#as good as dead spoilers

[autisticcasforthewin]

My friend has the right impression of this man

[cupidsatdawn]

Me when Max accuses pip of being the murderer when I know she did it:

[highladyofterrasen7]

Pip: you’re in his dms

Pip: I covered up a murder with him

Pip: we’re not the same

[knifexwife]

if i had a nickel for every time holly jackson ended her book with the main love interest reaching out to the main character without getting any definite reply i'd have two nickels which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice

[sunmoonyandstars]

Pip in As Good As Dead:

[smallsinger5901]

A little snippet of the As Good As Dead fanfic I’m currently writing! It’ll be a fairly short multi-part fic, taking place just after Pip escapes from her abduction. What if Pip decided to make Hawkins believe her another way? Pip sees Jason Bell’s car pull into the driveway and decides to keep running. She stays in hiding, leaving clues for Ravi to solve the mystery of her disappearance and ‘murder’- but can Ravi ever make the police believe him?

[just-another-romantic]

A Pip x Ravi Headcannon I cant get my mind off of

Ok so I finished reading As Good as Dead today (emotional damage) and I am FIXIATED on the “Hey Sarge, remember me?” text. Cannot stop thinking about it. So here’s what I think happened leading up to day 694 and the events afterwards.

Ravi was the first person to tell Pip about the results of the trial.

Pip had probably been getting texts from her family or friends that went unanswered regarding the trial, because they knew she had to be interested in it (not knowing why of course) so she obvi knew it was coming up soon

But Ravi broke the news to her first

If you think Ravi wasn’t involved in the case, you are damn wrong

Obviously he wasn’t appearing at every single trial or obsessively searching for updates on the news (he found himself itching to reload the page again and again on day 92, but stopped himself, because he knew that Pip would tell him not to, that it would leave a trace, it was suspicious)

He would get news updates by glancing at the local newspaper, or having his friends look it up on their phones

Ravi wasn’t there in person when Max was sentenced, but you can bet your bottom dollar that he was watching it on a livestream

The live stream was casted on the TV from his mom’s Facebook, the page titled “Justice for Jason” receiving an influx of comments, likes, and shares. But he was just a watcher, waiting with a baited breath.

His mom sat beside him on the couch, his dad next to her. The Singh family rigid with anxiety, waiting for the verdict again, almost eight years later.

The Judge rose before the microphone, and Ravi’s breath caught in his throat.

“Under a unanimous decision, Max Hastings has been found guilty of the murder of Jason Bell, in first degree.”

The world around him went quiet. Still. Dead. The room was suddenly so small, yet so big. His mother gasped, grabbing onto Ravi, exclaiming that the justice system finally did something good, something right. But Ravi’s ears were ringing. He wasn’t focusing on Max’s reaction, the uproar in the court from the Hasting’s family, or even his father’s comments, all Ravi heard over and over was guilty guilty guilty. Because for him, for Pip, that meant innocent.

The reason why it took so long (three minutes) for Ravi to text Pip was because he was half in shock, half celebrating with his parents, half worried that Pip wouldn’t be interested in the case in him anymore, and half trying to figure out what the fuck to say.

But with the results of the trial and all the bad that led up to it, Ravi wondered if he finally managed to take half of Pip’s suffering. If there was still room for some good.

His thumbs lingered over the keyboard. Ravi ran upstairs after the commotion died down, only wanting to celebrate this moment with one person. What could he say? “You’re innocent, it’s gonna be ok” seemed to risky. Asking “Did you see the news” sounded too detached like he didn’t care, like he hadn’t been thinking about her for almost two years

But he typed it without thinking. His fingers did the work.

“Hey Sarge, remember me?”

Ravi’s heart inflated when he saw the read receipt immediately, the text bubble emerging almost immediately afterwards

Pip had been in class, hadn’t been watching the news for the past few hours. She had an exam coming up, and she used her studying as a distraction

But when she pulled out her phone, she ignored the calls from Nat and Connor, and all of the texts from Cara and Naomi, and her eyes went straight to Ravi’s name

“Give me a sec.”

She said

A few states away, Ravi’s heart deflated a little. Did she not care about the case? About him? Had she found someone else to fill the same never ending void that Ravi held in his own chest?

Her name lit up across his phone screen. The ringtone he had for her was still the same, a stupid Taylor Swift song he caught her singing one day.

Pip held her breath

Ravi’s thumb hovered over the green accept button and tried not to let his anxiety get the best of him.

How much had she changed? Was she safe? Was she all alone at college? Did she still see Jason Bell’s head caved in every time she closed her eyes? Did she hear Ravi’s voice next to her throughout the day, the same way he did her’s?

But he looked at her contact photo, an old one from one of their first dates. It was at Ravi’s favorite sandwich shop. Pippa had two pringles in her mouth, creating the beak of a duck. Her eyes were alive. Bright.

He saw that and knew.

He accepted the call and brought the phone up to his ear.

“Ravi?” Pip breathed.

And in that moment, nothing else mattered. The trial. The distance between them. That all consuming darkness.

Ravi’s face broke into a grin. “Hey Sarge. It’s me.”

States away, in the security of her dorm room, Pip had the freedom to cry. So, upon hearing Ravi’s voice again, she broke.

She caught the sob in her hand, muffling the cries through the phone.

Ravi heard her. “You ok there, Pippus? You sound like you’re crying.”

Pip couldn’t lie to him. Not to anyone. Not anymore. No more lies, it just fed the void.

She sniffed, “Just happy.” Which said everything. I’m free. You’re ok. You didn’t forget me. I missed you. I love you. I want you back.

Tears were rolling down his cheeks too, tasting salty on his lips. “You big softie.”

Pip choked on a laugh. The first one she had let out in a long time. In the 694 days since she heard his voice, he still sounded the same.

“Yea, I can say the same for you.”

The next question lingered in Ravi’s throat. Come home. But he couldn’t ask that of her. To return to the town that had broke her. To a place filled with so much evil and hatred. She was too good for all of that ugly. She needed something good.

Pip beat him to it. “I don’t have classes tomorrow.”

The way her voice trailed off at the end answered Ravi’s question. The silence said everything. It always had said everything for them.

Come see me.

“I can be there by tonight,” Ravi said. The distance between us is too great, but feels like nothing all the same.

Pip let herself cry freely at this point. She whispered, “Drive fast.” I never stopped wondering if you were okay.

“I will.” I would be there right this moment if I could.

“There’s a sandwich shop you’ll really like on campus.” I never stopped thinking about you.

“I can’t wait to try it, Sarge.” I can’t wait to see you.

“I’ll see you soon.” I’ve been waiting for this moment for two years, and I would have continued to wait for it my whole life.

“I’ll text you when I’m on my way.” I don’t want to hang up. I missed your voice.

There was no stopping the next words. “I love you,” Pip said.

Ravi felt like he could fly. “I love you too Pip.”

And that night, when Pippa watched Ravi’s car pull into her dorm parking lot, she knew she was home.

[zorasthoughts]

narratives in the a good girl's guide murder trilogy

i should be writing my dissertation, but instead i'm writing this. i was rereading good girl, bad blood recently and thinking about how narratives were a major theme in that book, but then i thought about it some more and i was like, oh, they're actually in all the books. they're everywhere. major spoilers for all three books under the cut.

a good girl's guide to murder: first of all, there's the fact that at the start of the first book, the first thing we read is that pip's project is supposedly going to investigate media narratives in missing persons cases, and we do get a look at different narratives, especially surrounding sal.

pip interviews max hastings and elliot ward, two people who try to discourage her investigation and promote the accepted narrative, but they do both acknowledge that it doesn't align with the sal that they knew. there's also stanely forbes, who pip calls out for being racist and vitriolic towards sal and his family in the news.

as well as the negative acounts though, there are more positive accounts from people about sal being friendly and kind. naomi ward knows that sal couldn't have been responsible for andie's death, and although she doesn't initially tell pip why, she entirely rejects the idea that he could be a killer. when nat da silva meets ravi, she tells him that she remembers sal offering to help her at lunch with schoolwork. when ravi asks pip why she's so invested in the project, she tells him her memories of sal, a big brother figure who taught her how to flip pancakes and let her and cara watch a 15 movie when they were 12, who scared off her bullies and gave her a kitkat to cheer her up. pip says that to her, sal was a hero. finally, at the end of the book, there's the moment when pip invites ravi on stage to talk about his brother, to rewrite the narrative.

on the flip side, we learn that andie didn't fit the golden-girl narrative that she was given. yes, she was pretty and popular, but she sold drugs, she was emotionally manipulative and mean to her closest friends and younger sister, and bullied classmates (nat). more on andie later.

good girl, bad blood: the beauty of the agggtm trilogy is the way the themes continue to develop with each book. narratives are everywhere in this book. pip releases a podcast about the andie/sal case because all the news and media outlets were reporting on it with certain angles, to fit their own narratives. we learn max hastings is on trial, and has been presenting himself in court with suits, handsome/messy hair, and glasses, and that his mother talked about him having leukemia as a child, to create a sympathetic narrative.

when jamie reynolds goes missing, pip does another season of the podcast to help connor and his family find him, but it proves difficult, and she gets accused of orchestrating the disappearance, since connor is one of her friends. by unfortunate coincidence, an article speculating about pip faking it all comes out around the time that max hastings is declared innocent, which doubles down on the idea that what pip is saying is not the truth.

we learn that what leads to jamie's disappearance is connected to "layla mead" and the narrative that jamie believed: that she was sick, had a controlling father, etc. and need his help.

now, the main thing that i'd been thinking about that started this whole post: charlie green, child brunswick, and pip. for charlie green, stanley forbes (child brunswick) caused his sister's death, broke up his family, is responsible for every hardship that befell him. for charlie green, stanley/child brunswick is a monster that's been haunting him since childhood.

pip, however, is able to see that stanley himself was also a child, who had been forced to do the things he did. charlie green can't see that though, and shoots stanley, causing a death that will haunt another young person for the rest of their life.

stanley was always a monster in the story of charlie's life, but in his quest for revenge, charlie became a monster in the story of pip's life.

at the funeral, pip tries to eulogise stanley, saying that he did his best to protect pip, even while his life was being threatened. she doesn't get to finish though, because a crowd of angry locals come by to protest against stanley's burial in little kilton, including people that had known and been friends with him. stanley's life (and, in this context i'm talking about the person who lived with the identity of stanley forbes, the guy who was trying to be better) is overshadowed by his death, and the revelation of his youth as child brunswick. in the aftermath, jamie comforts pip, sharing his own memories of stanley, who was scared after jamie attacked him, but tried to be kind anyway.

as good as dead: a tough time to be pippa fitz-amobi. the narratives are against her now: max is suing pip for libel after she made a post online that contradicts the jury and their ruling that max is innocent. people online, and in her town, have turned against her after the events of good girl, bad blood, specifically because of her sympathy towards the deceased stanley forbes. oh, and she has a stalker, except the police don't believe her: di hawkins chalks everything up to pip's trauma (and yes, she does have a shedload of trauma, but he dismissed her way too easily).

pip's research, which puts her on the trail of the dt killer, brings forth new revelations. she meets with harriet hunter, the younger sister of one of the dt killer's victims, who tells pip that she knew andie bell, and describes andie as being kind and sympathetic, and above all, a true friend. after their meeting, pip gets into andie's secret email account that andie used to contact harriet secretly, and we get to read her unsent email, which reveals that andie knew who the dt killer was, and how scared she was, and how much she was determined to protect becca. a far cry from the figure of the mean-girl bully that we had in the first book. (andie is a complex character, but i'm not getting into all of that here because this post is about narratives.)

after pip murders the dt killer (jason bell), she then masterminds her way out by creating alibis for herself and everyone who helps her. how? she reframes the narrative, of course. manipulates the time of death so that it seems later, so that at the supposed time of death, pip, ravi, and all their friends are out in public places, then plants a trail of fake evidence to frame max. when the news comes out about jason bell's murder, pip takes control of the narrative again by announcing that she's going to investigate it on her podcast (a podcast she started because she disappeared with other people's narratives), and nudging the police in the direction that she wants them to follow.

wow, this was long. i'd probably find even more to talk about if i left it long enough, but i'm going to wrap up here. will probably be making more, extremely long literary analysis posts about this series, because holly jackson is a genius and i will never be done talking about her.

[almosttenaciousmoon]

I miss you, I’m sorry by Gracie Abrams but it’s Pippa and Ravi at the end of as good as dead

[thekiltongrammarwriter94]

Tag your it….

[xshinina]

*Married life playing in the background

This idea was probably funnier in my head

[ato-dato]

One mans barber can be another mans nemesis.

[cupidsatdawn]

Ravi after realizing that he can’t call the police because pip will get arrested

[highladyofterrasen7]

The feminine urge to kill someone and have him help me cover it up

[ayo-edebiri]

DEAD BOY DETECTIVES (2024) I 1.01 - The Case of Crystal Palace

[sherlock-is-ace]

ok hear me out