Book Review: As Good as Dead by Holly Jackson
Pip and Ravi. Ravi and Pip. My As Good as Dead review has left me heartbroken. Holly Jackson gives us just as much thrill as before, but at a very high price. Pip and Ravi have been my favorite fictional characters since I started this series. Now, I’m not so sure.
Book Information
Pippa doesn’t know how to deal with the repercussions of Stanley’s death. She has massive amounts of anxiety, a small hankering for Xanax (just to sleep, she swears), and she doesn’t know if she knows who she is anymore. The one thing that she is sure can fix her, though, is a new case. One presents itself to her in the form of the DT Killer. Things aren’t what they seem, though, and she soon finds out that this killer is a little too close to home, tying every case she’s ever taken on together in this final novel.
Review | Heidi Dischler
How did we even get here? HOW DID WE EVEN GET HERE?? A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder was one of the best murder mystery books I’ve ever read. Good Girl, Bad Blood was just as good. Now this? I don’t know what to say. Honestly. I just finished this book only minutes ago and I can’t seem to wrap my head around it. The characters are amazing as always. Beautifully written, developed, and the dialogue is amazing. Somehow, though, in the second half of the book, these characters change for the worst.
The plot? Same thing. If I had to rate this book on only part one of the novel? Five stars. That’s a no brainer. It was interesting, believable, and most importantly, it was the real Pip. The second part of the plot? I wasn’t necessarily bored, but I had lost interest for sure. The specific reason? It felt like a completely different universe. A completely different Pip and Ravi. Something so far from the characters we grew to love that they were unrecognizable. The only way I’ll be able to explain it is in the spoilers below.
Spoilers ahead.
Again, how did we get here? Max Hastings was found not guilty in the last novel. Now he’s suing Pip for defamation. Pip felt that the justice system was flawed. She now has crippling anxiety and takes Xanax just to be able to sleep at night. So when she takes on the case of the DT Killer and finds out that it’s Jason Bell? That part was freaking amazing. The part where she escapes from literal duct tape on her face, hands, and feet? The writing was spectacular. Everything after she killed Jason Bell felt so… wrong.
Please don’t offer me up to be slaughtered for saying this, but I absolutely hate the fact that Pip killed Jason. Now, let me explain. Yes, he tried to kill her. Yes, he killed countless other women, emotionally abused his family, and you later find out that he raped multiple women as well. Did he deserve to die? Maybe, but that’s not my decision. It shouldn’t have been Pip’s either. I could’ve let that go, though. Considered it shock from thinking she was going to die. Self-defense considering she may not have been able to escape. The problem that I had with her killing Jason? It wasn’t like her. Not at all. She turned in a man who was basically like her father for doing something that was considered unjust. He hadn’t even murdered anyone. She looked past Stanley’s childhood when he participated in heinous crimes because he tried to do better. The point it, she had a very strong moral compass. What the hell happened to it when she decided to kill Jason Bell?
Okay, so yes, let’s look past killing Jason because I can consider it self-defense at this point. Framing Max Hastings? Dear Lord, where the hell is Pip and who abducted her and did a brain transplant? Again, did Max deserve to be in prison? Yes, absolutely. But why in the freaking heck did Pip think the police wouldn’t believe her? She is smart, resourceful, knew that Jason Bell kept trophies from his past victims. I mean come on. Those police wouldn’t have arrested her for his murder. Doing an entire elaborate plan to cover up the murder was just insane and stupid. She made it 100% worse and it did not feel like Pippa Fitz-Amobi to me. I thought Ravi would be the voice of reason, but nope, was wrong there too.
Overall, I wanted to love this book as much as the others, and for the first half, I did. But the second half made it lose its five-star status and if I’m being quite honest, ruined the trilogy for me. I love the first two books and wish that the third had taken a different turn for the second half because maybe I would’ve loved it just as much as the first two. Also, side note that’s completely random: I could not get over how many times Pip freaking sniffed. There was an exaggerated amount of sniffing in this book….
Source: Personal Copy
bro she literally said she doesn’t trust the justice system to deal with Jason because its proved her many times before that she cant and she took it into her own hands. he deserved to die the most painful way possible, Pippa even gave him the easy way out. not a maybe its a definite and that so called moral that you wanted her to have she cant have it. of course not. he was the cause of everything that has happened to multiple people. he is a grown man responsible for his own actions and he didnt have remorse so why should pip??? CHILD brunswick was a child he didnt do the murders his father did and imagine your father being a murderer and he tells u to help kidnap people?? heck even ill do it because ill be scared shitless?? i respect your opinion on the book but you reasons dont make sense i feel like the book took the turn it was suppose to. Piipa lost herself and rebuilt it She framed a rapist who walked free for murder i see nothing wrong with that. what goes around comes around
I literally love discussing books like this because they’re so freaking emotional 😂 and I totally get where you’re coming from. I felt bad for Stanley and I don’t think her deserved what happened to him at all. I think Jason deserved what he got and I think Max did, too. My problem with it was that Pip had to sacrifice herself to make that happen. That’s not justice to me. That just made everyone lose in the end, especially Pip. It just didn’t feel like her at all and it made me super emotional and sad for her.