Review of ‘A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’ by Holly Jackson

In our latest Teen Blog, Catrin Edwards reviews Holly Jackson’s debut YA crime thriller, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, which was shortlisted for the YA Book Prize 2020, and Winner of the British Book Awards Children’s Fiction Book of the Year 2020.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson is a gripping and compelling murder mystery series. I am going to focus on reviewing the first book of the series, also called A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, which follows 17-year-old Pippa Fitz-Amobi, often referred to as Pip by her friends, who is investigating the murder of Andie Bell which happened five years ago in her hometown of Little Kilton in Buckinghamshire.

Pip decided to solve the murder of Andie Bell for her school Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), as she does not believe that her friend Ravi Singh’s older brother Sal murdered his girlfriend Andie before Sal allegedly took his own life. The closer Pip gets to solving the murder, the more dangerous her life becomes. She starts to receive threatening, anonymous notes, yet she continues to investigate the murder of Andie Bell to help bring justice to Sal Singh and his family. I really like the structure of the novel which follows a narrative story-line intertwined with many production logs which include recorded interview transcriptions and important evidence that Pip has discovered.

The novel also has many entertaining subplots which are explored, for example Pip’s friendships, family, self-resilience and perseverance. Pip is very intelligent and really likes listening to true crime podcasts and documentaries. Pip’s unique sense of humour with her friends and family makes her a really lovable character.

I really enjoyed this murder mystery because I like how the author focuses on investigating individual characters one at a time which causes the reader to think and try to solve the murder themselves. This increases the curiosity and interest of the reader, helping to make the book very appealing and engaging. I would highly recommend A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder if you enjoy reading absorbing and exciting murder mystery novels!

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