Reviews tagging Confinement

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

84 reviews

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

thekiwibibliophile's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny mysterious reflective 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? No

4.5

I love a good murder mystery and this did not disappoint! AMAZINGLY BRILLIANT. I got so hooked so quickly. I was so immersed in the plot. There are so many (verging on TOO MANY) plot twists. The characters are so easy to love… RAVI SINGH.. come on! 

I had an inclination as to who it was who had did it in the first 1/4 but then pushed that to one side, just like Pip did. So when it came back around that it WAS that person, I couldn’t even..

I really enjoyed the narrators of this book and how there is one specific character who gets his comeuppance.

Will definitely read the others! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, and Suicide

Moderate: Rape, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Sexual assault

Minor: Vomit and Confinement

hamstersinmypantsters's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, Child death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Car accident, Child abuse, Confinement, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, and Cursing

minke's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Vomit, and Death of parent

Minor: Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Dementia, Body shaming, and Confinement

mar's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Murder, Suicide, Death, Animal death, Grief, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Drug use, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Body shaming, Car accident, Racism, Rape, Vomit, and Bullying

Minor: Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Toxic friendship

micareads123's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

Moderate: Animal death, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Car accident, Death, Drug use, Rape, Body shaming, Confinement, and Murder

insidious_toxins's review

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious relaxing 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? Yes

5.0

I so enjoyed this. It had me reeling with turmoil & I kept second guessing through the whole thing. The plot twists was written so well as well. & it does make you realize you don’t know a murderer even though you say “I’ll know one”. You really won’t. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Bullying, Body shaming, Drug use, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Car accident, Suicide, Self harm, and Sexual assault

Minor: Animal death, Eating disorder, Kidnapping, Confinement, and Cursing

cdubbs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Injury/injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Rape, Grief, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Bullying, Car accident, and Confinement

cali's review

adventurous mysterious tense 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body shaming, Confinement, Grief, Alcohol, Bullying, Racism, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

mceleste22's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad 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? No

5.0

Welcome to a ramble of thoughts about the book! ♕I’ll try to make it make sense:) ♕

First of all, if you’re deciding whether to read it or not, here’s a few things that might help you decide: 

• Reliable narrator.
• Mystery gets solved in ONE book (at least it does resolve all the main parts and details given, and from the synopsis of the next it sounds unrelated).
• Great secondary characters (good, bad and morally grey).
• Not too graphic until the actual evidence reveals.
• Many clues.
• Mild romance subplot.
• Actually appropriate for the YA genre.

Spoilers Ahead!

Few things that called my attention:

• Spoiler

  The protagonist was solving the case of a murdered mean girl
• The chapters that were novel-like had quite a few lyrical descriptions which I loved.
• The everyday life wasn’t left behind in the storytelling.
• Also, the fact that it changed between narrative prose and log entries made it go by so fast, plus not redundant ;)

Moreover:

Spoiler

~ It was weird that the author was trying to put a romance in there while we were trying to solve a murder-mystery. But I do love Ravi and Pip together, they feel balanced, even with the slight age difference. AND when the author poses Ravi as smart he actually pushes through with it when he gets what’s actually going on with Pip. (When she was going to stop and he put 2-and-2 together and knew what’s going on I was quite glad, it was a “I knew you could do it!” moment).

~ I do hope that as children Pip and Josh gave Barney purple hair.

Spoiler

~ Does Pip get amnesia after all of it and Ravi has to remind her of Becca’s confession?

 

~ Starving Cara with Spanish words sprinkled in her sentences was completely necessary to my reading experience. Thank you. *not sarcasm*

Spoiler

~ When the application essay for Columbia came up and she actually wrote it, I had really hoped the whole essay would be the end of the book and the title would be “A good girl’s guide to murder”. Imagine that application! (Plus, she could've added the "willing to do anything for an assignment", though I don't know if that would appeal to an admissions officer (?))

 

Weird details:

Spoiler

~ Almost turned into a plot-hole but was saved last minute: how was Pip coming up with such wild theories when her family is the kind of family that hides their spare key under the doormat??!? Like?!?? Make it make sense. But then, there’s the tiniest mention of her watching crime documentaries and I was “Okay, I guess that’s fair.” But like, tell your family to hide their spare key elsewhere, please.

 

Spoiler

~ Gotta say, it was curious how Pip put Naomi and Mr. Elliot on the list and actually went through with them as suspects and then decided to tell Becca to escape.

 

~ The physical description of Andie matched the author’s photo, idk if it was intentional but it did weird me out everytime the book flipped open on it.

~ Totally unrelated to the story: the book came with two dust jackets, exactly the same (I think? I should probably check). It was like Barnes and Nobles knew I would need space for a murder board if I had actually pushed throught with it, still I don’t think I would’ve guessed it. 

As a closing/overall thoughts:

I did quite enjoy the book, even if it wasn't totally my sort of book. It was definitely that change in genre I was hoping for when I bought it. Not much was too mindblowing, when the reveals came, I was like “That makes total sense!” and I did remember all the details that led to it which I was proud about. It was pretty straight-forward and it did guide through the whole plot.

 On another note, I’m glad the second book is about a new mystery, and I really hope it doesn’t relate to this one so that if I read it time after I will still be able to enjoy it without remembering everything that happened in the first book. It’s interesting for a series for the plot to not be totally connected, but it does have a settled main character to guide you through the plot details.

Spoiler

I feel like it would be cool if in the second or third book the person in question was still alive and found alive, just for a change.

~ Celeste

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Content Warnings

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, Rape, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, and Vomit