As Good as Dead, written by Holly Jackson, is a riveting and plot-twist filled final installment to the internationally bestselling young-adult series, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. This is a 3-part series that features young girl Pippa Fitz-Amobi, mostly called Pip in the novel, and her boyfriend/crime-solving partner Ravi Singh and the problems they encounter together after solving the murder mystery that has plagued their small town for years. In the first novel and second novel, Pip was tasked with solving the murders and disappearances that took place in her small town of Fairview, Connecticut (or Little Kilton for those reading the UK version of the novel) and the novels also featured how her creation of a podcast project for highschool helped with solving these mysteries, but the third novel provides a fresh new perspective of how solving crimes involving murder and violence can be incredibly dangerous for Pip, the creator, and the people she loves. This novel starts off describing how Pip felt haunted by the events that transpired in the second novel and demonstrated how the threats she received from her podcast affected her day to day life and caused her to stop her detective work, until she begins to notice odd occurrences that seem to be following her. More and more clues pop up that prove she has a real stalker, and when she then learns of a connection between the clues her stalker is leaving her and the clues left by a supposedly “closed” serial killer case near her area, she revisits her investigation skills to end her feelings of terror and fear for what could happen to her and those she loves.
This was such an interesting book that once I started reading it, I was not able to put it down. Although most readers would expect to see typical characters and overused plots in thrilling true crime novels like this, As Good as Dead has taken a new approach to the clever heroine trope and has turned it into something completely new and compelling. It has many appealing aspects, such as the suspense that makes you worry for Pip throughout the novel, the thought and effort that went into researching this book, and the growing and charming relationship between Pip and Ravi. Their relationship grows stronger as they deal with more and more difficult situations, and this is just another aspect of the book that makes it very appealing. I also found it very interesting how quickly Pip and Ravi were able to come up with solutions under a lot of pressure and deal with the twists and turns that were thrown their way. The author of the novel, Holly Jackson, is able to use her novel to explore problems relating to grief, facing and dealing with traumatic situations, and other societal problems that both the characters in the novel and people in the real world have to experience and deal with. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book because of the well-written characters, compelling plot and story, and the suspense and wonder of what would happen next I felt while reading this book. I recommend this novel to those who enjoy murder mysteries with witty characters and endearing relationships between the characters.
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