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AS GOOD AS DEAD
From the good girl's guide to murder series , vol. 3.
by Holly Jackson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 28, 2021
Intricately plotted and heart-pounding.
Everything comes full circle in this trilogy closer.
It’s not easy being Pippa Fitz-Amobi: Max Hastings, a teen rapist who was found not guilty, is suing her for defamation. She blames herself for the death of local journalist Stanley Forbes, who was revealed to be the child of a serial killer, but she also feels a kinship with his killer, Charlie Green, who is on the run. To cope with her PTSD, Pip takes Xanax purchased from drug dealer Luke Eaton, who indirectly supplied the late Andie Bell, the subject of her first case. Pip is used to online threats, but one message has been appearing again and again: “Who will look for you when you’re the one who disappears?” Someone is leaving dead pigeons in Pip’s front yard and mysterious chalk figures in her driveway, but Detective Hawkins doesn’t believe there’s a pattern and refuses to investigate. Research into her own stalker leads to an imprisoned serial killer who supposedly confessed, but the connections are striking, and Pip fears the police may have the wrong man. This volume centers on a psychologically traumatized Pip, whose actions inhabit morally gray areas till the very end. Her romance with Ravi Singh is a much-needed balm, but their love is tragically tested. A particular strength is the way elements in this novel connect with clues from earlier entries. Pip’s mother is cued as White and her father, as Black; Ravi is of Indian descent.
Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-37985-1
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
TEENS & YOUNG ADULT MYSTERY & THRILLER | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES
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From the secrets of the nile series , vol. 2.
by Isabel Ibañez ; illustrated by Isabel Ibañez ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 5, 2024
A thrilling, beautifully written page-turner.
A young woman pursues a dangerous quest in late-1800s Egypt in this sequel to What the River Knows (2023).
After Inez Olivera was nearly murdered while assisting with her uncle’s archaeological expedition in Egypt, Tío Ricardo is eager to ship her home to safety in Argentina. But Inez burns with the need to stay and make sure that those who committed crimes against her family are held responsible. Unfortunately, the law precludes Inez, as a young unmarried woman, from accessing her inheritance (needed to fund her quest for justice) without her guardian uncle’s permission. Whitford Hayes, a former British soldier and her tío’s aide-de-camp, proposes marriage, which could solve her problems. But can Inez trust the secretive Whit? More danger and intrigue lurk at every turn in this exciting duology closer, which fully addresses the first entry’s jaw-dropping cliffhanger. The well-paced plot encompasses many fresh, new adventures and betrayals in this reimagined historical setting in which ancient magic abounds and not everyone or everything is what it seems. Even more captivating, however, is the complicated, nuanced love story between Whit and Inez. Their chemistry sizzles, but their relationship is achingly layered with both profound loyalty and deep deception. As their journey unearths new enemies and priceless archaeological finds, the duo must try to trust each other enough to survive.
Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781250822994
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024
TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT MYSTERY & THRILLER
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by Isabel Ibañez ; illustrated by Isabel Ibañez
by Isabel Ibañez
INDIVISIBLE
by Daniel Aleman ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 4, 2021
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FAMILY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES
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by Daniel Aleman
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The Lit Bitch
Anne Mendez, Book Reviewer
Review: As Good As Dead (A Good Girls’ Guide to Murder #3) by Holly Jackson
Say hello to the worst book I have read this year—-and frankly, the last decade. I have had books that I did not finish and books that just left me feeling lukewarm or even disappointed but none have left me feeling absolute shock and frustration. The second book in the series had me feeling a little bland about Pip as a main character so when this one came out, I wasn’t really chomping at the bit to read it but a friend of mine read it and basically said it was awful but she wanted to discuss with someone—-so here we are, thank you peer pressure.
As you move into reading my review of this one, know that I normally don’t post spoilers but frankly there is no way around that for this review. If you haven’t read the other books or you are planning on reading this one you might want to skip my review all together as there WILL be spoilers. So consider yourself warned.
Normally, if I am not feeling a book, I usually set it down and shelf it as DNF, but in this case there was just so much wrong with this book that I felt obligated to read until the end with the hope that it would improve but sadly it did not. I also try to refrain from fully ripping a book as I try to be respectful of authors and their creative license, and that still remains true in this case, there are good points but they did not balance out enough for me to even remotely enjoy this final installment.
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING SERIES The highly-anticipated finale to the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series, the instant bestsellers that read like your favorite true crime podcast or show. By the end of this mystery series, you’ll never think of good girls the same way again…
Pip is about to head to college, but she is still haunted by the way her last investigation ended. She’s used to online death threats in the wake of her viral true-crime podcast, but she can’t help noticing an anonymous person who keeps asking her: Who will look for you when you’re the one who disappears?
Soon the threats escalate and Pip realizes that someone is following her in real life. When she starts to find connections between her stalker and a local serial killer caught six years ago, she wonders if maybe the wrong man is behind bars.
Police refuse to act, so Pip has only one choice: find the suspect herself—or be the next victim. As the deadly game plays out, Pip discovers that everything in her small town is coming full circle . . .and if she doesn’t find the answers, this time she will be the one who disappears. . . (summary from Goodreads)
SPOILERS BELOW SPOILERS BELOW SPOILERS BELOW SPOILERS BELOW
Consider your self warned again…..spoilers are coming!
This book picks up after the events of book 2, Pip is struggling to come to terms with the death of Stanley Forbes and all the fall out of events with Max Hastings. We find Pip has turned to drugs to cope with the PTSD and rather than reaching out to someone, she uses pills to self medicate and I felt like this was so absolutely out of character for her that I couldn’t even begin to accept it. I tried and tried but I kept coming back to the fact that this just was so out of left field. She’s basically fully on her way to becoming a pill popper on a regular basis and I just couldn’t stand that about her. It just did NOT fit for me. I could buy the PTSD and the teenager approach, but with all the resources and conversations around substance abuse and mental health, especially for teens, this just felt really off to me. Then the murder at the end of book 2 who escaped (literally don’t remember his name) I felt like this book would really focus on resolving that but instead we move to this random serial killer that had no real connection to the other cases in the series. The murder from book 2 just randomly gets arrested and that’s the end of it. So many questions here but the first one would be PARENTS!! Parents you don’t see that your child is struggling? Why not get her into counseling? SOMETHING! ANYTHING! This has been a major problem for me in the entire series like where are the parents!?
The serial killer angle could have saved this book for me—-could have. The book itself started slow but I was really intrigued to have a stalker/serial killer come into play that I was willing to overlook the weird PTSD and self medication in favor of a new case. There wasn’t a lot of build up though. It felt rushed and thrown together with the ‘mystery’ being resolved way too quickly. By the time we get to part 2, essentially half way through the book, Pip is kidnapped by the killer and his identity revealed. The identity was NOT shocking either. But what was shocking was that Pip murders him herself and the second half of the book is basically an instruction manual on how to get away with murder. This felt so absolutely out of character for Pip and it was entirely unnecessary. I cannot even explain how unnecessary it was. Then she proceeds to frame Max Hastings for murder. I cannot stress how wrong this felt to me.
Pip was such a champion of justice and I know ended up being jaded by the criminal justice system throughout the books and I understand with a teenager mind that framing Max Hastings would have seemed like it would be fitting but for me the punishment did not fit the crime for which Max was initially accused. Yes the criminal justice system failed Pip on a number of situations but to frame someone for murder—-a murder she willfully committed—felt so incredibly wrong to me as a reader. Especially considering that in the first book Sal Singh Wass wrongfully accused and even in this book there was an innocent man already behind bars for the serial killer murders—-it just felt so so so wrong to have her frame someone else even if Max Hastings was an absolute POS. I was genuinely shocked by her choices and I just couldn’t even fathom how or why her character went from good girl to stone cold murderer.
I was so sad. that I hated this book as much as I did. There were moments when I felt like ‘hey this could be a good story’ or ‘hey this is starting to get good’ and then of course a few ‘ohhhhh there is the Pip I loved in book 1’ but sadly those moments were few and fleeting. I disliked more of this book than I actually liked. I have never been so let down in a book before. I have read some disappointing books but this one takes the cake. I loved the first book so so so much and had such high hopes for this series and it just crumbled with each book. Do yourself a favor and stop at book 1, it’s truly the best one in the series.
Book Info and Rating
Format: 459 pages audio book
Published: September 28 2021 by Delacorte Press
ISBN 9780593379851
Review copy provided by personal collection. All opinions are my own and in no way influenced.
Rating: 1 star
Genre: YA, mystery
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