Hey Mildom! Guess who it is? Yep, your weekly book reviewer, Squashed Grape! I'm back today with the sequel of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder.
Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson
Genre (s): Mystery, Crime, Thriller
Waterstones: Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson | Waterstones
Free download (z-lib.org):
Blurb:
Somebody's missing. No one's talking. But this time, everyone is listening.
Pip Fitz-Amobi is not a detective anymore. Her true-crime podcast about the murder case she solved last year has gone viral. Yet Pip insists her investigating days are behind her.
But she will have to go back on her word when someone close to her goes missing and the police can't do anything about it. If they won't investigate, then Pip will, uncovering more of her town's dark secrets along the way. But will she find the answers before time runs out?
This book was perfection ✨ I didn't think it was possible, but this is BETTER than the first book. It was a lot shorter (the first book was 324 pages and this book was 194 pages). But it didn't feel shorter, the mystery was as intricate as in AGGGTM, full of twists and turns and of course, the surprise at the end that completely caught me off guard.
This book had a lot of the aftermath of AGGGTM; Pippa even started her own true crime podcast. She made a promise to her parents not to do any 'mystery' solving stuff anymore because, well, she got really obsessed over it. I still think it was kind of unfair the way her parents were sort of guilt-tripping her into stopping solving crimes by saying that BECAUSE of her final year project, Barney, their dog, got killed. I mean, she was probably feeling guilty enough about that already. And also when her mum explained to Pippa that her little brother Josh was pretending to be a detective at school when someone's sharpener got lost, making a suspect list and everything. I actually thought that it was pretty cute that Josh wanted to follow his sister (I mean, I have five siblings and not one of them is going to do that any time soon!) It was a little bit unreasonable though for her mum to make her explain to him that it put everyone in danger. I could feel that she still had a passion for solving mysteries but her parents put into her head that it was a 'crazy' obsession and she put her life and everyone's around her in danger. Ok, she did put her life in danger. BUT IT'S NOT A CRAZY OBSESSION! It can be a very normal and safe obsession (I think...?) That is probably one of the main reasons she started her podcast - so she could still feel somehow connected to solving the crime. BUT THE CREEPY ONLINE TROLLS. Like seriously, why do they have to exist?! And telling Pippa that they're going to kill her, and other threats like that? NOT COOL. 😪 Some people just don't have feelings (Like Chopra. JK! 😉). Ok, I'm getting side-tracked here. So, other stuff related to AGGGTM....The trials of Max Hastings. LIKE OH MY GOD I HATED THAT IDIOT SO MUCH. He's so cocky and arrogant and he should just wipe that smile off his face. LIKE, 'CELEBRATING'? For the wrong reason...(Sorry, he's just the worst. And you'll understand if you read the book.)
To be honest, at first I preferred the first book - I like juicy longer books 😅 but also I felt that at the beginning it started off pretty slow. Well, I changed my mind! And for good reason.
You know the first thing I'm going to do after finishing off this review?
Read the next book. I read this book in 1 hour and 40 mins (yep, like a freak I timed myself cuz I had nothing better to do, and also me and my sister were having a competition to see who could finish the book faster - of course I won! This book had me hooked!) You guys can probably tell that I enjoyed this book a lot more - my review is a lot longer! And hopefully not as boring 😜 I'm adding some pizzazz with emojis 😍❤💕💖🎉🎁 enough pizzazz? But this book was a lot darker.
Pippa, now 18, has changed quite a bit in this book. I could literally feel her rage when she dumped a whole bottle of coke on Tom's head and screamed at Ant and broke Max Hasting's car. (Max Hasting deserved even more than that ? He can go die for goodness sake ;-; I hate him so much) Her change in character is mostly because of all the trauma she faces, and then of COURSE the online trolls. At the end of the book she literally WATCHED SOMEONE DIE (I'm not telling who - read the book to find out 🤐) and THEN haters have to come to the funeral and be like oh he was a murderer. NO, HE WAS NOT! IT'S NOT HIS FAULT HIS DAD USED HIM TO KILL PEOPLE BRUH HE WAS A KID! Sorry about that, I kind of got carried away. It's still visible for whoever has already read it or is just desperate for spoilers (which is just weird, no offence 🙃) but I'm not telling you how you can read that sentence. This is an extremely long review at the moment so I kind of should be making my paragraphs shorter 😶 kinda hard because this book is the epitome of amazingness.
The only thing I did not like much about this book is WE NEEDED MORE RAVI! He was there when it was Max Hasting's trial and stuff but where was he when Pippa watched someone get shot?! In this mystery it was more like Pippa was on her own, but that's what made it more intriguing! I mean, Ravi was there when she needed him of course...And forget what I said about them not having a romantic relationship when I was reviewing AGGGTM 🤦♀️ I was of course wrong, but it was PG and there was no kissing scenes or anything.
I had so many questions after reading this book! Like will Max ever get what he deserves? And Charlie and Flora have to be in the next book - they're Pippa's NEIGHBOURS for goodness sake. And also, Nat and Jamie definitely have to be a thing! (READ THE BOOK! YOU WON'T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING OTHERWISE 😒)
Is no one going to talk about how good that picture is? Omg, I just realised I have the exact same knife...? (not me just having a full blown panic attack - but silently, because I have visitors 😖) So where was I? Oh yeah, style. So this time there was no suspect list and not as much evidence, but there was a lot of interviews! And social media screenshots, files etc. Obviously it's a recent mystery whereas in AGGGTM it was a case that occurred five years ago. So that means less evidence, but still the story was really well written! If I'm talking style, then I preferred the first book's layout than the second, but I guess they were different types of mysteries. Did I mention that was another thing I loved about this book? 🤓 I aM oBsEsSeD (I can't spell 😫)
Again, like the last book, I was totally wrong. I never expected it to be Charlie though... I need to stop accidentally revealing spoilers 🥵 I completely recommend this book! I don't even have words for it xD.
I'm just going to open a random Word document and rant about this book cuz I'm not normal 😑
Holly Jackson deserves five stars, her writing- Okay, before I write another essay, I'm going to publish this! Bye everyone, have a good day and see you next week with a review for the third book in the series, As Good As Dead! Comment, Like and Share if you thought this post was good 🙂
WOW this sounds like an amazing book 2 read !!! thx for the link- can't wait to start and see ur next review 💝💓💖