A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

The murder of popular student Andie has haunted a small community for some years. Inquisitive and intelligent student Pip decides to look into the case, and establish whether or not Andie's boyfriend Sal was guilty or not.

It's a very unusual series, it doesn't follow any of the rules, aimed at a teenage audience, but has something to offer older viewers, just know what you're getting.

The best way I could describe it, CBBC does I know what you did last summer, at times it very much feels like a drama for young teens, at times, such as in the last two episodes, it goes into a much darker place.

It does go on a bit, and it is slow in parts, but overall there's enough to keep you interested. There's enough to have made me order the book.

It's nicely acted, Emma Myers and Anna Maxwell Martin both do a fine job, Maxwell definitely showing her experience and class.

7/10.

I was really looking forward to this as I loved the book. In general it was a good adaptation, but I don't think the acting was the best. Sadly multiple actors lacked depth and sincerity in their parts. Don't get me wrong, I think there was a lot of good acting (e.g. Cara and Naomi) but the two leads (Pip and Ravi) weren't particularly convincing. Emma's accent also falters often. There were details missed from the book which I suppose is necessary for a series, but the book felt more rich in detail and storyline quality. However, it is bingeworthy as the story is similar to the book, I just think it could have been (much) better.

The whole point of the book that made it so famous was that you solve this case alongside Pip, which the series decided not to do, losing the whole point of the story.

Important and interesting scenes from the book were lost and e.g. 5 scenes were merged into 1 with simple dialogue without any connection to the actors.

The information of the murder is thrown away pointlessly without any suspense, since the series starts essentialistically from the end of the book. Unfortunately it didn't come out the way the book deserved.

As for the actors, I don't think they did a bad job, they just had to deal with a bad script that didn't let the audience to get involved enough in actor's lives and get involved in the story.

Maybe it's a good work for those who haven't read the book, but I think for anyone who has read it the differences and missteps were annoying.

If I hadn't read the books I probably would have loved this. But I did read the books - several times. Sadly, this series feels like the people who made it didn't read the books at all. More like they had the plot told to them and then they pieces it together from memory and got a vague resemblance to the books.

I'm so sad, because I was genuinely so excited. It sucks because I think the actors did a good job, even if they didn't look like what I pictured them. There was such a lack of depth, and where in the books the readers were along with Pip as she did the work, and dug into the dark corners of the case, this just felt like she accidentally stumbled into the answers without really asking any questions. And Ravi wasn't even really part of the solving the way he was in the books. And where was Stanley? Too many important factors missing, and it's so sad, because this could have been so good, and I think if the actors had been given something closer to the source material it could have been really satisfying for everyone.

I guess I'll try to see it as its own thing, if it gets renewed.

Having binge read the book and enjoyed its great pacing and delivery of evidence the series unfortunately falls flat to the high expectations created.

Let's start by the characters. The book itself doesn't dive very deep into the relationships and the development of the people involved. However the series is even more uninterested in highlighting the emotional depth and challenges of the characters. Even main ones like Ravi's and Pip's, their emotional moments feel forced and not very analysed. The others involved, friends family and suspects all feel like fillers for the episodes to reach the time limit, not actual people like in the books.

The acting is not bad but definitely not brilliant either. At times too Disney Channel-y which makes sense bc of the ya vibe of the book but still unable to connect with the viewers at high impactful moments.

Picture is interesting at times, convincing enough for a small town scenery, but the colouring seems a bit off. The saturation feels a little bit much like you're watching descendants on Disney+ and not a teenage murder mystery. All of this to say, we dont need another Riverdale or Winx Saga but at times it took from the broodiness and darkness of the story.

Now the plot, having read the book I was about to scream at whoever write the f script because so much important information (hints about the end) were not revealed until the very end. Six episodes were short for that amount of information and pacing was weird as it felt like we were stuck for about 2 episodes of nothing happening.

Characters were basically assassinated for the sake of the episode's length which created patchy and awkward pauses in the story.

All in all, I expected much more from the story. I think so much was lost because of the writing to be honest. Directorial choices were weird. I feel like a voice-over or even segments that showed the evidence a little bit like the book would help understand Pip's progress in the mystery and help engage with the viewers.

So sad bc this could have been an easy win. Next time consoder asking the readers and stick to the book more .