Before everybody jumping at me thinking I’ll be writing a guide on how to murder : HOLD UP. This is the title of the newest novel by Holly Jackson and as much as I love to review books, this one is a bit tricky.
“The case is closed. Five years ago, schoolgirl Andie Bell was murdered by Sal Singh. The police know he did it. Everyone in town knows he did it.
But having grown up in the same small town that was consumed by the murder, Pippa Fitz-Amobi isn’t so sure. When she chooses the case as the topic for her final year project, she starts to uncover secrets that someone in town desperately wants to stay hidden. And if the real killer is still out there, how far will they go to keep Pip from the truth?”
From most of the reviews I’ve seen on Goodreads, they usually start being skeptical and end up really liking the book. For me, it was the opposite. I started the book thinking “wow, this is a really good young adult book!”. It all remains in the balance between the details and the investigation process put into a research format that young people can understand.
However, as the book drags on and in the end, I got bored with a lot of elements including skipping a few pages of interactions between Pip and her high school friends. I stayed mostly for the investigation part or any moment where she’s with Sal.
Overall, it’s an enjoyable ride, very well-built and complex in a manner that I would not expect. But some of the things the main character would do sounds utterly unrealistic to me for a teenager protagonist (for example being better than the police, seeing the loopholes, blackmailing people and get away with it, etc) , but then aren’t them all in YA LOL
RATING : 3,5/5
Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for sending along this book!
My Dark Theories 
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