Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

122 reviews

lucyford's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

4.75

Ugh, I’m so glad I finally read this after years of it being recommended to me! It 1000% lived up to the hype. I loved the main characters, the fun formatting of the book, the writing, the humour, and the unpredictability of the plot. There were so many moving pieces in the story, and I think the author is a genius for how she made it work out so cleanly. The only reasons it’s not a full 5 stars for me are that (a) Pip can be a bit (very) ridiculously stubborn at times, and (b) I was never pushed to the point of tears or throwing my book. I still loved it and am very happy with the ending.

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erinmasterson's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad 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

2.0

So clearly a British author writing about an American town/high school. Very awkward dialogue, both intentional and unintentional. So much of it is so unbelievable. The language the characters use (“cheeky” and “fancy” when they’re supposed to be American), the poor attempt at grasping what high schoolers are actually like (what “cool” crowd would call parties “calamity parties” and then apparently forget only 5 years later). Just bizarre to read about high schoolers from the perspective of someone who clearly hasn’t stepped foot outside in several years.

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swimmer120x's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad medium-paced

3.75

The book overall was good. I had two pet peeves in the book. The first is that the narrator would switch between first and third person point of view, but use the same voice that she did when narrating for Pip in the first-person POV. I feel like if the narrator was going to use a third-person POV to explain a scene, it should have been a different voice from the rest of the characters, including Pip. Each of the characters had their own voices (10+), but yet the third-person POV had to be the same voice as Pip’s. It would have been more enjoyable had the tone been different. The second pet-peeve is that

Becca tried to handle all of the blackmail on her own

Things could have taken a different turn had a teenager not thought that she could have handled everything on her own. Granted, she did a great job solving a murder. But with some things, you’re still a teen; involve your parents.

The book was nearly ruined for me because the narrator and main character, Pip, have the same voice, tone, and pitch in the audiobook, which is particularly terrible, when Pip is mentioned in the third-person POV.

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dkamada's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Raced through this, so many suspects, so many twists!
Additional trigger warning:

TW: animal kidnapping + murder

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torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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izzyreads13's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-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? No

4.5

I personally thoroughly enjoyed this book. Based off of my rating scale it does not reach a 5 just because I feel as though 5’s for me are usually things I can reread and this being a mystery book doesn’t hit that mark for me. However, that does not take away from how good this book actually was.

It keeps you guessing and questioning things at every chapter and even though I felt myself getting a little bored at the 50% mark due to no real discoveries being made I can proudly say the push to continue this book was truly worth it. The characters are lovable, the plot twists keep you on edge, there’s a bunch of “mouth wide open” moments and honestly, I really really enjoyed it. This was my first mystery book and it was more “light hearted” in the sense that the murder itself isn’t that grand, it’s not gore filled in any sense and it’s really good (imo) to ease into if you’re coming from a different genre (for me that being fantasy & romance). It opened up a new side of the book world and I’ll definitely look into the rest of the books in this trilogy.

I liked the way everything rounded out to make sense in the end, I felt as though nothing was missing, nothing left unanswered and it was a really satisfying end to a “keeping you on edge” book.

Like I previously mentioned there was a point where I wasn’t sure how I was feeling because the mystery itself didn’t seem to be going anywhere but trust when things start moving and being pieced together they really do start moving! I’d strongly recommend this book to anyone looking into wanting to stray mystery and any fans of criminal minds looking to solve a mystery because it really is one that you can follow and possibly find out on your own if you’re REALLY attentive. Either way the reveals of everything really do come together in a satisfying and fulfilling way. Overall, I couldn’t recommend this book enough, happy reading!

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