Can you tell I’ve been reading a lot lately?

My dear friend Sarah’s Dymocks gift card really came in handy and went a lot further than I had expected, so this is the second book purchased in my “oh no, I better use this before it expires” panic rush.

In today’s episode of ‘What Has Nikki Been Reading?’ comes A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson. This book came with a highly recommended sticker from my local Dymocks, and all of the reviews I saw of it were glowing, like Naomi Campbell strutting her ish down the runway glowing.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is a young adult mystery novel telling the story of Pippa Fitz-Amobi, an ambitious high school girl who takes on an extra project for school. The topic of her project? Investigating the murder of Andie Bell who was murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh. Except Pippa doesn’t believe that Sal actually did it, and the more she uncovers about what happened that night, the more danger she puts herself in for those who want to keep the events of that night hidden.

The first thing I would like to mention is that I heavily prefer to read books in first person. It makes it easier for me to delve into the world the author has created if I can imagine that I am the protagonist, and thus makes it easier for me to absorb the narrative the story is sharing.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is written completely in the third person, and my first reaction upon seeing this was “Oh no”. However, Holly wrote it in such a way that you could still empathise with Pippa and feel what she was going through, while leaving the reader in the safe position as a third party observer, so I personally want to commend Holly for doing such a great job at this.

As with all mystery thriller type stories with a twist, it’s the storyline that keeps you glued to the book, and this story never missed a beat. The constant twists and turns kept you on your toes, thinking of new and different possible outcomes for this murder mystery investigation, and when you think you’ve seen all the twists, Holly surprises you with another one.

The characters were very well written and, most importantly, likeable. Pippa was written to be quirky, which is something that I think is overdone to the point that I find quirky characters to be highly irritating, but Pippa was believably quirky and witty and brilliant and very relatable. And my god, I just adored her entire family, especially her father. Authors should take notes from Holly on how to make female leads not be insufferable pick me’s.

Wid-o-meter
Storyline: 9/10
Style of writing: 8/10
Overall: 8.5/10

All in all, an outstanding novel to read that I definitely recommend everyone to read, not just the mystery thriller aficionados as well. Holly does a great job of creating suspense on every page, and like me, you’ll find it very hard to put it down. And I’m very excited to get into the rest of the series to read more of Pippa’s investigative adventures!

Happy reading, lovebugs!

– by The Black Widow