A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder // Book Review

About The Book
The case is closed. Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by Sal Singh. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it. But having grown up in the same small town that was consumed by the murder, Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn’t so sure. When she chooses the case as the topic for her final year project, she starts to uncover secrets that someone in town desperately wants to stay hidden. And if the real killer is still out there, how far will they go to keep Pip from the truth?
Buy The Book: https://amzn.to/3XGxtnJ

My Rating


A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is the first book in a YA mystery, thriller trilogy. These books are highly popular and seen as great introductory books to the YA thriller genre. In this book, we follow Pippa, a high-school senior, working on her capstone project. Her topic is a murder that happened five years prior. The case went cold when the prime suspect killed themselves. Pippa believes the wrong person was accused of the murder, and wants to uncover the truth.

I can completely see why other readers would suggest the book to thriller newbies, or even people that don’t particularly fancy the horror and thriller genre. It read more like a contemporary than a traditional thriller, which was a nice. Especially for someone, like myself, that primarily read YA contemporaries. However, if you are looking for a dark, suspense-filled thriller than this probably isn’t the book for you. I found the plot to be fairly tame and not too nail-biting.

Pippa was a solid enough female-lead with some stereotypical aspects. She boarders the ‘smart girl’ and ‘I’m not like other girls’ personality cliches. The other characters weren’t very prominent in the story, so I am in different to them. I don’t love them or hate them.

“I’m not sure I’m the good girl I once thought I was . I’ve lost her along the way”

There were times when this book gave me ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ vibes. I can’t explain why, because they aren’t similar at all. The only comparison I can come up with is that both have twists when it comes to the killer. You think that you know who the murderer is, but at the last minute you realize you were completely wrong.

Overall, I don’t have a lot of cons, but I did find there to be one too many suspects. Perhaps the author wanted to keep us reader on their toes, since you don’t know who to trust. But I found it hard to keep track of all the suspects. Still, it did keep me guessing, which kept me interested. Everyone was suspicious making the case not so cut and dry.

I don’t know about you, but I enjoy quick reads, especially when it comes to the thriller genre. I think mysteries, horrors and thrillers should have fast-paced stories. A thriller should be engaging with a lot of story development, and rarely any pointless chapters. Although, this mystery does take while to piece together, their wasn’t much downtime within the story.

I will be continuing on with the series, and excited to see what Pippa tackles next. If you want a list of all the trigger warnings that this book contains please visit Book Trigger Warning. Feel free to comment on your thoughts below. Share, like and follow so you can show your support for my blog.

Until The Next Chapter,
Bunny

 

One Of Us Is Next // Book Review

Title: One Of Us Is Next
Author: Karen M. McManus
Published: 2020
Genre: Young Adult/Thriller
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Synopsis
Come on, Bayview, you know you’ve missed this. A ton of copycat gossip apps have popped up since Simon died, but in the year since the Bayview four were cleared of his shocking death, no one’s been able to fill the gossip void quite like he could. The problem is no one has the facts. Until now. This time it’s not an app, though—it’s a game. Truth or Dare.


This is the companion novel to ‘One Of Us Is Lying’, which I have a review up for as well. In this book, we are following a new group of teens, one of whom is Maeve Rojas (Bronwyn’s sister, that we saw in book one), as well as appearances from characters in the previous book. A few characters had already been introduced in ‘One Of Us Is Lying’, which was a nice bonus. The plot walked the line between mystery and thriller. We follow this group of teens as they deal with a dangerous game of Truth and Dare. It was engaging, but then again I find that many Karen M. McManus books are (at least to me).

I enjoyed each character, and not one perspective bored me. There were a few parts that felt like unnecessary filler, and didn’t add anything to the story. However, it wasn’t common enough to be a problem for me. Overall, the story unfolded at a nice pace. I was happy to see that there wasn’t a best friends to lovers story in play. I am not opposed to that all, but it was nice to see the author go a different, less cliche route.

One of my favorite characters was Phoebe. She had a lot going on, and made some stupid choices, but was unapologetically herself. She didn’t hide her faults, and tried her best to own up to her mistakes throughout the book. Maeve was a solid character, and mini Nancy Drew, which is always fun to read about. Knox (Maeve’s best friend/ex-boyfriend) was the nice guy, but out of all of them, he was the least fleshed out. I didn’t feel like I got a true sense of his personality.

“I don’t understand why the world insists on stuffing kids into boxes we never asked for, and then gets mad when we won’t stay there.”

There was a bit of romance in this book, and I adored it. Maeve and Luis had great chemistry, and it was nice to watch their relationship unfold. But the pairing that I shipped most of all was Phoebe and Knox. They had some great moments together, so I could see them having real couple potential. Also, I liked that they were different, but grew closer as the book went on.

I am pretty bad at mysteries, but I did have my suspicions on where the plot was going. And, while I was sort of right, the ending shocked me. It was such a good twist, and the last chapter was amazing. I truly wanted to know what was going to happen next. I think a good book keeps you wanting more, which is exactly what Karen M. McManus achieved with ‘One Of Us Is Next’.

I would say that if you are in between fantasy books, you should give this one a read. It’s a good novel to pick up when you need a break from reading big, plot-heavy books. It’s an easy one to follow, and a fairly quick read. Don’t worry if thriller isn’t your preferred genre, it leans more towards the mystery side.

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Until The Next Chapter,
Bunny