Holly Jackson is always able to write a story that I cannot put down. I wish there was more. Such a fun short read!

My friends recommend me Holly Jackson books all the time, and honestly, they were right to and I should've listened earlier. I loved this book from start to finish, and it was my first HJ read. When I have the time, I'm probably going to binge read all of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. 10/10, loved.

Has Holly Jackson ever let us down? No. No she has not. I loved this book so much that I told my husband the premise and he even wanted to read it (bear in mind, he hates reading). My husband even enjoyed this one. 10/10 recommend.

I enjoyed this one! I thought there were great Clue / And Then There Were None vibes throughout and thought it was the perfect length for a story like this. I like how the story tied back into their local towns story also.

This review has been added to Goodreads, Literal and Storygraph, as well as Barnes & Noble and Amazon. This will be posted to my instagram (@manymerrybooks) within the week.

Thank you for allowing me to read this story!!

This was a really fun murder mystery party prequel to the good girls guide to murder trilogy. You get to see Pip interact with her friends and see how her mind picks up clues to solve the mystery. The graphics for the mystery game were fun to read and it was interesting to see her figure out what she is going to do for her senior capstone which is the plot for the first book.

Thanks to Delacorte Press and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book in e-book form. All opinions in this review are my own.

As a fan of Holly Jackson’s other books, I was really excited to read this! I liked that it set up the story of Pip nicely for the books in the series. But honestly, it was a short book and kind of boring. It’s about a group of teenagers getting together for a murder mystery party and that didn’t hold my interest. I’d definitely recommend her other books. If you like the other books in the series then I think this could be worth a read if you really enjoy the characters.

2.5 ⭐️

This was good enough to not Dnf but honestly, I cannot remember anything from this book.

Thank you NetGalley and publishers for this ebook for an honest review.

Loved this prequel! It was fun being with Pip and her friends again even though Ravi’s absence was felt. I will continue crossing my fingers and hoping the author decides to write more books with these characters.

I really liked this novella AS A NOVELLA. It’s a cute and fulfilling short prequel to the main series. At some points Pip felt OOC but that’s understandable. Definitely a must read for AGGGTM fans.

This was great! Holly Black NEVER disappoints! I real,t enjoyed the plot and the characters as always and can’t wait to recommend it to my friends.

PIP IS BACK!!!! in this short story, pip and her friend group BEFORE the events of a good girls guide to murder play a murder mystery game. before i get further into this review it’s important that anyone interested in reading a good girls guide to murder should read book one before reading this one, or you’ll easily get bored. this book is more of a little treat for fans than a real prequel.

the characters- zach and ant were just as annoying as i remember them being but that’s cool. it was so sweet seeing jamie and conner’s sibling relationship. they’re precious and jamie is a sweetheart. cara is fun and amazing and awesome to pip. it was insane seeing cara’s dad though…

PIP!!!!! it was so nice to see pip again!!! my favorite genius detective. i love seeing how her mind works, how it runs from problem to solution and how she connects dots. she doesn’t miss a possible motive, method, secret, lie or truth. her mind is amazing, and just goes to show how genius holly jackson is.

the mystery was fun and very simple. i forgot a lot of different clues and explanations but at the end it all made sense. i especially liked the part where everyone told their theories. when pip explained hers, i was blown away. the way she connected pieces i had completely forgotten about, made bridges and explanations where i couldn’t’ve possibly seen them was amazing. i’m sure that if i were to read the book again with the knowledge of her theory i could see all the clues and lines, but the fact that holly jackson could write that… oh my god.

overall the book was fun and it was nice to see the gang again, but i wasn’t strongly compelled to pick up the book every time i put it down. if it weren’t for the fact that i enjoyed a good girls guide to murder so much i would’ve dnf’ed it about halfway through, but i’m glad i continued it because of the big reveal. part of me wishes that this was an audiobook so it would more casual to follow along.

holly jackson is AMAZING and every work she creates is AMAZING and i can’t wait for the next thing she writes!

I enjoyed this quick novella in the series of a Good Girl's Guide to Murder. I didn't know that this little novella existed! It was an enjoyable read to get back into Pip's world. I didn't love the entire plot but it was still good and I would recommend it if you've read the series.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me a copy to read I enjoyed the book and was so excited to read this as I read the others from this series. I would rate it 3/5 stars.

The AGGTM series is easily one of my favorite young adult series that I've read in a long time. I read this novella fresh off the heels of finishing As Good As Dead, and it was such a fun experience returning to the beginning after that rollercoaster of a book. I loved how we as readers got more insight into why the whole events of the series happened as a result of a murder mystery party Pip had with her friends. Such a quick, fun read!

Kill Joy is the cutest prequel to Holly Jackson’s series A Good Girls Guide to Murder. While I fell in love with Pip’s crime solving and passion for helping her community throughout the series, it was something special to truly witness where the spark began!
Kill Joy is a novela length “whodunnit” meets Murder mystery party, and the characters make the story that much better! I especially loved Pip’s mindset at the end and the stark difference in her ability to analyze a crime scene and come to a conclusion - a clear indicator of her incredible crime solving skills that are displayed throughout the 3 novels.

A super fast read that was just a delight! It had thrills and scares and SO entertaining! It is a prequel to the Good Girl's Guide to Murder and sets it all up. The characters were so much fun, the murder mystery brought in such fun theatrics. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this!

It was a lot of fun to read the prequel to A Good Girl's Guide to Murder and spend time with Pip playing a murder mystery game in the Agatha Christie/Clue style.

What I enjoyed most about this book: I'm very grateful for the opportunity to visit Pippa Fitz-Amobi! I didn't like how her personality changed in the third and final book, and I still hope the author will give her another chance to make amends and have a happy ending with Ravi. But getting to know her persona before she resolved the Andie Bell case was quite significant.

- The creepy murder mystery game was also enjoyable. The storyline makes us think of "And Then There Were None" crossed with Clue.

A nice novella prequel to the A Good Girls Guide to Murder series. Holly Jackson set a good stage for a nice tale with Pip and her friends, before everything went down in the first book. While it was nice to read something fun happening for Pip, instead of all the traumatic experiences she went through, yet it was weird to see her interact with people who we now know were not real friends. More importantly this set the scene for the topic she ended up picking for her capstone project that set the whole book in motion. A good fun, easy read for AGGTM fans.

Overall

At this point, I don't feel like I need to (or even can) say how much I loved A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. But all right, I guess I technically said it already. If I'm being quite frank, I absolutely devoured that series and couldn't get enough. So of course, the moment I saw there would be an addition (even a prequel), I immediately knew I had to read it!

Kill Joy is an adorable, fluffy murder mystery set before the events of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, where all our favorite characters are still just normal teens, and Pip has yet to have the flash of inspiration that leads her to start her famous investigation.

Honestly, this is a super quick read that's a must-read for fans of the series. Pip's friends are fun, and I really enjoyed the peek into what inspired her to focus so much on the case! The murder mystery in and of itself is okay, but the characters themselves are what really steal the show in this book. The only thing that really made it hard for me was knowing how things end with certain characters, which made it difficult for me to enjoy their presence and behavior in this book. What can I say? I carry grudges, even against fictional characters. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My Thoughts

- It's an absolute pleasure to get the chance to rejoin Pip (a younger, still innocent Pip at that) and her friends in this short prequel in this low-stakes, utterly adorable mystery dinner.The premise is still interesting. Who doesn't love those dinner mysteries that you can do with a group? Getting to see the characters adopt their new roles—and often break them, as they interact with each other—was a ton of fun. Plus, it's incredibly fun trying to solve the case from Pip's perspective, too, and having it unravel little by little. If a reader goes in expecting the sort of high-stakes, plot-twist-filled mystery from the rest of the books, they'll be disappointed. That's not at all the point of this book! It really works well to establish the characters and motive. It'd be a great introductory book for readers new to the series, and it doesn't spoil anything from the rest of the series.

- If you're at all curious about why Pip decided to take on the Andie Bell/Sal Singh case, you absolutely need to read this book! Okay, sure, on the surface it makes sense that Pip would hyperfocus on solving a mystery, given her personality. That part was never hard to believe. Still, this book does a fantastic job of setting the scene and introducing motive and inspiration for the series. It was super interesting to read about, too.

- This squad of friends is an absolutely HOOT. Their banter and playfulness is my absolute favorite and is always a joy to read. The plot itself isn't super heavy or concrete in this book, but the characters jump right off the page! I laughed way too hard at certain parts (in one instance, in a very awkward setting, but I guess I should've known better). As I said previously, it was a little harder knowing how things turn out with some of the characters, and that definitely dampened my enjoyability a bit. However, I highly recommend that readers who are new to the series start here! And anyone needing their Pip fill after finishing the series, this is still one I'd recommend checking out.

Since this was a novella, I will keep this review short.

It was wonderful to see one of my favorite detectives, Pippa “Pip” Fitz-Amobi, in this prequel, before she really got to dive deep into the world of small town crime. I had forgotten what Pip was like at the beginning of the series and it was nice to see her in her element before all the stress and anxiety of what she would go through later in the series. There was stress and tension, but considering you knew it was a mystery dinner, it was pretty low stakes, which just left the fun of a whodunnit. If you enjoyed this series, I would highly recommend giving this novella a read, simply because it was fun to take a look at the elements that turned the characters into who they would become later in the series.

The only problem I really had was the lack of my favorite character, Ravi, but I suppose I can get over that because his presence have made any sense at all.

Overall, great read and I highly recommend this novella to any fans of the “Good Girls Guide to Murder” series.

⅘ Stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Children’s for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for my honest review