Book Review #76: Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson

Hey Guys x

Last year I read and reviewed the first book, 'A Good Girl's Guide to Murder', and you can read my review HERE.

When I found out that the first book was getting a sequel, I was really excited. Pip is a character that I completely loved reading about, as well as her partner-in-crime Ravi. So I pre-ordered the book and read it as soon as I received it.

Pip is back with a hit true-crime podcast detailing how she solved the murders of Andie Bell and Sal Singh. But when someone she knows goes missing, and she's asked to use her podcast to spread the word, Pip is reluctant to jump back into that dangerous world. But when the clues start to lead to something deadly, and the police refuse to help, will Pip be able to resist investigating?

I really enjoyed this book.

For a start, I like the way that Jackson writes, the way she tells a story. With a story like this, there are so many clues, red herrings and moving parts that it has to be written in a really specific way, and she does such a good job of that.

As I already mentioned, one of the reasons that I was so eager to read this story was so that I could be thrown back into the world of Pip Fitz-Amobi, who is an amazing main character. The things about her that I loved from the first book (such as her tenacity, her attitude, her likeability) are all present in this one, which I was really happy about.

However, in my first review I wrote that all of the characters apart from Pip and Ravi seemed really two-dimensional in the first book, and unfortunately this happened again in the second. But the worst thing about this is that, in this book, Ravi became a bit two-dimensional too.
I would have liked to know more about the characters that surrounded Pip, most of which had been around in the first book.

But having said that, the most important thing about this story is the mystery, and the most important thing about the mystery, is the reveal.

Now, I was glad that this story wasn't as straightforward as the first in terms of what was being investigated. In the first book, the subjects of the investigation are already dead and have been dead for years.
Having the main subject of the investigation as 'missing' rather than 'dead' gives the story so many different avenues to take, and there are so many things that could have happened.
However, the other thing it does is ramp up the pressure. It gives Pip, and the reader, a time limit. We have to find out the truth before something awful happens, if it hasn't already, and I found that really exciting.

But, as exciting as the lead-up to the reveal was, I personally felt like the reveal itself fell a bit flat.

I'm going to try not to give anything away, but it's not the kind of reveal where you could have worked it out early on. And obviously while I didn't want to figure things out too early, it would have been nice to know that things were weaved through that actually had relevance to the final reveal. But because a big necessary piece of information was revealed so late in the game, I felt like it took something away from the reveal.
And in addition to that, when everything came out, it felt really underwhelming.

What was good?
As I've said, Pip is an amazing main character, and it was so great to get to spend time in her world again. I love the way the story was told and if Jackson were to write another book about Pip, I would definitely read it (though I'd also love to read something by her that's not Pip-related).

What was bad?
Again as I've already said, I found the reveal underwhelming. Not only the reveal of who was involved, but specifically the reveal of what happened. It didn't excite me at all, and it made some parts of the story feel a bit pointless to me.

Overall
I'd definitely recommend this book, especially if you've already read the first one (and if you haven't, you should read it), but it didn't live up to the first one in my opinion.

3.5/5 Stars

Lou - https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/