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A review by themermaddie
As Good As Dead by Holly Jackson
5.0
fuck it, it's stay up all night to finish this book time!
literally unputdownable. the writing is so tense and absolutely superb, between this and pip's ptsd, i found myself feeling physically ill at some points. parts of the first half were especially difficult to get through, being in pip's head was absolutely suffocating, at times i felt claustrophobic. this was significantly darker than its predecessors, and i was hooked.
obviously, if you've read any other reviews you'll know that there's a major twist at about half way, and then it switches genre almost entirely. clearly this has been an extremely polarising choice on the author's part, but i loved it. it made the three books seem more like a cohesive storyline, each one bleeding into the next, and listen i don't want to speak ill of pip, but this felt like a natural progression from the last two books. i certainly don't think any reader was expecting this going in, but this made sense to me thematically with pip's loss of faith in truth and justice. also at least it wasn't a repeat of the last two books as is so common with mystery detective series like this, this feels like a full story arc from book 1 to 3.
miss jackson had my heart pounding from start to finish, she has a way of writing that feels like her stories are infused with crack, i swear. the first half felt like I was being gaslit the whole time, and the second half felt like I was racing against the clock watching the sand seep too quickly out of an hourglass. everything about this scheme was so clever and thrilling to watch play out; yes I know some of it is kind of unrealistic with the way forensics are so accurate these days, but is it not also kinda realistic to assume that the police might get things wrong sometimes? see: the first two books. i just think that it works out really well thematically this way. this definitely wasn't as light and fluffy, but it makes sense that it wouldn't be; of course I wish there had been more light moments with pip's friends and with ravi, but this whole book felt like one great last hurrah and I liked seeing where everyone bet their cards. miss jackson had me going till the last page, i was about to be so mad if she hadn't included those last two pages, jesus. it's a bit of a bittersweet and open ending for sure, but a book this dark couldn't have ended any other way, i think.
i am very sad to say goodbye to this cast and this universe. holly jackson did not disappoint, not once. in layman's terms, this shit SLAPS.
literally unputdownable. the writing is so tense and absolutely superb, between this and pip's ptsd, i found myself feeling physically ill at some points. parts of the first half were especially difficult to get through, being in pip's head was absolutely suffocating, at times i felt claustrophobic. this was significantly darker than its predecessors, and i was hooked.
obviously, if you've read any other reviews you'll know that there's a major twist at about half way, and then it switches genre almost entirely. clearly this has been an extremely polarising choice on the author's part, but i loved it. it made the three books seem more like a cohesive storyline, each one bleeding into the next, and listen i don't want to speak ill of pip, but this felt like a natural progression from the last two books. i certainly don't think any reader was expecting this going in, but this made sense to me thematically with pip's loss of faith in truth and justice. also at least it wasn't a repeat of the last two books as is so common with mystery detective series like this, this feels like a full story arc from book 1 to 3.
miss jackson had my heart pounding from start to finish, she has a way of writing that feels like her stories are infused with crack, i swear. the first half felt like I was being gaslit the whole time, and the second half felt like I was racing against the clock watching the sand seep too quickly out of an hourglass. everything about this scheme was so clever and thrilling to watch play out; yes I know some of it is kind of unrealistic with the way forensics are so accurate these days, but is it not also kinda realistic to assume that the police might get things wrong sometimes? see: the first two books. i just think that it works out really well thematically this way. this definitely wasn't as light and fluffy, but it makes sense that it wouldn't be; of course I wish there had been more light moments with pip's friends and with ravi, but this whole book felt like one great last hurrah and I liked seeing where everyone bet their cards. miss jackson had me going till the last page, i was about to be so mad if she hadn't included those last two pages, jesus. it's a bit of a bittersweet and open ending for sure, but a book this dark couldn't have ended any other way, i think.
i am very sad to say goodbye to this cast and this universe. holly jackson did not disappoint, not once. in layman's terms, this shit SLAPS.