AGGGTM By Holly Jackson

Buckle in, this is going to be a long one

Plot Summary

The first book starts with Pippa's EPQ.

‘Extended Project Qualification. It’s a project you work on independently,
alongside A levels. You can pick any topic you want.’

For her EPQ Pippa decides to investigate the five year old murder of a local girl(Andie Bell) by her boyfriend(Sal Singh). According to Pippa Sal didn't do it because he was nice to her when she was younger. It's dumb, but would any of us be okay with one of our friends being framed for murder? Pippa, who is much more ambitious than most of us decides that she will find out what really happened the night that Andie Bell died.

In the second book, Pippa who faced a lot of consequences for investigating Andie Bell's death has decided that she will not put her life in danger for an investigation again. That is until her close friend's brother goes missing and the police refuse to help. On the way to finding him she uncovers the answer to mysteries that she didn't even know were still unanswered and finds herself in the middle of another murder case.

In our final book Pippa's mental health takes an extreme turn due to the trauma that she's endured and the audience finds out why the books aren't called A Good Girl's Guide to Investigating Murder.

Where Do I Even Start?

A3GTM

I have a lot of things to say and they are all praise. Except that I don't like the title. I originally skipped over this series because it's titled like a bad Wattpad book where a mafia boss kidnaps a high school-er and teaches her to kill and they're enemies before lovers and there's only one bed. But someone on Instagram spoiled it in a comment section and it seemed genuinely interesting, so I decided to read it.

In the first book we get to know all of the characters and find out what really happened the night that Andie Bell died. Her apparent murderer committed suicide as the investigation was happening, even though he was due to attend a top college after graduation. 

The first person that Pippa speaks to is Sal's younger brother, Ravi. Who makes it clear that he doesn't believe his brother was homicidal or suicidal. Its interesting to read about his family's reactions because even if they did believe he was a killer they'd still have known the person he was before he decided to murder someone. Of course his parents and brother would love and miss him.

Next Pippa speaks with Andie's old friends who make it clear that she was actually an awful person. She was a mean girl who used people's secrets against them while never telling them any of hers. She was bullying someone for no reason and she even cheated on her boyfriend with some older guy. (I just want to say that I guessed who the older bf was off rip)

Random: Sal was born on Valentines Day 🥰

As the rest of the book follows Pippa's investigation she only uncovers things that weren't initially investigated because of Sal's suicide note, which makes sense since he confessed and they literally found her blood in the trunk of his car. I can't blame them for not investigating further.

But someone absolutely does not want this murder solved and is willing to murder her dog to make sure it isn't. Also they apparently think that destroying your computer is the end of your files. Like google drive and outlook don't auto-save everything.

THE DOG DIES!?!?!!?! WHYYY 😪😪😪

Anyway, Pippa is victorious and Sal is innocent.

Good Girl, Bad Blood

In the second book of this series things are starting off well. There's a memorial for Andie and Sal, victims of the same man who's fear of consequences brought him to homicide. Pippa has promised her family that she was done investigating murder because of the toll it took on her and their family. Her plan is to finish high school and be a normal girl with good friends and a kind boyfriend.

Unfortunately the brother of one of those good friends goes missing. When Connor comes knocking on her door and begging her to help find his older brother Jaime it's only because the police have already refused to help them. Eventually Pippa relents because she's known Jamie since she was a kid and doesn't want anything bad to happen to him.

My favorite thing about this book is how much I cared about Jamie being alive lmao. I think the author did an awesome job at creating a lovable character without him even being in the story. We get to know Jamie the way that his friends and family know him, which is always going to make you love someone.

My second favorite thing is Pippa's downward spiral. Lil baby goes INSANE throughout this book and she hasn't even gotten to the worst part of this mystery yet. She ends up assaulting two of her classmates (yes, pouring your coke on someone's head is assault). Both of them deserve it of course, but its still wrong to do.

My third favorite thing is the character's realization that being lawful is not the same as being good. I mean I guess that's not technically what was said but that's how I understood it. You can follow the law and do everything according to it but that same justice system that you're abiding by will let your rapist walk out of the courtroom claiming that he's innocent. That's not good and why should anyone accept that? I feel like that's how Pippa ends up in her little situation in the next book.

As Good As Dead

I think this book humanizes Andie a LOT. It makes her intentions extremely clear and gives an audience (and pip) an idea of who she really was and what her motivations were. She was literally just a kid who was scared. She wanted to protect herself and her sister. I do have to wonder why she reacted so badly to Becca's confession but tbh it was probably the head injury.

Andie did everything she could to make sure she created a nice, safe way to get out of town and keep Becca safe. She literally died trying. I think that what was going on in her life does justify her actions, even if some of them weren't to help her escape. How do you release anger about your literal father being a serial killer without hurting anyone and without letting him know that you know? You can't go to therapy because he'd have to pay for that, lmao. 

MURDER

SHE KILLED HIM FR OH MY GOD I THOUGHT SHE WAS HALLUCINATING !!!

and all her friends helped her cover it up without questioning what they were even helping with and TBH i would too for a buddy like that??? Yes i would no questions asked. Someone who deserves to die is dead and someone who deserves to go to jail is in jail its the perfect ending except that Ms. Fitz-Amobi needs a mother fucking therapist like immediately.

Anyway i'm not saying anything else about this one because what else could anyone possibly need to know except that I am on my knees praying.

❤❤❤❤