Why is it the samplers are always the best? I’m hooked already and now there’s a long, long wait!

Right from the start the author grabbed my attention with the excerpts from notebooks and official documents and the protagonists studious yet hilariously naive commentary. I feel like this could be a rollercoaster of emotions but already I feel like the characters will be painted brilliantly. I hope it lives up to the first few pages, that she finds the answers she is looking for and doesn’t upset the families too much!

(I read a NetGalley Sampler of this novel)

I love the way this is structured, interspersing sections of Pip's dissertation write-up with her investigations. The mystery seems interesting and I'm already eager to know what really happened, with plenty of interesting information and characters dropped in the first few pages. Definitely will be checking out the main book to see what happened!

I have really enjoyed reading this sampler and I am really excited for the Book to be published in March next year. I met the author at YALC and she was very lovely and the sampler so far has piqued my interest.

“We dare you to put it down” states the tagline on the cover of the two chapter sampler. Believe me, I’m gutted I can’t meet that challenge. It’s short, but very effective and I already have so many questions and theories that I need more information to be certain.
There was already a buzz at YALC about this book and even from the pages I’ve had the privilege to read, I can tell this is going to be the big book for next summer.

Pip is an interesting character and the way she is investigating gives it a true-crime feel. 
There aren't many books where a two-chapter sampler would have you sooooooo drawn in. I can't wait until the book is published to read more.

I have seen SOOOOOOOOO much about this YA debut on my Twitter feed recently, mainly because so many of the authors I follow were raving about it and desperate for proofs at YALC. So when I saw a sampler was available for A Good Girl's Guide to Murder on NetGalley, I clicked 'request' immediately and did a little scream when the email of approval came though. 

Five years ago, Andi went missing. Her boyfriend, Sal, was the main suspect, and as he killed himself after his friends told police he asked them to lie for him, there's no way to know for sure. But Pip, doing her Extended Project Qualification in school, wants to investigate what happened - how social media affected the reporting of it, and if Sal was really to blame. 

The sampler only included the first two chapters, but God, it was a strong start to a book. I was immediately hooked. Yes, I'm interested in the crime, the mystery, the tragedy of Andi and Sal, but I think the format of the book is also really different. First off, I have never heard anyone mention Extended project in YA before (maybe because, as it was in my school, no one gave a shit and everyone dropped it?) but also, it gives a good switch from third person narrative, to first person in her project log. The addition of phone conversation transcripts, emails, Facebook post images etc really breaks up the text and makes it that little bit more interesting. 

I also love the cast so far - you have Pip, her Nigerian step father and brother, Sal and his family who I can see being really interesting characters in this mystery.

So, like I said, a really strong opener, but with only two chapters there's not much more I can say about it. It normally takes me a bit longer to feel fully submerged in a story though, so shout out to this for making it so easy and doing it to quickly, yet so well!

I'm just really excited to read more, okay? And after all the hype at YALC I kind of expected it to be out soon - BUT IT'S NOT??? It's out in May?? NEXT YEAR!

I cannot. Electric Monkey - any chance of any ARC's before then??

Originally posted to https://katiealexandrablog.wordpress.com/2018/08/04/sampler-review-a-good-girls-guide-to-murder-by-holly-jackson/

Absolutely hooked by this sampler! 
The Good Girls Guide to Murder sounds like it’s going to be an absolute must for fans of the podcast serial and any sort of mysterious murder cases. 
I can’t wait to pick myself up a copy on its release next year.

This was only a sampler of the book to come but from what I have read, I would definitely be interested in reading the full book when it becomes available. I think it may be aimed at a slightly younger audience than myself but I'm not averse to reading young adult books if they have a bit of mystery or a good plot. This one is fairly intriguing from the sample.

From what I managed to read of this sampler, I think I would be tolerably interested in the story. It starts a little flat but was sufficiently interesting to make me annoyed that the formatting of this sampler was absolutely unreadable on kindle. Perhaps I’ll give it a proper go when the entire book is available.