48 pages • 1 hour read
Holly JacksonKill Joy
Fiction | Novella | YA | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Development of Investigative Skills and Critical Thinking
An important theme throughout Kill Joy is the development of investigative skills and critical thinking. Pip’s investment in solving the murder-mystery party game inspires her decision to re-examine the murder of Andie Bell. Since Kill Joy is the prequel to the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder trilogy, the text explores how Pip develops her keen investigative and critical-thinking skills, which she will use later in the series.
Pip initially struggles with going to the murder-mystery game party at all, thinking that it will be a “waste of time” because she has work to do at home (2)—namely, deciding on her senior capstone project topic. As she begins playing the game, however, Pip discovers that her natural skills are uniquely suited for this kind of game and becomes increasingly committed to cracking the case: “Maybe solving murders wasn’t too different from homework after all” (31). Pip’s penchant for a near-obsessive commitment to hard work and figuring things out lends itself well to solving mysteries. Pip takes copious notes on the other players: their alibis, motives, and the secrets they reveal. As she listens, she comes closer to solving the case.
As the game progresses, it is Pip who notices certain subtleties that help her untangle the narrative: “Wait, there was a pattern here. Both times Zach had flinched right after Ant said the word accident” (42). Pip deduces from this that Zach’s character believes that Ant’s character killed their mother and that her death was no accident. These kinds of subtleties enable Pip to further develop her investigative skills. Jamie, the game organizer, rewards Pip for her investigative efforts by staging a blackout that only Pip knows how to rectify, going downstairs to reset the fuse box. Through this, she learns the secret that Reginald Remy was dying of cancer, and suddenly Pip is able to see the whole case in a new light.
Pip’s frustration at being incorrect at the game’s conclusion inspires her to use her new investigative skills and keen eye for detail to re-examine Andie’s case, the status of which as “closed” does not sit right with her: “It’s the boyfriend, it’s always the boyfriend, people would say. So neat and so…so easy […] Too easy, maybe” (116). Unlike the mystery game writers, Pip knows that real life is far messier and more complex, inspiring her to dig deeper into Andie’s case in the hopes of exonerating Sal Singh, the boyfriend and easy target.
The Allure of Mystery and Justice
An important theme in Kill Joy is the allure of mystery and the pursuit of justice. Pip becomes wrapped up in the murder-mystery game, eagerly seeking out the killer’s identity to bring them to justice. The game helps her realize that she wants to solve the real-life mystery of Andie Bell’s murder.
Despite her initial reluctance, Pip becomes deeply invested in the game as she becomes drawn into the game’s murder-mystery narrative. As Pip hones her theory of Reginald Remy’s death-by-suicide-staged-as-murder plot, she realizes just how tangled and complex the truth behind mysteries can be: “The truth had been hiding there all along, riding on the underbelly of all those obvious clues and secrets […] Of course it would never be that obvious, that easy; this was a murder, after all” (99). She reprimands herself for falling for early red herrings meant to throw players off the trail of the truth, reminding herself that the truth lies beneath the obvious or easily accepted narrative. Pip also shows a deep sensitivity to the injustice at the heart of crime: When she suspects that her own character might be the murderer, the possibility deeply upsets her, even though she is aware that the game is fiction. Her serious attitude toward even fictional crimes contrasts with the more irreverent or lighthearted attitude of some of the other players, such as Ant.
Running parallel to the narrative of Reginald’s murder is the real-life murder of Andie, who is believed to have been murdered by her boyfriend, Sal Singh. This murder haunts the evening’s events, and the game ends up being the key to determining Pip’s senior capstone project topic. When Jamie reveals the outcome of Reginald’s murder, Pip turns her initial disappointment at being incorrect into determination to solve the real-life mystery that still unsettles her hometown. As with the outcome of the game, Pip believes that the community too readily accepts Sal’s guilt and that there might be a darker and more complex explanation. Her ambition to solve a real-life case emphasizes how fascinating mysteries have become for her, while her determination to exonerate Sal if he is innocent reinforces her moral commitment to justice.
The game thus fuels Pip’s desire for tangible justice, with the allure of a real-life mystery calling her to meaningful action, which author Holly Jackson will explore in the later A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder trilogy.
The Lasting Impacts of Traumatic Events
Jackson explores the lasting impacts of traumatic events on the young people of Fairview, Connecticut, throughout Kill Joy. As Pip and her friends play the murder-mystery game, they cannot escape the specter of the murder that haunts their town and the lasting impact that the events of five years ago still have on them. It shapes both their gameplay and Pip’s personal investment in re-examining the case.
Andie Bell’s murder was a traumatic event that has shaped the town’s identity: “Everywhere in Fairview was a reminder of what happened: their school that Andie and Sal had both attended, the woods outside Pip’s house where Sal was found, the bench dedicated to Andie on the town common” (14). The town of Fairview has become a memorial to Andie’s memory but also a grim and constant reminder of the crime itself. The impact on the town is such that the town, and its inhabitants, cannot escape the associations with the murder:
Fairview itself was defined by the murder of Andie Bell, both names usually uttered in the same breath, inextricable from the other. Pip sometimes forgot how un-normal it was to have such a terrible thing so close to their lives, some closer than others (15).
Murder is an almost normal part of everyday life, a constant reminder that casts a shadow over even the most mundane elements.
The town’s collective memory of the murders does not prevent Pip and her friends from playing a murder-mystery-themed game, but it does shape their responses to stimuli, such as when the shed door slams shut and everyone jumps. Jamie, six years older than everyone else at the party, teases them for their skittishness, but Lauren’s response illustrates the impact that the murder from five years ago still has on them: “Well, excuse us for growing up in murder town” (49). Despite, or perhaps because of, the normalization of a grisly murder being part of their everyday lives, Pip and her friends are sensitive when it comes to the events of the game.
Through her experience playing the murder-mystery game, the murder of Andie never far from her mind, Pip begins to rethink the presumed conclusion that Sal is the murderer. When she sees Sal’s younger brother, Ravi, walking home after she leaves the party, Pip thinks deeply about the lasting impact the murder has had on him: “It must have been so hard for him, living in this small town that was still so obsessed with its own small-town murder. They couldn’t get away from it, no matter how many years passed; the town and those deaths came hand in hand, forever tied together” (116). As Pip’s doubts about Sal’s guilt begin to grow, she becomes determined to begin untying the connection between Fairview and Andie, releasing the grip that the murder has on the town by bringing the real killer to light.
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