It isn’t always about the destination, but the journey itself

TO be lost, to be found.

For as long as Rie can remember, she had always been in journalism. She can’t remember how it started but it happened one stormy afternoon when she was just as young as ten years old.

The school was silent and only the sound of the raindrops hitting the ground could be heard. She sat alone on the bench near the lost-and-found section, watching people come and go. Rie sat there like a statue cursed by Medusa. Numb, stoic, and looking at life through a black-and-white lens.

It was just a day of studying, stressing, and waiting for the sun to set. It was a vicious cycle with no light at the end that was slowly eating up Rie.

Until a high-pitched sound filled the halls. It was then followed by a voice, will turn into a house, and to just a simple building.

Rie thought that it was all the end but unexpectedly, she got assigned to compete in the Districts under the Column Writing Category. She thought that it might be the last time she’ll ever write so there’ll be no harm if she gave it all. As if destiny was trying to play with her, she won at the very moment she thought she was prepared to lose. The feeling that everything is finally looking up again… Divisions came. With everyone applauding their awards, Rie waited anxiously for her name to be called.

10th place, 9th place, 8th place….

The numbers got smaller and smaller and so was the hope she could feel in her heart. As it approached the first place, she was hoping that this time… this time her best was enough. At the end, all she heard was “Your time will come.” as her school paper adviser

But for Rie, it feels like time has stopped.

How can you console a heart that has been broken one too she can find a home again. But there will come a time in your life when a place you called home

Everyone celebrated. Rie sat alone again like a statue cursed by Medusa. But even stones could cry. Deep inside, a question was formed. Haven’t I given enough?

All those nights she spent rewriting. All those days she would train until the ink in her ball pen would dry up. All those years, she devoted herself to a passion that she chose that didn’t even bat an eye to choose her. Life was really cruel. It always feels like you can do everything but just at that moment, it will stop you. You will never know if it was just a challenge or a sign to stop.

But what she realized is that her fate lies in her own hand. It will be her choice to use this as an inspiration. To build herself and be stronger or… use this as a sign. There will be a rainbow after the rain.

As long as there is still a chance, Rie could try again. Time didn’t stop. A pencil could be broken but it can be sharpened. Even if the world is against you, no one can tell you when to stop.

They said that the pen is mightier than the sword. She can finally say that the war is over.

For Rie, what she learned was that “you can’t write a masterpiece every day”. You will be lost at every turn but find yourself in a new place worth discovering. The world is full of unclear scribbles with a clear destination.

That’s the journey of a journalist.

In a society like that? Getting away with any degree of murder is as easy as breathing.

Looking for one dirt, ends up digging the whole empire. The story follows a 17-year-old student, Pippa “Pip” Fitz-Amobi who is just not convinced of the whole town’s guilty verdict on Sal Singh five years ago. When you ask people in that town who killed Andie Bell, they will say “Sal Singh” as if they are answering what comes after number three.

Convinced by no one but her beliefs, Pip decides to solve the murder, conducting investigative journalism for her Extended Project Qualification.

Pip shows indestructible determination, making her personal belief into a truth, which she has always been biased to. The story portrayed how the truth, no matter how long or hard you try to cover it up, someone would eventually dig it up or it would eventually sprout.

A Good Girl’s Guide to murder was the debut novel of Holly Jackson in 2019. Despite the crime fiction, a mystery being her first novel, it bagged Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction, YA Book Prize shortlist, and British Book Awards Children's Fiction Book Winner of the Year in 2020 and American Library Association's Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults in 2021.

Although— so many secrets laid in the story, the way it was executed was easy to read, when it came to the structure. You won’t expect it to be written as if you’re reading a fantasy novel, since the terms would give you pretty much “Gen Z” vibes. Words were not as deep as classics, but its quotes would pierce you through the heart slowly, because of what it would leave you.

Leave you angry, happy, confused, surprised, and enlightened. Your heartbeat would rampage whether because of the thrill when the characters do questionable things or because of how a healthy romance bloomed, despite the ugly society