Good Girl, Bad Plot? Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson

clsimpson430
May 25, 2023
2 min read

My Rating: 3 Stars

It is with the heaviest of heart that I tell you about my disappointment in this sequel.

I LOVED everything about A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. You can read my enthusiastic review here. I cared about the characters, I enjoyed how all the small clues tied together, I thought it was realistic enough that I could overlook small plot holes. But the sequel didn't have same feel, relationships, or logic to it.

In Good Girl, Bad Blood, Pip is suddenly a ~super successful podcast host~ to whom people literally reach out to in order solve their missing persons cases. Umm...ok, sure. And who's missing? None other than some rando we care nothing about.

Pip basically ignores everyone in her life and treats her friends and boyfriend like garbage while trying to solve this case. Did you love Pip and Ravi's relationship? Enjoy her friendship with Cara? Well suck it up because Jackson is giving us nothing this time around.

Sure, the pictures of the clues are cool...but what's the point if they never tie together? Jackson sadly takes the easy way out of her own plot by throwing in some random information that we could have never possibly known or guessed. I was literally WRITING DOWN the clues trying to solve this...but no. I didn't know this vital piece of information until 350 pages in. Vital information that leads to even more randos joining the plot might I add.

Also...the podcast. It's cool...I get it, they're super popular in the true crime community. But literally looking to a 17-18 year old to solve a case FOR you? The capstone project about a 5 year old closed case was way more believable.

I have the box set of this series so I will finish it out of loyalty but this def made me less excited to keep going.

In conclusion: Not a bad book. But definitely not something I would recommend to anyone wanting a mystery they can enjoy trying to solve themselves.

Synopsis:

Pip is not a detective anymore.

With the help of Ravi Singh, she released a true-crime podcast about the murder case they solved together last year. The podcast has gone viral, yet Pip insists her investigating days are behind her.

But she will have to break that promise when someone she knows goes missing. Jamie Reynolds has disappeared, on the very same night the town hosted a memorial for the sixth-year anniversary of the deaths of Andie Bell and Sal Singh.

The police won't do anything about it. And if they won't look for Jamie then Pip will, uncovering more of her town's dark secrets along the way... and this time everyone is listening. But will she find him before it's too late?