It’s the spooky season! Who’s ready for some creepy books to read?
Holly Jackson’s debut young adult (YA) mystery/thriller novel “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (AGGGTM)” became an instant New York Times Bestseller when it was released in 2019. The book gained its popularity through the BookTok, the book community on TikTok, growing itself a cult following of all ages, despite being a YA novel. Since her debut, Jackson has released 6 more YA thrillers, 3 of which were sequels to AGGGTM.
On Goodreads, AGGGTM has an average rating of 4.29 out of 5 stars with over one million ratings. In 2024, Netflix adapted the story for TV, starring Emma Myers as the main character. Currently, the show is working on a season 2, likely an adaptation of the second book in the series.
The story follows Pipa Fitz-Amobi (Pip for short) as she goes on a quest to uncover the truth to a murder case that closed years ago. A pretty and popular high school senior named Andie Bell was murdered, supposedly, by her boyfriend at the time, Sal Singh. Sal said he didn’t do it, but because he took his own life, the case was closed. In the present day, Pip needs a subject for her school project and, along with Sal’s younger brother Ravi, chooses to look into the closed murder case, and along the way she uncovers truth after truth after truth, eventually figuring out who really killed Andie and more.
I suspect this review isn’t going to be as long or as nit-picky as past reviews I’ve written because, spoiler, I actually really liked this book. I can’t say that very often unfortunately, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, before we can get into the parts of the story I did enjoy, let’s first talk about what I didn’t. You’re not surprised; you knew this was coming.
The main thing I didn’t like about this book is a spoiler, but just know that I was tempted to give this book a lower rating because of it. I’ll just say that something unfortunately lost its life. That’s all I’ll say.
A minor thing I didn’t like, or wish was better I should say, were the friendships between the main character and her friends. I think their relationships could’ve been fleshed out better, but granted the point of a mystery/thriller is action, plot, go, go, go, so maybe we didn’t have enough time to flesh out the friendships that much.
One final thing I wish was different is the American edition. The author is British, and the original version of the story is set somewhere in England, with different English characters as well. However, for some reason, the American version of the book changed the locations to American places and the characters are American too. I don’t understand why that change was made. I’m sure the story itself wouldn’t change, so I don’t get why they changed the characters’ nationality and story’s setting.
Okay, goodbye negative train. Here’s what I enjoyed about the book.
The main thing I liked the most was the plot twist. I truly didn’t see it coming, and I don’t know if that’s because I’m stupid or the author truly outsmarted me. I enjoyed that I didn’t predict who the killer was, even if I was trying to figure it out. When a plot twist is too easy to spot, it ruins the enjoyment, so I’m glad I didn’t put the pieces together with this one.
I also really enjoyed the romantic subplot between Pip and Ravi. Their relationship was very cute and wholesome, despite investigating a murder. I appreciated that the romance wasn’t pushed towards the front of the story, but it still felt fleshed out and believable.
Pip’s family was a nice addition to the story too. Oftentimes, I find parents in YA books to be pushed to the background and borderline nonexistent, but, in AGGGTM, Pip’s parents, younger sibling and dog were present in the story a lot more than I thought they would be. It was very refreshing.
The last thing I’ll “gush” about is the audiobook. I listened to the story on Audible, and it was incredibly immersive because there was a large cast playing different characters. Listening to the story felt like listening to a true crime podcast, or watching a show without seeing it, if that makes any sense. I was so hooked on the audiobook that I finished the book in 3 days. I needed to know where the story was going.
AGGGTM was my first introduction to the thriller genre. Before then, I’d primarily read contemporary romance and romantasy (romance-fantasy), but I knew I wanted to branch out and read something different. After purging through multiple listicles on “baby’s guide to thriller books,” I decided to pick up this book because 1) it’s YA, so it couldn’t be too intense for me, and 2) one of my favourite BookTubers (the book community on YouTube) recommended it.
I wasn’t expecting to enjoy the book as much as I did. I read it last year and gave it a solid 4 stars, and as of writing this review, I’d say that hasn’t changed. It was a really good book and great introduction to the genre. I recommend AGGGTM whether you’re a newbie or a lover of the genre but haven’t read it yet!
