Kill Joy – World Book Day 2021: Thrilling prequel story to the Sunday Times bestselling A Good Girl's Guide to Murder series exclusively for World Book Day

If you've had a scroll through my previous reviews you'll see that I loved A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. It was my first experience of reading a YA Mystery and I was so enthralled by it that I binge read it. I have the sequel Good Girl, Bad Blood on my bookshelf waiting for me to pick it up and the final(?) book As Good as Dead on preorder. That's how good A Good Girl's Guide to Murder was for me. I'm committed to the series and the main character Pip.So you can imagine, when I saw that for World Book Day, Holly Jackson had wrote a short prequel, Kill Joy, that takes place quite literally just before AGGGTM. That I had to have it and it didn't disappoint.This book is a tiny 124, so really quite to read. It's packed with Holly's signature engaging writing style and gives us the Pip we all know and love. Holly has also written it, in a way that the trilogy won't be ruined by reading it. So you can read this first, get a taster for some of the characters and go into the series without spoilers. Which I love.In so few pages, Holly has also done a great job of introducing Pip and her friends, clearly showing their personalities and connections. It feels exactly like a teenagers murder mystery party. The murder mystery aspect is quite engaging and I can't fault the way it all penned out. Having read AGGGTM, I sat there thinking "Yes, this is how it would be".I don't want to say to much on this one, as it is such a short book. It's so definitely worth the read. It's fun, light and brings you into Pip's world and draws you into the series, which everyone needs to read btw.I'm conscious this isn't much of a review, but I really don't want to spoil it. There's nothing I didn't like. I love Holly's writing style, it's impossible not to love Pip and just back her. The characters are well thought out and formed. It's an all round winner for me.

So I haven't read A Good Girl's Guide To Murder yet, although I do own it, and that's for no other reason than there's too many books to read and not enough time. I was very excited to find out this was a prequel and a quick read though so I could read this first.And for a quick read, it was an absolute banger. Each chapter ended on a cliffhanger which I LOVED.The premise of murder mystery games has always appealed to me but I've never done one and I liked the way the written clues were included within the book and excerpts from the handbook; super cute little touches which really break up all the text.Pip is clearly a force to be reckoned with and I'm excited to see what she does in the next book which I'll hopefully read very soon!

I needed to 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙖 𝙧𝙪𝙩 after a poor read and I wanted to start AGGGTM by Holly Jackson. But figured a 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙩 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙 would help me get going again & I stumbled across this - 𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙤, 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙡 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙖! Safe to say 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙙𝙞𝙙𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙠 (𝘱𝘭𝘶𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 75𝘱 𝘰𝘯 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘦 🤣)!It was a 𝙨𝙪𝙥𝙚𝙧 𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙮 read - flowed perfectly. It had an 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙚𝙣𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙥𝙡𝙤𝙩 that kept you 𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙙 and wanting to read more.I think it worked really well as an 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 to the characters and their backstory. As well as giving you a 𝙩𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧 of what’s to come in the trilogy.Overall, I thought it was a 𝙘𝙪𝙩𝙚 little 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙡. Simple storyline with a good 𝙨𝙚𝙩 𝙪𝙥 for the main trilogy. And, at just 100 𝙥𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙨 long - it’s definitely 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙝 𝙖𝙣 𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙤𝙛 𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚’𝙨 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚!🌟🌟🌟 and a half 💫

4.5This was so much fun! I absolutely love the idea of attending a murder mystery night in real life, having a group of people play different characters and collecting clues to find out the killer.Kill Joy is the perfect companion to A Good Girl's Guide To Murder, it's really cleverly thought out and gives a real insight into why Pip chose the murder of Andie Bell as the topic she wanted to investigate.The mystery itself was a really enjoyable experience to read, throughout the novella we get the Kill Joy Game unfurling, while also being treated to a few heart racing moments of reality. I think the way it was all put together was brilliant.

This was the first book I have ever read by Holly Jackson and Kill Joy definitely had the snowball affect for reading the rest of the series. Kill Joy is the prequel in the Good Girl’s Guide To Murder series. I picked it up for £1 on Amazon as it was a release for world book day which I thought was pretty good going and worse case scenario, I lost a pound.I didn’t lose a pound, I got hooked on a storyline.As it is only 124 pages long this is a relative quick read and I finished it within a day. Kill Joy definitely grips you enough to want to carry on with the rest of the series. Especially, if like me, you haven’t read them yet.I quite enjoyed trying to play along with the murder mystery trying to work out which character had committed the murder which was the main basis of the plot.I often find that an author’s writing style puts me off of a book however I found that I really enjoyed Holly Jackson’s writing style. Plus I really liked seeing the images of the clues from the murder mystery throughout the book!I would defintiely recommend this book if you like young adult books, especially something that is a quick easy read.www.staceylipowski.com