Book Review: Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson

Good Girl, Bad Blood (A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, #2) by Holly Jackson
Narrator: Kristin Atherton, Luke Poli, Clare Corbett, Jot Davies, Maryam Grace, Richard Hughes
Series: A Good Girl's Guide to Murder #2
on April 30, 2020
Genres: Mystery
Pages: 413
Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
Format: Audiobook
Goodreads

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?

I read this book for a book club challenge for the teen mystery prompt. I had read A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder last year, which was okay, so I gave this one a chance. While I only gave the first book three stars, I finally gave this one four. The story sucked me in from the start, and while I had some trouble remembering certain facts from the previous book, Google helped. While the mystery in this book stands well on its own, many events derive from the previous book, so having it fresh is important to fully enjoy this one.

The story was gripping, the ending unexpected, and I was more invested in the story than in the previous book, probably because this was a disappearance case where time was of the essence. As with book one, there were a couple of forced details in which Pip didn’t act as expected, but I understand this was done to move the story the way Jackson wanted. Hence, the four stars instead of five.

As I did with book one, I listened to the audio version, and it’s something I fully recommend, especially with this one, as there are several Podcast entries and it’s a fully immersive experience. Something I have to mention is that in one of the interviews, the audio is distorted to obscure the interviewee’s identity. The effect was so exaggerated that I had trouble understanding what they said, and I even tried to play this part twice.

Despite the minor issues I had, I absolutely enjoyed this audiobook, and I will definitely listen to the next one soon.