Book Club Discussion Guide: A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

One of our favorite Book Nerd activities is going to book club! Book clubs create community, help us get through our TBR pile, discover new faves, and allow space to talk about our favorite characters. To help with your book club endeavors, we’ve created  book club guides for some of our favorite YA titles. This book club guide will help you get the most out of reading Holly Jackson’s New York Times bestseller, A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.

If you’re looking for other book club articles, check out 10 Easy Steps to Hosting a Virtual Book Club and don’t forget to tag @getunderlined whenever your book club meets!

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder Book Club Guide Discussion Questions

1. Setting is an important part of any story. Why do you think Holly Jackson chose a small town for the setting of this book? How, if at all, would the story be different if it happened in a major city?
2. Reputations and personal biases play a huge part in A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. How and why would the story be different if Andie and Sal had had different reputations?
3. Do you consider Pip relatable? Why or why not? How does your answer effect your feelings about the story?
4. Why is Pip the right person to follow in this book? How would the story differ if it followed Ravi instead?
5. Is it significant that the characters in A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder are teens rather than adults? How would the story change if its protagonists were older? Similarly, is it significant that the book is categorized as YA? How might the read be affected if this were categorized as an adult novel?
6. When do you think Pip changes from a student who doesn’t actually want to solve the case to a sleuth hoping to find the real murderer?
7. There were many potential suspects and motives for murdering Andie. Before you knew the truth, who did you think was the culprit, and why? Which suspect surprised you the most?
8. Andie uses several modern detective techniques during her investigation, including searching Facebook and finding a person’s secret Facebook account. Do you think Andie could have still solved the case if she’d had to do without modern technology?
9. What are some of the most effective ways that Pip keeps track of her progress with the case? Which were least effective?
10. What would you have done differently from Pip?

About the Author

Holly Jackson started writing stories at a young age, completing her first (poor) attempt at a novel when she was fifteen. She graduated from the University of Nottingham, where she studied literary linguistics and creative writing, with a master’s degree in English. She enjoys playing video games and watching true-crime documentaries so she can pretend to be a detective. She lives in London. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is her debut novel. Follow Holly on Twitter and Instagram at @HoJay92.

Check out A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson