In A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, by Holly Jackson, Pip faces danger as she investigates. Her dog, Barney, is captured by someone who is threatening her, and she receives a message telling her to destroy her laptop and the USB containing all her research. Pip tells Ravi she is going to give up the project. Later, she discovers Barney is dead, but she decides to resume her investigation. Pip finds Mr. Ward, Cara’s father always leaves for tutoring 3 times a week and a phone number that Mr. ward used to use, that was found in Andie’s notebook. By tracking him using a phone app, Pip discovers his old house, where he confesses that he pushed Andie but did not kill her. Pip opened the attic when the police arrived. There were a blonde girl claims to be Andie, but her appearance doesn’t match Andie, she was just a girl that had blonde hair. Pip uncovers that the true killer was Becca, Andie’s sister, while several other people, including Elliot Ward, Howard Bowers, and Beck Bell, played role that led to Andie’s and Sal’s deaths.
“And yet, when we look closely, behind this true Andie, we find a girl who was vulnerable and self-conscious. Andie grew up being taught by her father that the only value she had was in the way she looked and how strongly she was desired. Home for her was a place where she was criticized and belittled. Andie never got the chance to become the young woman she might have been away from that house, to decide for herself what made her valuable and what future she wanted” (p.384).
This quotation shows how Pip realizes the tragedy surrounding Andie had been more complex and that Andie lost the chance to grow into a young woman and be free. It also talks about how her family shaped her, suggesting she could have had a much better life.