Reviews tagging Bullying

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, by Holly Jackson

381 reviews

cadesreads's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Racism, Suicide, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Racism, and Self harm

Minor: Alcohol, Body shaming, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Bullying, Drug use, and Rape

livia_d's review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Body shaming, Bullying, Animal death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Murder

jojo_fiction_'s review

adventurous dark funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

For her final project in high school, teenager Pippa Fitz-Amobi decides to take it upon herself to clear the name of Sal Singh, accused of murdering his girlfriend Andie Bell 5 years ago. However, only a few days after Andie went missing, Sal killed himself after sending a text claiming his guilt and in the end, Andie’s body was never found. Pip connects with friends and family of both Andie and Sal trying to discover more about the night Andie disappeared, despite someone trying to stop her at every turn. 

Overall this book was a solid read. Interesting characters, lots of twists and secrets from both suspects and friends. The pacing was quick and it was hard to put down at the end of a chapter because it just left you wanting more. I loved that she worked with Sal’s brother, they balanced each other out and made a great team.

There needs to be a little bit of a suspension of belief with this story, but overall it was a really good mystery! Pip repeatedly breaks the law to prove that someone is innocent…I mean, not the best course of action but it reminded me of Nancy Drew and Stevie Bell, doing slightly questionable things for the greater good. The lack of good police work was laughable and not at all what would have happened if this was a real case. However for a fun YA novel this isn't a deal breaker. It is a fun mystery, with twists and turns and a wide array of characters with different motivations. Pip is a likeable protagonist who has both good and bad personality traits which just made her seem more realistic and her characterization contributes really well towards moving the plot forward in an engaging way.

If you’re a fan of One of Us is Lying, or Truly Devious, I think this is just the kind of book you’d enjoy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use and Bullying

Minor: Sexual harassment, Rape, Self harm, and Sexual assault

wulfhorstmom's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Car accident, Bullying, Kidnapping, Murder, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Rape, Confinement, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Drug use, Grief, Suicide, Vomit, Death of parent, and Dementia

sknappy1's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This is the most fun book I've read in a very long time, and by far the best mystery book I have ever read. I was thoroughly engaged the entire time and couldn't put it down! I got through it so fast. So many twists and turns, it constantly kept me guessing. SUCH a fun and engaging read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit

Moderate: Drug use, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Stalking, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Car accident, Rape, Bullying, Death, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Murder, Toxic relationship, Violence, Animal death, and Blood

Minor: Mental illness, Self harm, and Infidelity

nv0101's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, Death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Self harm, Infidelity, Body shaming, and Child death

Minor: Abandonment and Body horror

katherinek's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This was really giving me Pretty Little Liars vibes! The plot was well done and there was so much depth to it, but I wish the author would've devoted just as much energy to shaping the main characters. Most of them lacked depth for me, including Pip who just seemed like another "I'm not like other girls" type of character--that is, until the last 50 pages or so, where she became a lot more dynamic for me. The college application part of the plot fell pretty flat for me personally, as well as the "threats" she was getting, which never really seemed that important until

Spoiler

Barney died...which, in my opinion, wasn't necessary.

When it comes to the writing, there were definitely some cheesy parts but also some really pretty lines

Spoiler

For instance, Pip getting drugged was written so well, I felt like I was really experiencing it!

. There is a LOT of information given to you in this book, and the author helps you keep track of it with the reports and suspect list that Pip has at the end of all of them. I really appreciated the map at the beginning and I wish we could've had more visual aids like that one

Spoiler

I really wanted to see the murder board that Pip and Ravi made in part three, for example

. All of this information really started to pile up for me and got so messy to the point where I kept forgetting things and getting confused, and because of that, the ending was pretty underwhelming because I was learning so much at one time and I just couldn't keep up with everything at that point.

Spoiler

Also, why did Pip magically realize that it was Elliot and that he was keeping Andie in the house? In my opinion she didn't have nearly enough evidence for this and jumped to that conclusion VERY fast

Despite being kind of unrealistic, the ending was written pretty well. I liked how Pip called out the press for making Andie seem like a good person, when she was actually pretty awful.

Spoiler

Also, am I the only one who was convinced that Andie was still alive and behind all of this for like 90% of the book?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Drug use, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Bullying, Drug abuse, Injury/injury detail, Kidnapping, and Rape

dariana12's review

adventurous informative mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

The plot twist did leave me shocked but I just don’t think YA detective mystery murder books are for me lol. Medium paced, couldn’t connect to the characters but a well written book and I can see where the hype came from. Not too memorable and Tbh I kept reading to know the ending but I think it was worth it. There is animal death which, looking at the Goodreads reviews, is why some people gave this book a low rating

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Bullying, Car accident, and Murder

Moderate: Kidnapping, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Blood, Eating disorder, Grief, Animal death, Cursing, Drug abuse, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Self harm, Suicide, Death of parent, and Body shaming

av0ncor3's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Bullying, Drug use, and Animal death

samanthamurk's review

adventurous emotional mysterious sad

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

WOW i’m in total shock from the ending. such a good read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Grief, Drug use, Death, Child death, Injury/injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Murder, Child abuse, and Blood

Moderate: Bullying and Misogyny