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A Good Girl's Guide to Murder,
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M.K. Pagano
I wish I would have gotten the original -- I didn't know there was a difference. I don't understand the decision to change the location to the US, the characters still spoke like they were British, the names were British, and it was just all really weird and took you out of the story. Did they think Americans would be incapable of reading a book set in the UK? Makes no sense.
Elia
The author is from the UK and the UK version is the original. The US release changed the location from the UK to Connecticut, which I feel makes the whole thing jarring because the people do not behave or speak like Americans at all.
Pamela Hill
The US version still has many UK phrases. It's jarring. It took me out of the story many times. I wished they'd just left in set in England.
Ellie
I don't know but it makes me frustrated. I bought the US version, was not impressed with the writing, and then found excerpts from the UK version and compared the two. The UK version's writing is much much better.
Helena B
The US version is like a translation of the original. They changed the names of the places to American ones, and regional slang and references, and rearranged sentences. They also changed some interactions between characters, and I think they changed one of the characters' sexualities. I like the UK version better, the writing in the US version seemed very simplified.
☆haelyn☆
I read the US version and, of course, still loved it. But one thing I noticed from reading this q&a was that most Americans found it weird reading the US version because it still had British slang. I did not find it jarring at all, and then realized, duh, I'm from America but I live in NZ (a country that speaks in British English and run by the commonwealth) so I understood it fine! Just interesting and I thought I'd share!
Marcy Skala
Wow! After reading all these comments I can't believe I didn't notice that. I read a lot of mysteries from both countries, but didn't catch it. I did notice they referred to her town as Little Kilton, once in the US book and I did react --where did that town come from?
Aikouncoloured
The Uk version is much much better
Anna Turner
I finished AGAD earlier in the spring and it took the Netflix show being released to go digging through Google as to why it was set in England when the book I read was in America, specifally Connecticut. Then I find out through comments here there's actually an ORIGINAL VERSION that was set in THE UK because that's also where the author is from???? Others have mentioned jargin being a giveaway in the US version and other language not lining up, though I never noticed anything that seemed particularly "off" (could just be me and how I naturally speak). Now I feel like I've read 3 books of lies and am having an absolute crisis over it. Especially reading people say that the UK one is better. Which makes sense since it's the original. And speaking as a Midwest girl who read the entirety of the Harry Potter series in various UK accents, I'm pretty sure I could handle reading AGGGTM being set there.
Adelaide
its so bizzare, i had read the first book for the first time through my schools online library app (sora or smth) and i was in love with the series so i decided to buy the books off amazon and i was totally taken a back when they started saying "boot" instead of trunk, and talking about jammie dodger biscuits lol. the uk version really does make much more sense, i found it odd that they "translated" it to be set in america.
Kristen
That drove me crazy! Did they really think people won’t catch on to British jargon? I listened to the U.S. version, and I still enjoyed it, but all they changed was the location. All I could think half the time was, “Yeah, American teenagers don’t talk like that” 😂
Meenal (#1 willow stan)
Buyer beware!! The UK and US versions are WILDLY different. I bought mine in India so it was the uk version but they changed so much for the us version it’s not even funny. They changed the town name, the appearance and sexualities of some of the characters, and they removed a ton of little quirks that the original had. In my opinion, the uk version is better. It’s the original and the us version is so much less interesting. It’s not weird for an American to read a book set in the UK!!
Michelle
Crazy. I only noticed it when in the second book shows a stretch of a court room scene, and the lawyer and a judge are wearing wigs.
Colleen
I'm currently listening to the audiobook and it's the US version. I haven't noticed any slips in jargon, but I tend to speak in jargon from a lot of different countries. That might be why I didn't notice or care.
Theresa Taylor
I am reading the US version, which I did not know when I bought it that there was a difference. It is driving me nuts. With it supposedly taking place in Connecticut the wording is off. There are some words that would not be used in America. It keeps throwing me off. I wish I would have gotten the original because then it would have flowed better for me.
Sheren
I just found this out and am DEVASTATED. What do you mean I read a completely different book???? I just finished good girl bad blood and wondered when I stumbled upon a character names Siobhan but thought oh well why not. Oh my God
Is there anything else that’s different in agggtm/ggbb (Haven’t read agad yet) plot/writing wise? Or is it really just the location?
Is there anything else that’s different in agggtm/ggbb (Haven’t read agad yet) plot/writing wise? Or is it really just the location?
Miranda
This answers so many questions! I just bought the third one out of the country and all of a sudden it's in the UK haha
Meghan
This was the only question I could think about through half the book! I could tell it was a UK author and didn’t understand how the editors didn’t catch many slips if they were bothering to do this whole version
Maaike Konig
Whose appearances and sexualities of the characters did they change between the two versions?
madi grace
i personally don’t like that theyre different. i think it makes things much more confusing.
Mia
now i understand why i was listening to an audiobook and it was the uk version, i was so confused cus i had the uk version on my ibooks app i was like what? did i get scammed buying the wrong one haha. i havent read the us version but the so far the uk one is pretty amazing
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