One of my favorite murder mysteries that I’ve ever read is A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson. The book follows Pip, a seventeen year old high school girl who is obsessed with true crime. For a school project, she decides to investigate the murder of cheerleader who died in her town a few years back. The police concluded that the girl’s boyfriend killed her, and then killed himself and the case was closed. But Pip doesn’t believe this story, and she is determined to find the truth.

This book had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. While some murder mysteries can be predictable, this one had me guessing until the very end. The mystery is very well crafted and it keeps the reader on their toes, never knowing what will happen next. My favorite types of mysteries are the ones where the reveal of the killer is completely shocking, and with this book I got that.

Not only is the mystery great, but so are the characters. In mysteries, it is sometimes hard to have well developed and not one dimensional characters, since the story is so focused on figuring out who committed the murder. However, all of the characters in the book are multidimensional and undergo serious character development. Especially Pip, who faces many physical and mental challenges when investigating the murder.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder is a well written and suspenseful mystery book. While it has many of the classic mystery elements that we all know and love, the author also sprinkles in a bit of comedic moments that give the book a less heavy and lighter tone. All in all, I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an easy and exciting roller coaster of a read.

If you’re looking for a fast paced high energy fantasy heist story, then this is the book for you. Six of Crows follows the story of six misfits who take on an impossible job to break into the most impenetrable building in the world, The Ice Court. I absolutely loved this book and it has everything a lover of fantasy books wants. It is filled with the best tropes such as, slow burn relationships, found family, and my personal favorite, enemies to lovers. The author, Leigh Barduo, does a stunning job of creating an intricate and unique world and magic system. In fact, Six of Crows takes place two years after Barugo’s first series, Shadow and Bone, where her magic system is first introduced. Many readers recommend reading Shadow and Bone before Six of Crows, however, I don’t think it matters which one you read first. It’s totally up to you.

It was easily a five star read for me because of the incredible writing and plot. Not to mention it has a diverse cast of lovable yet flawed characters. With six protagonists, it can be difficult to make each character feel developed and distinguished in their own right. However, Leigh Bardugo does an astonishing job of creating characters that do not feel one dimensional. Each character has their own trauma and internal battles that they must fight throughout the course of the two books. Watching these characters overcome their internal struggles was so impactful, and these battles were only overcome once the characters learned to lean on one another. At the start of the series, the characters did not have much in common and struggled to work together. However, by the end of the books, they’ve become a family and learned that it is okay to rely on others. Bardugo writes a beautiful story about learning to overcome individual traumas and work as a team. While the heist aspect of the book allows for an exciting and suspenseful adventure, at the heart of the story is the relationships between the characters. Not only were the romantic relationships beautifully portrayed, but so were the platonic ones. For me, it was refreshing to see two characters care so deeply for each other in a non-romantic way. This book taught me the important lesson that not all battles must be fought alone. Even when things went wrong for the group, they never once gave up on themselves or each other. The Six of Crows Duology tells an incredible story, and it is one that I will always recommend.

One of my personal favorite books that I have ever read is the These Violent Delights Duology by Chloe Gong. It consists of two books, These Violent Delights and Our Violent Ends. It is a retelling of one of the most classic Shakespeare plays, Romeo and Juliet. The plot follows two heirs to rival gangs in 1920s Shanghai who were once lovers, but are now enemies. However, when a monster emerges in the city, the two must work together to defeat it and restore safety to their city.

I initially started this book when my friend, Gabby Martins, who I will be talking to in this podcast, recommended it to me. I immediately fell in love with the story and the characters and it quickly became one of my favorite books. After I finished the book, Gabby and I spent hours talking to each other about who our favorite characters were and our predictions for the next book. As you can probably guess, when the second and final book Our Violent Ends was released last November, Gabby and I were the first people in line to buy it. We didn’t think the second book would be able to top the first one, but we were proven wrong. When we both finished the book, we immediately facetimed each other because we had to share our thoughts. Gabby and I both had so many little things we wanted to talk about from the book, and we ended up being on facetime that night for almost five hours. Over the past couple of months, we haven’t talked much about These Violent Delights, so we decided it would be fun to revisit our thoughts and share them with the EBHS students.

In this podcast, we will be discussing our favorite parts of the books in a spoiler free section, and a spoiler section. If you have not read these books yet and don’t want to get it spoiled for you, listen until our spoiler warning and come back once you finish the books. Click the photo below to listen: