Bella Suartini

Good Girl, Bad Blood: The Sequel to A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

Book by Holly Jackson

DETAILS

Publisher : Ember (March 1, 2022) Language : English Paperback : 416 pages ISBN-10 : 1984896431 ISBN-13 : 978-1984896438 Reading age : 14 - 17 years Lexile measure : HL740L Grade level : 9 - 12 , THE MUST-READ MULTIMILLION BESTSELLING MYSTERY SERIES •  More dark secrets are exposed in this addictive, true-crime fueled sequel when Pip finds herself in another deadly case. Pip is not a detective anymore. With the help of Ravi Singh, she released a true-crime podcast about the murder case they solved together last year. The podcast has gone viral, yet Pip insists her investigating days are behind her. But she will have to break that promise when someone she knows goes missing. Jamie Reynolds has disappeared, on the very same night the town hosted a memorial for the sixth-year anniversary of the deaths of Andie Bell and Sal Singh. The police won't do anything about it. And if they won't look for Jamie then Pip will, uncovering more of her town's dark secrets along the way... and this time everyone is listening. But will she find him before it's too late? And don't miss the finale, As Good as Dead! Read more

REVIEW

“What do you do when the things that are supposed to protect you, fail you like that?” I absolutely adored A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder when I read it last year, but I will admit that I was a little skeptical about it having a sequel and that was mainly because I didn’t think it needed one. Well let me just say, Holly Jackson did it. She created a sequel that built nicely on the first one, while creating a fresh story that drew me in just as the first one did. In this sequel, we are once again following Pip and she is in a different place compared to last year. She is dating Ravi, focusing on finishing up high school, and is no longer investigating mysteries in town. That is until one of her friend’s older brother, Jamie, goes missing and the police are doing nothing to find him. While she’s reluctant at first to get involved due to everything that happened to her last year, she can’t just sit back and let something happen to Jamie knowing that her podcast could help. Let me say that I loved the case in this one. It is another missing person case, but it feels different enough from the one in book one that it feels fresh and new. Just like in that first book, Jackson does such a good job of building up the mystery and successfully pulling off some of the best twists and turns in the YA mystery/thriller genre right now. This time around, Ravi is heavily involved in order to help Pip and yes, they are officially dating and while I’m not someone who is a romance lover, I didn’t feel that it was overdone. The central plot of the story is still the murder and the investigation, but there were these little moments where we see Ravi and Pip being cute and admittedly, I enjoyed it. While this investigation is going on, there are still some things that are being dealt with that were introduced in the first book, mainly the trial with Max. What I loved about the inclusion of this is it shows how messed up our justice system is, especially when it comes to dealing with rape cases. There was this hopefulness that Pip and Ravi have when it came to the case and as much as it broke my heart, I just didn’t have that same feeling. I would argue that this book deals a lot with justice. What it means, who gets it and is it okay to seek it out for yourself. I can’t go into more detail than that or it will spoil the book. “Oh, justice exists," Charlie said, looking up at the rain. "Maybe not the kind that happens in police stations and courtrooms, but it does exist. And when you really think about it, those words – good and bad, right and wrong – they don’t really matter in the real world.” Another thing the author deals with is the obvious PTSD and anxiety that Pip develops at the end of the story. While I can’t say why she developed it, I can say that it was to be expected by what she had to go through in book one and in this one, especially the end of book two. I dealt with PTSD before and I can say that I think the author did a pretty good job with depicting it. I also love that she didn’t ignore it and just make Pip magically okay because she dealt with some pretty traumatic things that deeply affected her. I listened to this on audio and I loved it. It is a full cast just as the first one was with the podcast included. The only criticism that I have is that when Pip was upset or distressed, sometimes the narrator’s narration would annoy me. I can’t tell if they were trying to sound like that because they felt that’s how a teenager would sound at that moment, but it was kind of aggravating. However, that has nothing to do with the actual story, it’s just something I wanted to mention. I am loving what Holly Jackson is doing with YA mystery/thrillers and I hope she continues because I think she’s doing a phenomenal job of creating fun and interesting stories. CW for mentions of rape, death of kids and death.

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