A Good Girl's Guide to Murder Review

    Holly Jackson's book, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, is based on a senior in school, Pippa. She has a "senior capstone project" to complete which she chose to do on the murder of Andie Bell. She stated that she was finding out "how print, televised, and social media have become key players in police investigations" (page 1) and she chose to use the Andie Bell case to research that topic. Five years ago, Andie Bell had been murdered and her body is still missing. Everyone believes that Andie's boyfriend, Sal, had killed her as he had sent a text to his father confessing that he killed Andie and then committed suicide. Pippa wanted to prove that it wasn't the truth and that Sal was innocent.

    This book is very relatable, at least for me as it can connect to multiple points in my life. It made the book a great read and worth the time. It didn't feel like it was only a story with no meaning or expression. With Pippa being a senior, it comes pretty close to home as this is also my senior year of high school. Along with a senior project, we both have one. Compared, the projects are different, with her's being the capstone project and mine being a thesis, but they are still pretty close. Pippa has to investigate and find information on her topic, which I will also have to do for my thesis. They won't be the same "investigating" but pretty similar. She had to also go out and interact with people, but I don't think she HAD to, she could have just researched online depending on her topic which is what my thesis requires. The only large difference in the project is that she typically would have to present to a class in her school while mine would just be written into a larger essay and turned in. In the book, since her project ends up discovering impactful information about the case, she ends up presenting to more than just a class, she presents her project to a larger audience and some of the people who attended it, weren't even students of the school. A large portion of the connection between Pippa and me would be that we're still in school and that we're students.

    There's also the personal life connections that definitely bring the story in and make it more meaningful and feel all the more bigger and better. Pippa's dog, Barney, was stolen by an anonymous person at the time to try and prevent Pippa from continuing her search and "investigation" as they knew she was getting pretty close to finding them out. The mysterious person said that as long as she did specifically what they told her to, she could get the dog back safe and sound. So she destroyed all the evidence that she had collected just as they prompted her to in the specific location they wanted her to. But instead of getting Barney back safely, he ended up drowning in a river. It wasn't on purpose but that upset Pippa and she had lost her beloved dog that she spent time with every day, especially to go on walks outside pretty much everyday. Now to relate this to me, it isn't exactly the same, but on the very last day of school in 2024, I lost my dog. We don't exactly know what happened to her, but to be able to relate to losing a dog that was a large part of your daily life is pretty important. It brings back the good memories of when we would go out on walks and play together. There's also the Halloween party in the book that is also VERY relatable. Pippa's Dad is dressing up and by the way it's explained, he's dressing up as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters. The book states, "'Come with us pickle,' her dad said as her mom zipped him into his Ghostbusters costume. ... Pip's dad grabbed his marshmallow-shaped head and followed" (page 323). This is a huge connection since my little brother has gone trick-or-treating as Egon Spangler from Ghostbusters for the past few years. Just the slight mention of the Ghostbusters costume got my attention and felt very relatable. It makes me think of a reality television show since they try to make it seem like it could actually happen in real life and it isn't a completely made up story. Well this book definitely hit that spot. It gave so many different aspects of life that it felt as if the story could be real.

    Besides all the information that's relatable, it gave so many details that kept the story going and interesting. When it was least expected, the story turned around and made someone that Pippa thought was very trustworthy, but instead kept things from coming to light. So without spoiling the story and ruining the intriguing part of the story, I'll keep the detail of this part to a minimum as much as I can. The person had kept a huge lie for the past five years and never told anyone about what happened. Pippa didn't expect that person to be related to the murder at all, but when the truth came out after some information was collected and connected to one another, it all came out. It wasn't all bad but the fact that they never came forward with the information that they had, made it all the worse. Especially when Pippa expected them to be one that would automatically do it. This was probably because they thought that they had fixed it as they though they found a solution, but it wasn't a solution that they thought it was and actually made the problem even worse than before. The story kept progressing to this point but it wasn't obvious and expected. It made you keep wondering about the who, why, and how. Most of this information was missing as Andie's body was still missing and yet to be found. When you don't have a body to look at for evidence, it doesn't help finding out much information either, so without the body, the police and investigators weren't able to place out what had happened to Andie and possibly when everything happened to her that night. They had very little information to go on, like the timeline and everyone's alibi. Nothing really gave a direct answer until Sal had sent the confession text to hi father and then committed suicide. After that, the police figured their job was done and wanted nothing more to do with the case as they thought that they had found their killer. Well, turns out, Pippa found out quite a bit more information than the police and if they had done their job a little more diligently, they most likely would have found out what happened. With everyone having connections with so many people who would then have more connections with other people, it seemed like it was a never ending trail and went in circles. Pippa went to great depths to find out the truth of the situation and prove that Sal was innocent.

    If Pippa didn't exist in this story, it probably wouldn't have gone much of anywhere. With the author providing her with the courage she needed and being relentless, that she was able to find her way through the problems she faced in order to find the truth that was lurking everywhere but hiding right in plain sight. It provided the story to have so many feelings throughout the story, depending on the situation, as she searched for the whole truth and to get rid of the lies that people were letting lurk in their own town. The author had great detail about how Pippa went about doing all the different interviews and all her searches, but it also provided so much detail that when it got to the heartbreaking situations, it actually felt like something mattered. Like it depended on what she found out. Not that it was just some story that could go any way that the author wanted, but to provide the feeling that it depended on what Pippa could and would find. It no longer felt like a story after a while, it felt like it mattered whether Pippa could find the truth and rid of the lies and convictions that Sal had accumulated because so many people thought it would just be easy to blame him for so many situations as he was dead and no longer there. He wasn't there to say his part, so it just felt so easy to blame him as no one could really say otherwise. This story left so many feelings behind showing that even if you think some people don't care that you even exist or existed, that there's still someone out there that will be willing to help you in situations that you come across whether or not you think you can fight them.

    Holly Jackson's book, A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, left so many feelings and left important facts behind along with it. It gave reality a big twist showing how it could be a real scenario as it had a large abundance of details proving that it had situations that can actually exist in real life. With that feeling it can make the entire story feel real and actually feel like it could happen and exist somewhere in the world. It left behind so many memories about how things can seem one way but then turn out to be the complete opposite or just not what you entirely expected it to be. It changes the way you view certain situations. Every detail provided mattered in this story and it led to a much better and enriching reading as long as you paid attention to what the story was presenting and actually being interested in what it was providing you with. This might not be the perfect story for everyone to read but there are some people out there that would most definitely love this. People who like some kind of investigation as well as young adults as it's a little more relatable for them in the long run, but this would probably be good for just about any age range from young adult to adult. Not all books are meant for everyone to read but this book can hit a very large audience if you look close enough to it. Especially when you look into some of the themes that it provides throughout the entirety of the book.