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nella580's review against another edition
3.0
Holy Veronica Mars, what a mess this was. I will say, this book certainly knows its audience. I wouldn’t call it bad. A lot was really right here. The tone the author was going for was achieved. That precocious, spunky girl with tenacity and naïveté to help her solve the greatest mystery of her town. I mean, like I said, Veronica Mars quirkiness and reference to pancakes and hot chocolate that’s basically mandatory of white middle class characterization. (It’s supposed to feel wholesome, I think. Idk.) I can definitely appreciate the plotting and mindfulness to her cast the author showed here. It is a YA novel, after all. For me, though, this was messy. A lot of messy devices to help drive the story along.
First-person then third-person narrations were jarring. And I get it, the “Pippa log” or whatever her diary was called was a convenient device to state out exposition without clunky buildup. Just blah it on the page. Easy. But the first-person narration didn’t read as a believable diary. It read as an author’s device and I kept getting irritated at the switch back to third-person.
The cast was also really large and really shallow. Which, agin, is convenient to use as a device to not have to build story around your characters. But I kept forgetting who was who or the significance of anyone. If you include a thousand people in your universe, none of them really matter and it’s all just done with a red herring intent.
The outcome was obviously a driving factor for some of the positive reception of this book. (I’m sure lots of things were. I can see this resonating with a lot of young women.) Just a crazy-bananas outcome that happily tied everything right up. Everything always worked out (mostly) and everyone was stage-directed to all the right places for Pippa to sagely educate the town on the downfalls of blind, careless prejudice.
This is the Taylor Swift of novels. Cute. Going heavily for charming. Definitely for a specific, targeted demographic, and leans into that fact in a smart way. Not for me, but I can see why others like it.
First-person then third-person narrations were jarring. And I get it, the “Pippa log” or whatever her diary was called was a convenient device to state out exposition without clunky buildup. Just blah it on the page. Easy. But the first-person narration didn’t read as a believable diary. It read as an author’s device and I kept getting irritated at the switch back to third-person.
The cast was also really large and really shallow. Which, agin, is convenient to use as a device to not have to build story around your characters. But I kept forgetting who was who or the significance of anyone. If you include a thousand people in your universe, none of them really matter and it’s all just done with a red herring intent.
The outcome was obviously a driving factor for some of the positive reception of this book. (I’m sure lots of things were. I can see this resonating with a lot of young women.) Just a crazy-bananas outcome that happily tied everything right up. Everything always worked out (mostly) and everyone was stage-directed to all the right places for Pippa to sagely educate the town on the downfalls of blind, careless prejudice.
This is the Taylor Swift of novels. Cute. Going heavily for charming. Definitely for a specific, targeted demographic, and leans into that fact in a smart way. Not for me, but I can see why others like it.
bumpkinhouse's review against another edition
4.75
This would've been a 5 star for me if there wasn't the dreaded suffering alone trope for 3 seconds in terms of Pip deciding to just wallow in self-pity and fear instead of telling any adult or authority figure what's actually going on and her life is being threatened. Otherwise if you ignore just how reckless Pip was without realistic consequence the rest of the book was fantastic. It was very realistic to what I thought a normal PI investigation would look like just all being done by a high schooler. Loved her family interactions. At one point it was hard to keep up in detail with each character just because there were so many that could've been involved.
__eliizabethh_'s review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
mack_n_queso's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
3.25
I really enjoyed this! It wasn't my FAVORITE mystery ever, but I thought it was good fun, and it kept me changing my guess to whodunnit.
_delaneymarie01_'s review against another edition
5.0
Even better the second time around on audiobook!
I just finished reading this and I am speechless… There were so many twist and turns, it had me on my toes the entire time I was reading it. I didn’t want to put it down. The writing was amazing and I can’t wait to read more from Holly Jackson. I am only way to purchase Good Girl, Bad Blood.
I just finished reading this and I am speechless… There were so many twist and turns, it had me on my toes the entire time I was reading it. I didn’t want to put it down. The writing was amazing and I can’t wait to read more from Holly Jackson. I am only way to purchase Good Girl, Bad Blood.
flowingleaves's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
medium-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
kiki_a88's review against another edition
3.0
A very good mystery and I did enjoy the overall story. The only issue I really had was that it was very clear that it was a young adult book. It almost seemed like it’s geared towards younger teens. Also, I would’ve loved some clarification on the MC in her budding romance near the end. Still a decent read though, and I am excited to read the rest of the series.
ehcaldwell76's review against another edition
4.0
Holy cow, what a good book! I actually physically read this one, and even though I figured out half of the ending, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. The characters were well fleshed out. The beginning of the story reminded me of the Adnan Sayed case. And there were things that made me think of the Making a Murderer guy. I don't know that I would have even read the book if it hadn't been for a Tiktok.
8675309mp's review against another edition
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25