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inkandplasma 's review for:
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder
by Holly Jackson
Full review: https://inkandplasma.wordpress.com/2020/01/10/a-good-girls-guide-to-murder-by-holly-jackson/
When I first started reading this, I was thrown off by the EPQ style format. By about three chapters in, I loved it. Holly Jackson nailed the balance of EPQ-style with actual narrative prose, so we were still getting information conventionally but the EPQ aspect of the novel really made me feel involved as a reader. Because of the way Pip's notes were addressed, it felt like she was talking to the reader and explaining everything that she'd found. It also meant that I kept accidentally rinsing through chapters I was supposed to be waiting for the book club to read, because I'd blink and I'd read five chapters. I felt like I was a part of the investigation, and I think that made me even more involved in hunting for and putting together clues than I usually am.
I loved Pip as our MC. She's a clever character, but not excessively so. I never had one of those moments of 'yeah sure, as if' when she connected some dots or came up with a new plan. Everything she did felt like the reasonable response of a highly logical character piecing things together. I think that's pretty important in this type of story, because there's nothing more irritating than a character who has all the answers even if it doesn't make sense. She was part of a dynamic duo with Ravi, and I don't want to delve too deeply into Ravi's character because spoilers, but he's Sal's disgraced brother who always believed his big brother was innocent. And. I. Love. Him. He's kind of the sweetest, and the whole way through I was swearing that if he turned out bad I was going to revolt. Every time he called Pip Sarge or trouble, a baby unicorn was born.
As for the clues to solving this mystery? I missed a lot of them. I thought I was being hyper-obsessive with this book, and while we were reading it there were a lot of incredibly wild, conspiracy-level theories about who had killed Andie and Sal, up to and including Andie herself. We basically didn't stop throwing ideas around and I'm not sure that we got any of the facts right in our final version. Our investigative incompetence was as impressive as Pip's intelligence. By the time I got three quarters of the way into this book, I was practically crawling up the walls because I needed to know the answers so badly and I had a lot of possible leads and no answers. I might have worked some things out if I hadn't been Christmas-exhausted, but really? I had no idea.
That alone makes this book a must-read for anyone who likes YA crime/mystery. I usually guess who was responsible or why pretty early in a book. I'm obsessive, so I pick up on tiny details and extrapolate them out into an answer. I did fucking not get to the right answer here. And I love that. Holly Jackson didn't hide the clues, they were right there the whole time, it was just a matter of eliminating the right information. I didn't feel at any point that any of the facts had been 'hidden' from us for a big reveal. Instead, I felt like this book managed a very well-earned rug pull at the end when I found out the truth, after a few chapters that had absolutely no chill. If anyone could put this book down and walk away after approximately chapter 45, I want to borrow their self-control. It was a roller-coaster to the end, and I didn't want to get off until I knew everything.
When I first started reading this, I was thrown off by the EPQ style format. By about three chapters in, I loved it. Holly Jackson nailed the balance of EPQ-style with actual narrative prose, so we were still getting information conventionally but the EPQ aspect of the novel really made me feel involved as a reader. Because of the way Pip's notes were addressed, it felt like she was talking to the reader and explaining everything that she'd found. It also meant that I kept accidentally rinsing through chapters I was supposed to be waiting for the book club to read, because I'd blink and I'd read five chapters. I felt like I was a part of the investigation, and I think that made me even more involved in hunting for and putting together clues than I usually am.
I loved Pip as our MC. She's a clever character, but not excessively so. I never had one of those moments of 'yeah sure, as if' when she connected some dots or came up with a new plan. Everything she did felt like the reasonable response of a highly logical character piecing things together. I think that's pretty important in this type of story, because there's nothing more irritating than a character who has all the answers even if it doesn't make sense. She was part of a dynamic duo with Ravi, and I don't want to delve too deeply into Ravi's character because spoilers, but he's Sal's disgraced brother who always believed his big brother was innocent. And. I. Love. Him. He's kind of the sweetest, and the whole way through I was swearing that if he turned out bad I was going to revolt. Every time he called Pip Sarge or trouble, a baby unicorn was born.
As for the clues to solving this mystery? I missed a lot of them. I thought I was being hyper-obsessive with this book, and while we were reading it there were a lot of incredibly wild, conspiracy-level theories about who had killed Andie and Sal, up to and including Andie herself. We basically didn't stop throwing ideas around and I'm not sure that we got any of the facts right in our final version. Our investigative incompetence was as impressive as Pip's intelligence. By the time I got three quarters of the way into this book, I was practically crawling up the walls because I needed to know the answers so badly and I had a lot of possible leads and no answers. I might have worked some things out if I hadn't been Christmas-exhausted, but really? I had no idea.
That alone makes this book a must-read for anyone who likes YA crime/mystery. I usually guess who was responsible or why pretty early in a book. I'm obsessive, so I pick up on tiny details and extrapolate them out into an answer. I did fucking not get to the right answer here. And I love that. Holly Jackson didn't hide the clues, they were right there the whole time, it was just a matter of eliminating the right information. I didn't feel at any point that any of the facts had been 'hidden' from us for a big reveal. Instead, I felt like this book managed a very well-earned rug pull at the end when I found out the truth, after a few chapters that had absolutely no chill. If anyone could put this book down and walk away after approximately chapter 45, I want to borrow their self-control. It was a roller-coaster to the end, and I didn't want to get off until I knew everything.