A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is an incredible novel written by Holly Jackson. Jackson is an excellent storyteller and introduced this masterpiece as her first contemporary book. Holly Jackson began writing novels at a young age, and at 15, she finished her first writing piece. She earned an MA in English from the University of Nottingham, where she double-majored in Literary Linguistics and Creative Writing. Her debut literary work has been A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.
The novel is about Pippa, most commonly referred to as “Pip,” who lives in the small town of Fairview, Connecticut, where she grew up most of her life. At the beginning of the story, she starts working on her senior project in the summer before her final year of high school. Her senior project is about a previous investigation that took place in her town a few years back involving Sal Singh, a man who was wrongfully framed for the murder of Andie Bell (a town sweetheart) and disposing her body, five years ago. In her inquiry, Pip teams up with Sal’s younger brother Ravi to aid in the investigation.
I enjoyed how the characters were portrayed in the book. Pip is seen as a smart girl who conquers the world. She is an amazing heroine to look up to as she perseveres through every problem that comes her way (and there are many). On the other hand, Andie, the “Golden Girl,” despite how the community sees her, is not all that pretty with looks and smiles.
The book was very thought-provoking; it provides a list of suspects every few chapters to get an idea of who the prime characters are in the investigation. This kept me very engaged; it was like I was trying to piece together the mystery with Pippa. Throughout the novel, we are introduced to a variety of characters, and I enjoyed getting to meet people from Pippa’s present-day life, as well as characters from the past who were connected to Andie. Jackson paid close attention to intertwining both the past and present characters in a way that wasn’t confusing for readers.
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is a novel that I would recommend to anyone. The book takes you on a journey to figure out the mystery that is Andie Bell. The clues and hints dropped throughout the book only make it even more enticing to read until the end. It is one of the biggest plot twists I have ever read in a novel, and the conclusion of the book couldn’t have been any better.