A Good Girl's Guide to Murder/Good Girl, Bad Blood - Holly Jackson

The case is closed. Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by Sal Singh. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it.

But having grown up in the same small town that was consumed by the murder, Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn't so sure. When she chooses the case as the topic for her final year project, she starts to uncover secrets that someone in town desperately wants to stay hidden. And if the real killer is still out there, how far will they go to keep Pip from the truth?

 Blurb for A Good Girl's Guide to Murder taken from Goodreads.

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These books are probably among the most hyped books I've ever seen. On bookstagram, you can barely go a day or two without seeing somebody rave about them. I was a little bit intimidated by that, and so I put off reading them for SO LONG!

I really wish I hadn't, because they genuinely do deserve all that hype. I love YA and I love murder mysteries, so this was the perfect combination of genres for me! And it is done so well. Pip is a really enjoyable character to follow, and the stories were surprisingly detailed, fun to explore, and satisfying to read. 

It was an easy five stars for me for both books!

Rating: ✫✫✫✫✫

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

I thought the premise for the first book was so interesting! It was put in some really interesting context of Pip's school project, and had a look of background, which is something I really look for in a great murder mystery. There has to be a purpose behind the story, and this really had direction, which helped propel the story forward throughout. The YA element also kept my reading experience really light-hearted, which is never a bad thing! It was a really easy read to dip in and out of.

The actual plot was also really interesting. It had a lot of different elements, including clues and red herrings that are so important to such a story. The plot was actually really incredibly detailed, but it all made sense and was still quite easy to follow. It's hard to make a murder mystery feel natural, and eradicate any difficulties the reader may have in following it, but this was very fluid. One thing I really loved was the structure of the story, and the way the chapters were broken up by Pip's case notes and interview transcripts. I'm a really huge fan of having different and fun elements like this to books, as it breaks up some of the monotony of reading, and can be so effective in highlighting key points. Reading through some of Pip's notes was a nice little break from the regular chapters, and I think it added a great dimension to the wider book.

Another aspect of the book that really worked was Pip. What you want from a murder mystery is the main voice to be one you're interested in following, and Pip definitely made this work! She was academic and productive and very focused, but she was also fun and spontaneous and endearing. It's so easy to take a character like Pip and push her into being annoying and uptight, but that wasn't the case at all. The way she bounced off Ravi also made her even more likeable, and I think she held the story up really well as our central character!

Good Girl, Bad Blood

I was a little bit concerned about whether or not Good Girl, Bad Blood would live up to the first book. When it started, I was even more concerned because it felt like the story kind of came out of nowhere. In A Good Girl's Guide to Murder there is a very clear, very natural opening to the story, and we can understand how Pip came to get involved with this mystery. With the sequel, if I'm honest, it felt a little bit like the story was forced. It didn't feel as natural, and I was worried that this would make it less enjoyable. 

Thankfully, this wasn't the case at all. Although it didn't start as naturally as the first, once it got going, it had all of the same fantastic elements as its predecessor. Pip was just as fun to follow, and the story was equally as detailed. As with the first book, it was just so easy to read! 

The YA/murder mystery combination was even more essential in this story, because it was a live case. It had a little bit more of a thriller feel to it because it wasn't a cold case like in the last story, and that really worked well. It had a slightly different feel which I quite liked, because it wasn't a cookie cutter version of the first book. It had its own story, but had great nods to A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. I liked that some of the information Pip discovered that was relevant to this case had stemmed from the first story. It was all tied together quite nicely!

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The Verdict

I really don't know why it took me so long to read these books, because they are really deserving of all the hype they get! They're a fun YA twist on a murder mystery, and they had the perfect balance between a jam-packed plot and a really light-hearted tone. 

All in all, these are absolutely fantastically put together stories that would really appeal to fans of YA fiction. I would highly recommend them!