If Carrie Underwood’s discography was a book: As Good As Dead Book Review

Last year, when I was in a big reading slump, I “picked up” a book (for my kindle) that my booksta pals had been hyping up a bit. A few had read it, and they’d given some great feedback on it. I’d been struggling to find something new (meaning: not a re-read) to get me out of my head. The book in question was A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, and holy shit, did it get me to crawl out of my slump.

As soon as I’d finished the sequel, Good Girl, Bad Blood (which I reviewed here on the blog), I pre-ordered the third installment, As Good As Dead, and I waited patiently. Well, friends, now that I’ve finished it, I can tell you that it broke me. I could not put it down. Now that it’s been a cool minute, sure I’ve got some critiques, but I was having physical reactions to reading this book. I gasped and walked around the room and rolled up into a ball. I somehow could not believe this was the course Pippa would have taken, and honestly? Wasn’t disappointed.

I’ve seen a couple of people say it was over the top, that there were some plot holes. I wouldn’t say they’re wrong, but that doesn’t change that I added this to my stack of 5 star reads.

Here’s my little spoiler-free review:

If you didn’t see my instagram stories while I was reading, they can be summed up by hand-over-mouth, eyes-bulging, brain-full-of-exclamation-points snaps of me with captions like: “Pippa, girl,” “I don’t know what to think, holy shit,” and “a book has never caused me this much stress.”

We remember from the last book that Pippa has somewhat shed her “good girl” image, at least to herself and her haters. That, plus the events in the sequel’s climax, have caused Pip a lot of inner pain and turmoil, and though she’s still sharp, she’s also suffering from PTSD. It’s difficult to see her struggling, when despite her flaws and addictive personality, she is still a likable character. She’s someone I always wanted to root for. She’s also pretty aware of her destructive behavior, which I think is a good step to healing. Of course, healing is not what’s next on the life-docket for Pip, and everything that she’s unraveled in the last two books has culminated to this: her last—or so everyone hopes—case.

But nothing is what it seems, Pippa is full of hate for Max, and something isn’t right with a so-called solved mystery. Other than the Max thing, it seems we’ve come full circle, back to wondering what the truth might be. Only the stakes are higher than ever.

This book took a really WILD turn that I didn’t expect. You think, when you read a book, you’re going to follow this one trail all the way to the last page, but Jackson flips us. She does this really fabulous writing trick where she gave us what we’re supposed to expect as the climax at the halfway point. She said, “Strap in, folks, it’s gonna get messy.” And it did. Pippa’s character, much like the previous books’ events, quickly unravels into someone we don’t really recognize. Or at least, I didn’t. But if you pay attention, the clues are all there. 

I will say that, as a reader who likes happy endings, it was difficult for me to see Pippa like this. Every time she made a bad decision, I yelled at my little kindle screen for her not to. Part of me wondered if I really believed the Pip I’d met in book one was capable of all this, and for a while, it made the read very unsettling. Despite that, though, I stayed completely hooked throughout; I never wanted to set it down. I had to know how it was going to play out.

As always, I love Ravi, what a shining light, and I liked that the cast of characters stayed its usual broad range: close friends, sorta friends, acquaintances, suspicious persons, the useless police. Part of me did stop to think, “okay, how is it possible that all these same people are connected to these things in this way,” but I also know that my old boss, whose kids went to my elementary school and the gymnastics gym I worked at, who bowled in the same bowling league as me and helped me get my first job, lived across the street from my grandfather for years before he even knew me and neither of us realized for, like, 4 years after meeting. Or that a girl I met in college’s grandmother was good friends with my grandmother in high school and went to my parents’ wedding. Or that someone on my new team at work was at the same Starbucks at the same time as me nine years ago, meeting Harry Styles when I met him. Bottom line, the world is small, so yeah, I buy that Fairview has as many skeletons as Holly Jackson says there is.

I think that, despite any plot holes there might be, the book kept me completely immersed. Sunk its teeth into my brain for hours and hours so I couldn’t stop. And that’s really the sign of a good book. Not just that you read it fast (like me with The Silent Patient, which I didn’t love), but that you’re fully invested with the characters and how their stories are going to end.

OKAY SPOILERS AHEAD NOW, TURN BACK IF YOU HAVEN’T READ (or if you don’t like me cursing):

REALLY, I’M WARNING YOU.

I’M REALLY, REALLY WARNING YOU

Okay, is everyone else gone?

Because holy fucking SHIT, dude, I knew Pip was down bad, but framing Max for murder? Committing the murder herself (though I still stand by that it was self-defense. Her brain just wouldn’t let her accept it. Just because she wanted to kill him doesn’t mean it wasn’t still defensive)!!! The breadcrumbs were there, of course, the whole bit about how to determine time of death and whatnot. And the fact that Max is a shitbag and needed some comeuppance. But I get what she was going for: the police weren’t going to believe her. Maybe with time and her doing all the work to prove it, but by then it would’ve been too late.

I will say, I don’t think Max’s motive was strong enough. A heat of the moment thing could work, but I couldn’t quite buy it. Unless I’m missing something from the last two books. But yes, I think that could’ve been the downfall for Pip and Ravi.

I panicked the whole time, praying that Ravi wouldn’t get caught. He’s too pure for this world, and I knew that something could’ve happened where they wouldn’t get Pip for it but they could get him. I couldn’t live with myself.

I’m also really not sure if it all would’ve worked out. Sure, they got the DNA out of the car, and they (I guess?) were able to mess with the time of death, but I still wondered about the window Pip broke, footprints, and so on. I also worried that maybe the cameras on the property would turn on at some point and catch them. It did feel like a few too many people got involved with helping them pull it off (alibis, the Max part, etc). I mean, if anyone called for a polygraph, it’d be all over—even if Pip and Ravi were where they said they were. There were just a lot of variables, I suppose, and even someone as meticulous as Pippa Fitz-Amobi could’ve missed something. Like the headphones!! I did catch that a little bit into her capture. They were never mentioned, and she didn’t say that they’d fallen off when Jason abducted her. I feared they’d give her away somehow, and phew, was I sweating when they almost did. I screamed at Ravi.

This last book was such a ride, I have to start the series over again. I wish I could relive reading them for the first time again because it’s really been that series for me in the past year. Brava, Holly Jackson. Bra-fucking-va.