As Good As Dead by Holly Jackson: A Thrilling Conclusion When Paired With Suspension of Disbelief *SPOILERS*

A very solid 4. 4.5, even, but it’s a four-star-4.5 instead of 5-star-4.5 because I’d feel bad rating the finale greater than the first. (This, however, should be taken with a grain of salt because–like a body temperature decreasing as time passes–my feelings on a book often falter.)

JANUARY 13, 2022 – Started Reading
22% – “this has taken so long to get into it but i think we’re getting there now”
JANUARY 21, 2022 – Finished Reading

Rating: 4 stars

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*UNTAGGED SPOILERS AHEAD* *CLICK HERE FOR TAGGED REVIEW*

Maybe it’s my ability to suspend disbelief to an impressive degree but this elicited many gasps and shrieks in the process of reading it. It took a while to get there, but it did it.

The outline of this book and the progression of the plot was odd to me. I found it very slow at the beginning with a lot of focus on the aftermath of Good Girl, Bad Blood (Pip’s PTSD, the ongoing Max Hasting battle, etc.), and while understandable, it took me a while to get into it. Let’s put it this way: I’ve renewed my library loan on this book to its mass capacity because I couldn’t find it within me to pick it up and continue (this, of course, is better pinned on/against me than the source material). However, once we got to about the 100-page mark, the plot solidified and I was ready to get to the good stuff.

As it progressed and tensions grew higher, I personally was thrilled to have foreseen future reveals [I feel that perhaps it was veiled too thinly because I hadn’t even considered anyone but Jason. To believe it was Daniel seemed like such a stretch to me, but maybe I got the right instinct too early.] but was confused as the story grew to its climax — in the midpoint of the novel. How could this go on for another two hundred pages? Despite my doubt, it continued to deliver.

From what I’ve seen, the opinions on this latter half are split down the middle. While I’m not beyond noting the general implausibility of the situation [Pip being the only one of six to escape Jason’s grasp — with the most restrictions and obstacles of all], I’ve got that suspension of disbelief down pat. [In my mind, Pip has godly levels of perseverance. While some could see that depiction as utterly unrealistic, I’m instead taking it as Pip being braver than any US Marine (is that an outdated/inappropriate joke? sorry).] Delving into the thrill and basking in it is much more enjoyable than overthinking it (or thinking it over at all for the easily disappointed lol).

I think the main draw or motif of this trilogy is the disintegration (or blurring the lines of) an upstanding “good girl”. I had a little bit of an issue with this in the first two books because while certainly not yet a morally gray character, I wouldn’t have described Pip initially as a “good girl”, per se. The theme seemed a little misplaced. With that being said, though, the strength of this finale is that character arc, putting on display the blurring of black and white, wading through the morally gray. I’d say that’s one of the book’s greatest feats.

Second to the character arc, another strength of this novel would have to be that it serves as one grand full circle moment — I’m a total sucker for those. Personally, the second of the trilogy fell a little flat for me which I found confusing considering the general high regard for it (on average, it was rated higher than the debut). Whatever qualms I had with it (likely that it seemed like a bit of a slump, kind of telling us what we already knew in regards to Pip’s abilities to figure it out) were washed away because they gave us the character of Jamie and the development of Nat. That really helped round out the finale, playing into this completion and depiction of fulfillment.

I’d say your level of disbelief suspension will indicate how much you enjoy this book. In saying that, though, I personally wouldn’t consider this book’s twists and shift in tone as brash or unthought-out. Overall, I’d consider it a smart book but this is also coming from someone who avoids cerebral crime shows like the plague, opting into conspiracy theories over true crime. Perhaps it’s just a matter of taste. For now, I see this as a very solid four.

What were your thoughts on the finale? Did it exceed or match your expectations, or did it disappoint? What were your favorite and least favorite parts of this book and/or series? Share your thoughts below!