Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - Brave ragazze, cattivo sangue

Overall I liked the book. The story didn't grab me as quick as aggtm. I felt like the first chapters were purely written to link book 1 and book 2. Which is fine. Nothing wrong with. I actually enjoyed that because it answered the questions that I had after book 1. That said, it didn't feel like something new. New as in a new book. A new plot. That came after

pages or so. Again, I did enjoy reading those pages but it was not what I expected when I picked this book up.

The book wasn't bad at all. The characters are well written, the plot has unexpected twists and turns and the ending shocked me. It is an easy to read fast-paced book, just like aggtm.

[I will say that - if you haven't read a good girl's guide to murder or if it's been a while since you have - you don't have to worry about remembering all the details from the 1st book. Yes. If you read the first book you'd recognize the names and you'd have a bit more context. But - and this is something that I really like - you don't have to read book 1 before this book. There are some references but they are briefly explained. I'm currently in the process of reading the books back-to-back but you definitely don't have to do this. You could pick this book up a year after reading book 1 and you'll be fine. ]

The ending did feel a bit rushed. Nonetheless, it did surprise me. It was thought out well. It's quite difficult to write a series. Especially if the first book was written as a stand-alone. This book, the 2nd book in the series, surprised me a lot. To me it's a good sequel to the first. The development of the different characters is well-written and basically no loose threads were left. Though, I do have some nosy question. I guess that those will be answered in the next book🤔

I also missed ravi a bit. He was absent for a reason but it felt a bit off as pip solved the andir bell case with him. It seems like he was often used to dismiss, engage or calm pip (feelings) down. I wish that he was more his own character like in book 1. He was written really well though. It just seemed like he existed for her in this book and that was a bit of a bummer.

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sarahangeline's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense 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? No

5.0

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booking_along's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

“…i truly believed it was some kind of victory l, that the bad would be punished. because it was the truth, and the truth was the most important thing to be. it’s all u believed in, all u cared about: finding the truth, no matter the cost. …but justice doesn’t exist, and the truth dienst matter, not in the real world…”

did not expect that twisted reveal!

this book was a bit on the slower side but when it got going it was off and racing!

i did like that a lot of this book was Pip trying to deal with what happened in book one and that it actually discussed that solving murders and figuring out mysteries and what bad stuff people do can be traumatic.

honestly the biggest issue i have with this book-which is one i have with a lot of YA books - is if a 16/17 year old does a better job than a trained adult.

now in this particular series it’s not as hard -honestly the police “force” of this town is very clearly shown as utterly useless and just feeling self important instead of actually doing their jobs.

beside that this book was very well done.

between the struggles of what Pip still had to deal with from what happened in book one and the internet trolls coming at her through her podcast… it was very well done.

and as i already said - i did not see that big twist coming.
mostly because i don’t think it was possible to solve it? but hey i am no sherlock so i don’t even try to say that i remember every little hint the author might have placed in this book to point towards the actual baddy in this book -i didn’t see them and was surprised but the explanations made enough sense that i didn’t mind being blind sided by it.

i really enjoyed this! very well done!

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