★★☆☆☆
I’m rounding out my summer of thriller reads with the final installment of Holly Jackson’s best-selling young adult series.
The third book in the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series was much darker than the previous two. On its own, the darker tone worked well. It was a fitting progression to the installment of a trilogy based on a teenager investigating serial killers.
As Good As Dead started well enough, touching on more of the consequences and negative effects, Pippa Fitz-Amobi experienced because of her fame and involvement in serious investigations. The lack of sleep, a defamation lawsuit, and the sense that she was being watched seemed realistic after chasing down murderers and rapists and making accusations on her podcast.
The realism quickly wore off in the second half of the book, where it jumped the proverbial shark. Pip acted in illogical ways that didn’t fit with her character. Although there’s an acknowledgment that Pip has changed, her behaviors don’t align with who Pip was in the first two books. I had a hard time believing she would act the way she did, impacting my enjoyment of the book.
As Good As Dead is my least favorite of the three novels. While I’m glad I finished the series, book three doesn’t come close to the bar set by the first two. I couldn’t get past the selfish, illogical decisions Pip and Ravi made. Their drastic character departures were too much for me.
If you’re considering starting this series, you will want to read the books in the order they were released. Books 2 and 3 reference many events that happen in the first book and will not make sense if you don’t start at the beginning.
My review of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is linked here.https://bookpicksandpics.com/2022/01/03/a-good-girls-guide-to-murder-by-holly-jackson/
My review of Good Girl, Bad Blood is available here.https://bookpicksandpics.com/2022/06/16/good-girl-bad-blood/
