WARNING: This review contains spoilers. See the review without any spoilers here

But fate decides otherwise, doesn’t it?

Connor’s brother, Jamie, goes missing. He’s had a history of leaving the house and going out, so at first it seems normal. Until he begins to act weird and goes missing for more than the usual time that he is out, and he disappears right after the memorial of Sal and Andie.

Pip doesn’t want to investigate, but the deepest part of her convinces her to do so.

So she does, leaving another Dadadaaaa mystery to solve, and like the first case, she stirs up in town because of her trying to solve the case. And once again, she kicks up dirt that was hiding other secrets of the town.

First of all, I commend Holly Jackson on having made us hate Stanley Forbes in A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder because it made the end so much more heartbreaking (more on that later).

One thing that I absolutely loved was that throughout the novel, we continued the story of Max Hastings and his trial. This was one of the reasons as to why Pip released the information of Sal and Andie’s case, because it contained details of what Max Hastings had done.

And in case you don’t remember what he did, it’s below

Trigger warning: mentions of drugs/rape

Max Hastings used Rohypnol to drug and rape many girls at the school for a long period of time, one of those girls being Nat da Silva. He also has an inappropriate photo of Andie Bell hidden in his room. Yet he denies both of these statements, therefore being the reason why there is a court trial occurring throughout Good Girl, Bad Blood.

However, this expands the conflict within the novel between Pip and Nat because while Pip cares for Nat deeply, Nat resents Pip for having wrongly accused Nat during the Sal and Andie case.

Throughout the novel, there were many times when I went “No way” or “WHAT”.

The creation of Layla Mead was a clever thing, and as soon as it was revealed that Layla knew that Pip was looking for her, my heart rate went through the roof. Each time Pip made a new discovery, from when Layla Mead was a catfisher, her new history teacher had liked posts from Layla, Jamie had been talking constantly and seemingly having a relationship with Layla, and to when Ant and Lauren are no longer considered friends of Pip, it seemed as if a new piece of vital information to the case had been highlighted, yet I still could not see where all the puzzle pieces would add up.

Then we get full circle to finding the knife that Jamie took at the same shack where Andie’s body was hidden for years, thickening the plot.

And then Pip once again uncovers secrets in the town. Turns out that Stanley Forbes had been the son of a serial killer who killed Pip’s new neighbor’s sister. Pip’s new neighbor, Charlie and his wife Flora were portrayed as such a sweet couple, and Charlie provided Pip confidence and advice when she felt that she was losing herself and beginning to fall off the edge of losing herself.

But that’s the best part about novels. You never know who it is you’re supposed to like and who you’re supposed to despise.

Throughout A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder, Stanley Forbes was portrayed as a character to despise. And in Good Girl, Bad Blood, Charlie was portrayed as a character to love.

Boy was I wrong.

The end quite made my heart pound and was gut-wrenching. Charlie had been looking for Stanley for years, and Pip had led Charlie right to him. Full of revenge, Charlie shot Stanley six times, ultimately leading to his death.

But not before Pip attempted to cover his wounds and save him from the burning building, but to no avail.

In the end, Pip ended up losing a part of herself, and once again “ruining” and damaging a part of her life.

Yes, Jamie was safe and sound and found again. But at the cost of a piece of Pip. At the cost of something she will never be able to forgive or forget.

Guys. This book was SO GOOD! Once again, Holly Jackson does the incredible job of confusing the reader and making it seem like every person could be guilty, planting seeds throughout the book. And it’s not until the end, not until you get stabbed by thorns that all the seeds that were planted, all the hints, and all the puzzle pieces come together to make sense.

Overall it was an extremely satisfying, gut-wrenching, heart-pounding and emotional book leaving me concerned and wondering what is next for the last and final book of the series.

Age Range

Personally, I would not recommend this book for elementary or middle school readers, as it does contain some foul language and touches on terms such as drug use, drug abuse, alcohol, rape mentions, and gun violence.