As far as murder mysteries, this book is a stand-out for me. I loved the
little plot twist at the end, and how the whole book keeps you on your
toes. I think that people who read murder mystery books like to try to
guess the murderer and motive throughout the book, and this one does
not make that easy.
"What's wrong with me? ... I might seem like the ideal student: homework
always in early, every extra credit and extra curricular I can get my hands
on, the good girl and the high achiever. But I realized something just now:
it's not ambition, not entirely. It's fear. Because I don't know who I am
when I'm not working, when I'm not focused on or totally consumed by a
task. Who am I between the projects and the assignments, when there's
nothing to do? I haven't found her yet and it scares me. Maybe that's why,
for my senior capstone project this year, I decided to solve a murder."
— Holly Jackson (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (A Good Girl's Guide to
Murder, #1))
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder follows main character Pippa Fitz-Amobi.
For her senior year of highschool, Pippa takes on a project about the
murder of Andie Bell, and the alleged murderer, Sal Singh. However,
Pippa doesn’t believe Sal killed Andie. It only adds to her suspicions that
Sal had died only a few after Andie, supposedly from suicide, though that
wasn’t proven.
Pippa had known Sal before the whole murder went down, and she just
didn’t think he could possibly be capable of murder. He had been an
overall amazing person, but as soon as he was accused of murder, the
entire town seemed to forget that fact.
Throughout Pippa’s project, she finds that some people may not be as
they appear. She discovers lies stacked on lies, and she isn’t sure how far
she’ll have to go to uncover the real murderer. How deep do the lies go?
"The people you love weren’t algebra: to be calculated, subtracted, or held
at arm’s length across a decimal point."
— Holly Jackson (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (A Good Girl's Guide to
Murder, #1))
While I definitely thought this book had an amazing plot, I had moments
where I felt a little bit stuck. I think that for me it was the formatting. The
book is written partially like a normal style, and the other part is written
like an entry into her research for her school project. If you don’t think that
will bother you, then this is the book for you. I didn’t love it written that
way, but I still had great enjoyment of the book, and would definitely
recommend it for people who like murder mysteries!