A Good Girls Guide to Murder

      "I'm not sure I'm the good girl I once thought I was. I've lost her along the way" (Jackson). The girl talking here is a senior in high school named Pippa Fitz-Amboi. In school she has to do something called a Capstone project and rather than being like everyone else and picking a pretty laid back theme for their project, Pippa decided to do something original that no one had ever done before. She was going to try and re-solve a solved murder-suicide case of two students from five years prior. The murder of Andie Bell was one that left the town of Fairview in shock. Andie was a popular girl in high school with a seemingly good life for the most part. That was until one day she was allegedly murdered by her boyfriend Sal Singh, who then died by suicide just days after the alleged murder. Pippa Fitz-Amboi did not believe the original narrative of these deaths and this is what led her to research the disappearance and death of Andie Bell as her senior project. This was a big project to take on all on her own, though, so she recruited Ravi Singh, brother of the alleged murderer to help her even though this was technically against the rules of the project. Pippa was determined to do whatever it took to get answers for Sal, even if it meant putting herself in danger and doing things she never thought she would do. As her research progressed Pippa began getting threats from an anonymous person who clearly did not want her looking into the case, implying that the real truth was still out there and she was getting close to it. Multiple people during her research were found lying, but for what? It seemed as though many people in Fairview were keeping secrets. Who were they protecting? What actually happened to Andie Bell and Sal Singh? A Good Girls Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson is a YA murder mystery full of twists and unexpected turns. It is a thriller that will keep you on your toes while you watch Pippa try and prove Sal Singh innocent and figure out who it was that actually killed Andie Bell. I rate this book 5/5 stars because of how exciting and engaging it was. 

      A Good Girls Guide to Murder starts with Pippa's first Capstone project proposal where both the main characters and the conflict are introduced.  It then immediately moves on into showing how Pippa is already breaking the one rule of the project that is no passing ethical lines by contacting the families involved in the case. She was going to do everything she could to try and prove that her gut feeling was right and that Sal Singh was innocent, even if it meant breaking the rules. At this point of the book the characters were being introduced and it started to make the main conflict evolve and the details of the alleged murder were brought into the picture. The protagonist - Pippa FItz-Amboi - was also starting to evolve and show her true personality as the book progressed. The writing of her character was very good. In every part of what she did you could see her personality shining through which made it very interesting to keep reading about her. Holly Jackson described all of the main characters with a lot of details that helped give you a nice mental image of them as you read. Imagery was something that was used a lot throughout A Good Girls Guide to Murder. As the conflict developed during the book you could imagine what all of the settings and characters looked like because of the use of imagery. This helped keep the conflict interesting. The conflict was also interesting because it was constantly changing with unexpected twists and turns. There was never a boring moment. It was pretty intense at times, but even when it wasn't there was still something going on that was keeping you guessing and keeping you engaged in the book. As the book got closer and closer to the end you still could not tell what was going to happen in the end until you got all the way to the end. The resolution in A Good Girls Guide to Murder was written in a very satisfying way that made you need to read the whole thing. It was not predictable at all. The plot elements seen in this book were all used and written in a nice way that helped the plot be engaging and helped it flow together. 

       As I just touched on, I thought that the actual writing and structure of A Good Girls Guide to Murder was really good. The book was set up as Pippas senior Capstone project. It was an interesting way to write the book because it showed what she was writing rather than what she was speaking. Throughout the book her interactions in real life, Capstone log entry's, interview transcripts, text threads, and other evidence were all shown. All of these things being included in the writing gave a good break in the chapters. These were very important because it keeps you engaged, especially because the entire thing was written from Pippas point of view. If there was not these different aspects included the story could have gotten boring and hard to read because you would just be reading Pippa talking the entire time. Another thing that I liked about the writing was that it gave some of the plot away, but not in a way that spoiled the rest of the book. The author was giving you just enough information at the right times to keep you wanting to read all the way until the end. And, as it was starting to approach a possible resolution there was another unexpected twist made to keep the story going. None of the twists were too much of a long shot in the fact that they all made sense after the evidence was explained, but you just normally couldn't see them coming. Of course, this helps with the flow of the book as it just keeps it going. Each part of the story just flowed right into the next and it was written at a nice pace. At no point of reading the book did I think that it was being dragged out. This helped make it more enjoyable and easy to read. All in all, I have no complaints about the writing or structure of this book. 

      A captivating, thrilling, and mysterious story is what A Good Girls Guide to Murder is. This book written by Holly Jackson deserves nothing other than the 5/5 stars that I rate it. I was engaged throughout the entire book and there was never a boring moment. This mixed with the fast paced, but detail orientated story really made the book what it is. The characters were very likable and relatable, showing they are also human and not the "heroes" that come in, solve the mystery, and leave. Pippa and Ravi never labeled themselves as heroes, but many believed that they acted as though they were. The dynamic duo worked through an unthinkable amount of roadblocks to get to the conclusion that they did. All of the bumps in the road and twists that were thrown at us were not there for convenience, but rather to make the story interesting. Author - Holly Jackson - did not write this mystery in a lazy manner. She made sure that each of the twissts The ending of the book was something that was bound to surprise you because it was very unpredictable, which is an aspect of a book like this that makes it so good. When you are reading a mystery book and you already have it solved a fourth of the way through you're not going to want to keep reading it. This is not an issue in A Good Girls Guide to Murder. This is easily one of my favorite books that I have read all year, purely due to the fact that it was exciting to get to the end and to find out what happened. I would recommend A Good Girls Guide to Murder to anyone who likes a good murder mystery book that will have you itching to find out what happens next.