As Good as Dead, Holly Jackson

14+B

The last instalment of this thriller left me wide eyed. I love it! It is exactly what I have wished authors would do but they always seem to steer clear of but Jackson goes for it 100% and this is the best ending I could have imagined – and one I didn’t!

I am trying really hard not to give spoilers (I think I am going to do a series roundup with this one where I will chat about spoilers but spoilers have no place in a book review). Pip is only a few weeks away from Kings Collage Cambridge and getting away from it all the mess and complexity in Little Kilton.

But Pip has been replaying the events of the last two books, especially the bloody end of Child Brunswick in the last book over and over. She hears gunshots in every sound, even just a door opening and closing and her own heartbeat. It is heartbreaking to see the fierce Pip of the first book so unsure about her own morality and the morality of everyone around her. She has seen the lines be drawn and redrawn and she has lost all faith in the justice system.

It has failed her multiple times with wrongful accusations and letting the rapist Max Hastings which she gave to them on a silver platter with multiple witnesses get away free. She has started identifying with the criminals she has been told are evil but instead she just sees it as gray. She cannot sleep and has resulted to drugs bought from Luke, her local drug-dealer and a part of the equation that started all this mess six years ago. I love the realism of this, it really shows the more complex lines in some of these cases – who are victims and who are victims who have been portrayed as villains.

She has decided one last case – a Jane Doe murder from Cambridge when she goes to uni. A black and white case and justice at the end of it to rewrite the rules of the world. Of course, this isn’t going to happen.

She starts getting weird notes, and the stalker quickly escalates from online threats to chalk figures without heads on her drive to beheaded pigeons.

This was honestly the most chilling read yet, for the first time Pip is going to die if she doesn’t work quick enough and for the first time we understand just how deep this whole entangled mess goes with Andie and Charlie and the rest of Little Kilton. I – I was honestly worried about Pip’s sanity at the beginning but she soon stabilised out into the intelligent if slightly obsessive Pip we love.

Plot – 1000000/5 – just so good, there are so many ties even back to the first chapters of the first book and Holly Jackson is a genius. Just so good.

Characters – 10000/5 – oh they are perfect! And I loved seeing a different side of Andie she is such an interesting complex character.

World – 5/5 stars – so good, I love how Holly Jackson doesn’t shy away from the darker aspects of the world.

Romance – 10000/5 stars – Soft Romance – oh my god I love Ravi. I just love him. He is perfect in every way and we truly get a test of how far he is willing to go for Pip. He is the first book boyfriend I’ve read that completely believes the heroine even when evidence points against it. And I love it.

Things to be aware of: 14+B – I almost made this a 15, it was truly terrifying and dark in places so if you don’t like threat – and I’d say I’m pretty good with mature dark content – then give it a few more months! Warnings: murder (slightly more graphic here), kidnapping, serial killerism, police injustice, wrongful accusations, misogyny rape (mentions to the past books) and violence 5/5 and high threat, animal death

January 24, 2025 1

Good Girl, Bad Blood, Holly Jackson

13+B

This was the sequel to a good girls guide to murder and Pip has promised not to investigate again into any crimes after she ended up at the hospital for the double homicide case. She has gained internet fame documenting her search for justice and the events of the last book on her podcast titled – what else? – a good girls guide to murder and is in her last year of high school – investigation is an obsession Pip is refusing to go down again.

Of course, this promise is immediately shattered when her friends older brother Jamie goes missing. The police dismiss the case, he is a twenty-four year old who dropped out of uni and has run away twice before with no contact. Connor (her friend) begs Pip to investigate and after trying to get the police involved she reluctantly agrees.

Unlike last time her investigation is more public with episodes of her podcast regularly airing to share the new developments (I wondered personally about if the villains were getting a little too much forewarning because of the podcast but they didn’t which I was relieved about). Pip is asking people for any footage/sightings of Jamie, but the case goes far wider than that.

I loved that the previous book contained some of the major clues for this one and it really emphasised how despite the small town appearance, so much more goes on under the surface people don’t want to acknowledge. Some people are furious with Pip for exposing crimes they would have preferred not to know about and as the trials for the guilty from the last book go on the themes of injustice vs justice with an added element of vigilantism is really interesting to read. It doesn’t have quite the complexity of the previous book, I feel like Pip was really wading through five years of secrets there that she didn’t have in this book but it was completely unputdownable.

Plot – 5/5 – it was great, it kept me guessing and I am hooked for the next book despite it resolving nicely.

Characters – 4.5/5 – they were great! Half a point deduced because the new characters of this one didn’t have quite the depth and darkness of the last book which balanced so well against Pip’s organised investigation. Love love love Ravi and his feelings about Jamie were so well expressed – he has been the family that lost their son and he is trying to desperately stop that from happening to Jamie’s family.

World – 5/5 – I love it, it is so realistic the underbelly of the little town that no one looks at but everyone kinda knows is there.

Romance – 5/5 – Soft Romance – like the last book it is a subplot but I still love it so much!

Things to be aware of: child death (referee too) serial killers, gun violence, drugs, mentions of past SA (none graphic, nothing on the page), violence in general, dangers of catfishing, also several f-bombs that all seemed to be in the same chapter but in case you avoid that I just thought I’d mention it!

January 24, 2025 1

A Good Girls Guide to Murder, Holly Jackson

13+B

Okay so I have heard so much about this series, people are talking about it all over booktube and several of my friends have loved it. And it held up.

I used to read a LOT of mystery – I mean a lot, I still have an entire three deep shelf of enid blytons mysteries – and this is a nice step up and it does hold up! The investigation style with Pip conducting various recorded interviews, getting access to police logs and cross examining different peoples accounts unfurled an insane story about Andie Bell and Sal Singh two teenagers who died five years ago.

It is a cold case Pip takes on as a summer project because the inaccuracies have always nagged at her. Sal is universally believed to have done it in her town and yet Pip’s personal experience of Sal isn’t one of a boy who could kill his girlfriend in cold blood. It is complex, the logs, Pip’s own life apart from her investigation which starts to overlap more and more and then the realisation that several people she knows had a very intimate part in the lead up to Andie Bell’s murder. I am trying not to give too many spoilers and that is so hard in mystery so I’ll stop there!

Plot – 1000000/10. I did predict a few things but the lies and the coverups had my doubting myself several times before I realised I was right!

Characters – 5/5 stars. They are nuanced and none of the main cast feel like a recycled archetype while they still show all the different things that have lead to a seemingly simple cold case. It is horrifying how the police didn’t even bother interviewing several people surrounding her because they just instantly assumed it was Sal, her Indian boyfriend who committed suicide. i am diverging from characters here so I will just say that I appreciated Pip calling the reporter out on his racism and prejudice he was insufferable and it is people like him that meant Sal would never have got justice for something he got caught up in.

World – 5/5 stars. well its our world! I love it being set in England tho – so many books are sent in America it is always nice to have a British book. It felt realistic, Holly Jackson didn’t end up ignoring the natural assumptions and darker side of mystery while not making it glorified or graphic.

Romance – 4/5 – Soft Romance – *giggles and kicks feet in the air* just adorable

Things to be aware of: Racism, sexual assault, rape, murder, police injustice, drugs – none of the SA is on the page or the murder. Animal death (specifically a dog)

January 24, 2025 2