A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Season 1 Review: A good adaptation but missing book’s best details

I went into the series hoping that it would exceed my expectations after reading A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. I loved the characters, the setting, and the cozy teenage murder mystery vibe of the story. I’m a huge fan of the genre and was thrilled when it was adapted into a TV series with some of my favourite actors. It was definitely a must-watch for me.

Rundown of a Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Season 1 – What you need to know:

• Genre: Mystery, crime, thriller, teen drama
• Stars: Emma Myers, Zain Iqbal, Asha Banks
• Season 1 episodes: 6
• Based on: The bestselling YA mystery book series by Holly Jackson
• Where to watch: BBC iPlayer, Netflix

What is a Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Season 1 About?

Based on Holly Jackson’s bestselling novel, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is a gripping detective story about a teenage girl as she sets out to unveil the truth behind her small-town murder. Pip, portrayed by Emma Myers, is a straight-A student and aspiring investigative journalist.

For her school project, which helps her get extra credit on her university application, she decides to look closely into mysterious case of Andie Bell. Bell is a teenager who lived in Kilburn who was allegedly killed by her boyfriend, Sal Iqbal, before he took his own life over a decade ago.

The town all thinks that Sal killed Andie, but Pip doesn’t believe this is the case. Whilst looking into the case, Pip speaks with Andie and Sal’s close friends, whose statements from the day of Andie’s disappearance don’t add up. Pip also meets Ravi Iqbal, played by Zain Iqbal, Sal’s brother, whom she teams up with. But as she grows closer to the truth – she is also putting her own safety in jeopardy. Is Pip really able to find out who killed Andie Bell?

What I Liked About It:

The overall storyline was pretty much executed well. We had our main characters, the clues and mysteries in the story, and some of them were very interesting. Watching it all unravel was quite amazing.

The chemistry between Pip and Ravi was one of my favourite parts of the series. I liked that Ravi had Pip’s back throughout everything, through all the ups and downs of them dealing with the case. It progressed naturally, and the romantic subplot was great because it wasn’t overshadowing the main story.

The pacing was good. I didn’t get bored at any point watching the series. I never felt like I was uninterested, and it was hugely suspenseful throughout as Pip was growing closer to the truth.

The town setting is quaint and picturesque. It is always how I imagined it in my head, brought to the screen. If you’re curious to know, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder was filmed around Bristol and Somerset. Locations include the Redcliffe Caves, the Avon Valley Railway car park, Redland, Redmaids’ High School, and Westbury-on-Trym.

What I Didn’t Like About It:

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder unfortunately fails to include details that fans loved. While it didn’t massively sway away from the plot of the book, it didn’t get all the small details right. Some characters and dates are changed, relationships are muddled up, and certain lines are missing.

Missing characters – I won’t go into detail about who exactly, but disappointingly, some characters are missing, and it feels as though they shouldn’t have been. Of course, there are a lot of characters in this Holly Jackson book, but I felt they were pivotal despite the writers probably thinking otherwise.

Random dialogue – The show was fun at times, especially the bits about the case, but there were also random conversations about things that didn’t matter. I felt like it didn’t need to focus on those things as much because it became a little uninteresting at times.

Pip’s portrayal – I feel like Pip was dumbed down for the series. It felt like the clues were either in front of her instead of her carefully figuring things out. In the book, she was smart, a quick thinker, and worked things out herself rather than just getting lucky.

Random beginning – The start of the series was dark and grainy and didn’t feel like a particularly enticing opening, especially when we were seeing a glimpse into Andie before her murder.

Overall Thoughts:

Overall, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder stayed mostly faithful as an adaptation of the book. It was enjoyable. As mentioned, I particularly enjoyed the pacing and the suspenseful storyline. However, it does miss some of the smaller details, character depth, and key moments that fans of the book appreciated.