e-Audio, 02:39:29
Narrated by: Bruce Mann, Bailey Carr, & Raymond J. Lee
Release Date: February 28, 2023
Published by: Delacorte Press
Read from: January 30-31, 2023
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, #0.5
Source: PRH Audio App (I received a copy of this audiobook from the publisher in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)
TW: Murder
For fans of: Murder Mystery Parties, Realistic Fiction, Novellas/Short Stories, YA, Contemporary, Thriller,Welcome to the murder mystery party of the year! Fans of the hit series A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder will love Pip’s final detective case in this mystery novella from #1 New York Times bestselling author Holly Jackson.
Six suspects. Three hours. One murder…
Pip is not in the mood for her friend’s murder mystery party. Especially one that involves 1920’s fancy dress and pretending that their town is an island called Joy. But when the game begins, Pip finds herself drawn into the make-believe world of intrigue, deception and murder.
But as Pip plays detective, teasing out the identity of the killer clue-by-clue, the murder of the fictional Reginald Remy isn’t the only case on her mind…
*MY THOUGHTS*
Listen, y’all know I added this to my TBR without looking at what it was about lol I just saw it was by Holly Jackson and I said “Yep, I need it.” And man, imagine my surprise when I realized it wasn’t another book, just a novella. But either way, it’s more Pip which I’ve been asking for forever, so I’m ok.
Ok so this novella takes place before all the things in the actual series takes place. It’s actually pretty fun. There’s a murder mystery party thrown by one of Pip’s friends. I threw one of these for my library once upon a time and it was so cute! I had a lot of fun and really enjoyed it, so I was happy to see that this is what this book was about. Everyone dressed up, followed their binders, and all got to guess whodunit. And that’s basically what this book is. Add in Holly Jackson and her plot twists, and this is what you get. Like I said, there are some weird things that happen, but it’s to keep the book interesting.
The characters are all the same. Pip is there and her bestie. (I won’t say who because I don’t want to spoil anything for the actual series…) Pip is her usual fun self, but we learn so much more about her. Like why she became interested in the case she uses for her senior capstone and how incredibly smart she is by how she figures out how the answer for the party. It was really cool to see how things build up to an entire series worth of work. (And let me just say I liked Pip’s version better lmao)
I didn’t like how the ending was just tacked on. It was almost like this was a deleted scene and she just wanted us to have it, so she tacked on everything that would tie us to the actual series on at the end. I liked that things were connected and I thought it was cute, but I would have rathered it was throughout the story. Does that make more sense? It just didn’t feel cohesive. It was like an add-on.
Do I wish there was more to this series? Yes. Am I sad this was only a novella? Also yes. Will this change the way I think of Holly Jackson? NOT AT ALL. I will keep her on my auto-buy list and not feel bad about it at all. I can’t wait for more of y’all to read this! I already have it in a pre-order cart for my library system!
Overall, I give this
