A Good Girls Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson is a fascinating book about a highschool student named Pip who tries to uncover the truth about a murder that occured in her town 5 years prior. Popular high school senior Andie Bell was declared missing and later presumed dead assumed to be murdered by her boyfriend Sal Singh. Who commited suicide not even a week later solidifying his guilt in the eyes of most of the town. Pip knew Sal as a child and never thought he could be a murderer. So, when the opportunity arises she decides she will solve the case and discover the true murderer of Andie by befriending Ravi Sal’s brother to prove his innocence. As Pip gets closer and closer to solving Andie’s murder she starts to get threats to tell her to leave the case alone causing Pip to make irrational choices. In the end she ends up solving the murder and discovers who the unexpected murderer is leaving the book filled with many surprises and plot twists especially toward the end of the book.
Throughout this book the writing style changes between 1st and 3rd person as you switch between transcripts and files related to the original murder investigation along with Pip’s personal investigative recordings and transcripts, as well as what is going on in her life as she investigates Andie’s murder. This change in writing style changes your point of view on the characters. When reading Pip’s personal transcripts from her investigation you might believe that the murderer is one person, but then when reading her interactions with some of her suspects you may believe it is a different suspect all together.
When writing this book Holly Jackson made it so we as readers know the same amount of information as Pip. This means that we learn more about the suspects as Pip does and not ahead of time. So as a readers we can understand some of the emotions of surprise Pip while solving Andie’s murder case. We can also truly see how Pip solves the murder step by step since we don’t know any other information but what she knows. We also learn about evidence from the original investigation and why it may be false and made to frame people.
Overall A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” by Holly Jackson is a great book with lots of plots twists, and a writing style that engages the reader more.This book is great and has lots of plot twists that will leave you surprised. I would highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy murder mysteries.
I have hear so much about this book and this post made me more interested to read it! I think it's really cool that the point of view changes through the story and that it enhances the mystery of the novel. Great post!
ReplyDelete-Ana :)
I think the explanation you gave on why the book is formatted the way it is really captures the book. I hate when mystery type books reveal information before the main character/person trying to solve the issue finds out. I'll definitely look into reading this.
ReplyDeleteAthena
I do enjoy murder mysteries, so this book seems like it would be great for me! I also trust your taste, so I think reading it for that reason makes sense for me too. Plus, the title alone seems like it's a very feminist book, which is just an added bonus. I hadn't heard of this book until reading your post, but now I'll be sure to check it out!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like such an intriguing book! I especially am drawn to the fact that we as readers learn information at the same time as Pip- I think this makes the storyline that much more compelling. I always love reading mystery books with plots like this, so I really want to read it now! Great review :)
ReplyDeleteI have heard of this book quite a bit recently and I am now really interested in it. I also really enjoy mysteries so I think I will check this book out. I think it is interesting that the point of view changes throughout the book and I think that could make the book really interesting.
ReplyDelete-Kai
I've seen this book featured in bookstores for the past couple months. Not a big mystery buff here, but I really haven't seen this sort of narrative for a murder mystery before. It's usually some detective, so this new perspective will give it a fresh feeling. Sounds like an interesting read tbh.
ReplyDeleteJosh
I have never heard of this book before reading your blog post. The book sounds very interesting. I really enjoy reading mystery and so I will make sure to add this book to my to read list. Having the book written in different perspectives makes the book sound even more interesting. I will make sure to check out this book
ReplyDeleteI’ve never heard of this book but it sounds very interesting! I’ve been trying to get into murder mysteries and this book seems like a good place to start.
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