sal Singh as a kind and considerate young man, with a promising university career ahead of him. She doesn't really believe he killed Andie, and as her senior project in high school, she claims to be focusing on how media bias might have affected the reports of the murder case, but in reality, she plans to re-investigate the whole case and hopefully clear Sal's name. After interviewing Sal's younger brother Ravi about his recollections about the case, he figures out what she's doing and insists on being allowed to help in the investigation. Ravi unsuccessfully tried to clear his brother's name a few years ago but got nowhere, in part because the police refused to even speak to him.

Pippa knows the police isn't going to be forthcoming with information about a case they consider solved and closed, and she plans to use more unconventional ways to figure out what actually happened when Andie disappeared and was most likely murdered. As she keeps contacting Andie and Sal's family members, friends, and acquaintances, she starts to discover that Andie Bell certainly wasn't as innocent and angelic as the public image of her would have it in the press and case documents.

If Pippa is correct, and Sal Singh didn't kill Angie, and may in fact have been the victim of a crime himself, then there is a murderer (or several) out there, unhappy about her trying to uncover secrets. Pippa starts getting anonymous threats, and when they only spur her to investigate more thoroughly, the threats start getting a lot more vicious. Will Pippa and Ravi be able to solve the five-year-old murder and clear Sal's name? Or is Pippa going to end up being the unknown killer's next victim?

I've been seeing Holly Jackson's books all over the place for the last few years, including in the first season of Heartstopperon Netflix (this is one of the many books Isaac reads). I could do an internet search to check, but I'm guessing that one of the reasons I'm seeing her books in all the bookstores is because of Tik Tok, as pretty much all the authors who seem to be enjoying impressive sales have had them boosted by Tik Tok attention. Either way, as this fit, not one, but two of the keywords in my Monthly Keyword challenge for January, as well as into a whole host of my other reading challenges (I'm really trying to be good about reading books I already own this year).

This was a quick read, but also kind of reminded me why I don't read a lot of crime and suspense novels anymore. It may be aimed at young adults, but there was more than enough unpleasant tension in this book as the threats to Pippa come more frequently and become more serious. Just as I don't really like being scared and tend to avoid the horror genre because of it, I'm not super fond of being on edge because of threats and tension toward the characters I'm reading about. The characters in this are all really well drawn and Pippa and her family especially are very likable. I didn't want bad things to happen to any of them.

There are two more books in this series, where Pippa keeps getting entangled in murder investigations. I probably will get round to reading them at some point, this was a really well-written book. I just think I need to be in a different emotional space when I do.

Judging a Book by its Cover: Both the US and UK editions of this book have the red "murder board" thread on the cover, but on the whole, I much prefer the cleaner, brighter mostly white cover of the UK edition that I have to the primarily grey cover of the US edition, with the title on little torn-up pieces of paper.
...more

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Mar 22, 2021 Mythili rated it it was ok · review of another edition

CW: suicide, sexual assault

This book has STRONG Veronica Mars vibes all over. Like, I'm pretty sure that's exactly how it was recommended to me and 100% of the reason I jumped to put it on hold.

Pippa ~~Veronica~~ lives in a small town ~~Neptune~~ that was rocked by a brutal murder years before. Magnetic, troubled Andie Bell ~~Lily Kane~~ disappeared, and the police ~~Sheriff Lamb~~ wiped their hands of the entire case after Sal Singh ~~Abel Koontz~~ was deemed responsible in the court of public opinion after he com CW: suicide, sexual assault

This book has STRONG Veronica Mars vibes all over. Like, I'm pretty sure that's exactly how it was recommended to me and 100% of the reason I jumped to put it on hold.

Pippa ~~Veronica~~ lives in a small town ~~Neptune~~ that was rocked by a brutal murder years before. Magnetic, troubled Andie Bell ~~Lily Kane~~ disappeared, and the police ~~Sheriff Lamb~~ wiped their hands of the entire case after Sal Singh ~~Abel Koontz~~ was deemed responsible in the court of public opinion after he committed suicide and his body was found with traces of Andie's blood under his fingernails. Pippa believes that Sal was innocent, and has decided to make it her senior capstone project to figure out what really happened along with her sidekick ~~Wallace~~ Ravi, a POC with a significant role in a ~~cast~~ town that is otherwise prettty homogenous.

The book alternates between third person POV chapters (where the action happens) and first person journal entry-style chapters where Pippa narrates ~~Veronica voice overs~~ her thoughts, copies down interviews with suspects, and keeps track of persons of interest. I understand the choice but think that it's a mistake--part of the mystique of the PI is gone when you can hear Pippa's thoughts and 'stream of consciousness.' She jumps to conclusions very quickly in these first person segments, and unlike with a third person POV you can't add qualifiers like "she said hesitantly" or "Pippa didn't respond, her mind whirring furiously" or "she was quiet for what seemed like a while, trying to sort through what she just read."

She's also full of truly inane impulses, which I can forgive (somewhat) on account of the fact that she is 17, lives in a small, "safe" town, and is white. Ravi, Sal's brother, is frequently the voice of reason noting both that Pippa shouldn't be breaking into people's houses and that he, as a brown man, really can't be doing so. She's continually putting herself utterly needlessly into completely dangerous situations that make you want to throw the book against the wall. Yes, I believe that the world needs to change so that women feel like they can walk through it freely but also don't go into creepy men's houses with no backup.

Red herrings abound, but Pippa's wide eyed first person POVs strip a lot of the urgency from them. (view spoiler)

I'm not being mean about the plethora of VM references. I really love that show, but years later I can't tell how cliché or not the plot is. The beats are, after all, very common--the red herring, the sexy secret. At the end of the day part of what you love about VM is that she comes off as this hardboiled PI but at the end of the day is really just a marshmallow teenager trying to make sense of a confusing world. I never really bought into why Pippa decided to put her comfortable existence on the line to solve Andie's murder. She didn't really know, but unfortunately we hear all of that in the first person and so can't even formulate our own ideas. Probably not going to continue reading the series. ...more

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Jan 05, 2023 Juliana rated it really liked it

This book is a fun ride. You definitely need to suspend your disbelief, and the ending was a little too much disbelief for me, but I was still hooked throughout and fully enjoyed it. This also felt to me like a nice use of a diverse cast of characters by a white author.

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Jul 07, 2021 Jen rated it really liked it

Shelves: year-read-2021, genre-fiction, z-favorites-2021, genre-mystery, audioreads, genre-crime, awesome-audio-narrator, genre-contemporary, genre-thriller, own-audiobook

Propelling. Read this if you need something to fill the Veronica Mars shaped hole in your heart.

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Feb 19, 2024 Leigh Jahnke rated it did not like it

Shelves: 2024-book-challenge

The main character was in high school running around meeting drug dealers and going to hotels out of town but had to have the bedroom door open when a boy was in her room. Not really consistent or realistic - I hope. I picked this book from the goodreads challenge list for a prompt with an apostrophe in the title. Well it met the prompt.

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