As Good as Dead by Holly Jackson Series: A Good Girl's Guide to Murder #3
Published by Delacorte (9.28.2021)
Genres: Thriller, Young Adult
Format: Audiobook, 458 pages
Length: 15 hours, 4 minutes
Narrator: Bailey Carr, Full cast
Source: Library
Pip's good girl days are long behind her. After solving two murder cases and garnering internet fame from her crime podcast, she's seen a lot.
But she's still blindsided when it starts to feel like someone is watching her. It's small things at first. A USB stick with footage recording her and the same anonymous source always asking her: who will look for you when you're the one who disappears? It could be a harmless fan, but her gut is telling her danger is lurking.
When Pip starts to find connections between her possible stalker and a local serial killer, Pip knows that there is only one choice: find the person threatening her town including herself--or be as good as dead. Because maybe someone has been watching her all along...
My thoughts
I just. Wow. I wish I could pretend that the entire ass last half of this book did not exist. I think this has been the most disappointing finale of a series that I’ve ever read, to be completely honest. It took a HARD turn in the middle of the book and completely lost me, and I was so frustrated that I almost DNFed it. I still wish I had, sadly.
It’s a shame, really. This series has been phenomenal so far, and I was hardcore on board with it until said turn happened. I will say that I thought the identity of the DT killer was quite obvious, personally – View Spoiler » How tf was Pip not able to see that?! She’s been very smart thus far, so for her to not see that didn’t make sense at all. There were other things jumping out at me that she didn’t notice, either. Like the hairbrush on Andie’s table in the planner picture, or the initials HH. (I KNEW THAT WAS RELEVANT!! Remember in my review of A Good Girl’s Guide where I was disappointed because I thought it was this super important clue, and it ended up not even getting addressed at all?! It makes me happy that it actually meant something!)
This book was hella intense and just as amazing as the first two until the halfway point. Then something happens that (in my opinion) completely derailed everything that this series was about, and I hated it. Gonna put the rest in spoilers for those who haven’t read the book yet.
View Spoiler »The gist of it? The last half made me SO. RAGEY. It was so out of character, not only for Pip and everyone else, but for the whole series itself. I loved the first half, but I’m still giving this two stars out of pure spite because I despise how this ended and will never recommend this book to anyone. This book is….as good as dead to me. Just read the first two and pretend this bullshit doesn’t exist.
Overall Assessment
Plot: 2/5
Premise: 2/5
Writing style: 4/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 4/5
Feels: 2/5
Narration: 5/5
Cover: 3.5/5
Overall rating: 2/5
Ugh… I really hate when a book disappoints like this. Especially three books in. I hope your next read is better!
I totally get where you are coming from with this one! I really thought parts of it were over the top, the murderer was super obvious and Pip really lost it. That’s the unfortunate part because, like you said in your spoilers, there were other options are her disposal that would have been more realistic. I had to remind myself at the end of this one what the title of the series was and then I appreciated where it went a little more. But I don’t know if I will be quick to recommend this series as a whole going forward.