How A Good Girl's Guide to Murder went from TikTok phenomenon to TV

Fans of young adult (YA) fiction and twisty whodunnits are about to get a new favourite TV show as the adaptation of Holly Jackson's A Good Girl's Guide to Murder debuts on the BBC. The 2019 novel follows a teenage sleuth who decides to investigate the apparently solved case of a murdered girl in her small Buckinghamshire town.

Jackson has since spun that first tale out into a trilogy, as well as a prequel novella, uncovering further secrets lurking behind the respectable facade of Little Kilton. But it's her first book that is the subject of the new six-part series, which is now available in full on BBC iPlayer.

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder has become a literary phenomenon since Jackson first unleashed it upon the world, selling more than seven million copies worldwide in around 40 languages. And much of that success was born through one of the most lucrative marketing arenas in modern publishing — TikTok.

How BookTok made A Good Girl's Guide to Murder a success

TikTok might have become famous for being the Gen Z app of choice, replete with tightly choreographed dances and absurdist humour. But take a jaunt over to the world known as BookTok and you'll find a vibrant cottage industry of reviews, recommendations, and intense reactions.

Step into almost any major bookshop today and its layout will be at least partially informed by BookTok's latest obsessions. Indeed, Jackson's books can often be found under banners explicitly framing them under the category of "TikTok made me buy it".

Read more: TikTok bookshelves to open across UK to get young people reading (The Independent)

In a 2024 interview with The Bookseller, Jackson explained that more traditional marketing methods simply can't compete with the might of BookTok. She said: "TikTok is the new word-of-mouth vehicle we have. However much marketing budget a publisher may have, word of mouth is king and it’s really hard to replicate or organically create that."

YA author Tom Clempson, the man behind the Jack Samsonite books, agrees with Jackson's assessment, saying TikTok has experienced "unimaginable success" as a platform for publicising books.

He tells Yahoo UK: "TikTok, in this instance, provides not just publicity, but has created a new iteration of the much-loved book club, where readers not only get to share opinions, reviews and debates about their favourite books, but, more importantly, they get to be part of an entire book-loving community. Love it or loathe it, it’s undeniable that TikTok has breathed new life into the world of publishing."

The #AGGGTM hashtag has been a busy place on TikTok for several years now, with fans connecting over their love of the first book during lockdown. During that time, Jackson won Children's Fiction Book of the Year at the British Book Awards.

Watch: Trailer for A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

As for why A Good Girl's Guide to Murder specifically chimed with the BookTok crowd, the reasons seem clear. For starters, it's a pacey whodunnit of the sort that BookTok creators are often driven to recommend. It's also steeped thoroughly in the world of social media, with key plot threads in the books built around Facebook photo albums, Fitbits, Instagram DMs and news websites.

Read more: Louis Theroux ‘struggled’ to get shock new true crime documentary made (BANG Showbiz)

In many ways, it's the perfect story for a world driven by social media and true crime obsession. It's little surprise that TikTok was enamoured and even less surprising that the world of television came calling.

From BookTok to BBC...

By the autumn of 2022, BBC Three had hopped on to the AGGGTM train and commissioned an adaptation of the first book. Emma Myers, who played Enid Sinclair in Netflix series Wednesday, nabbed the lead role as teen detective Pip Fitz-Amobi. Zain Iqbal joined the cast as Pip's investigative partner Ravi — who has an intimate link to the case — with Anna Maxwell Martin providing some star power as Pip's mother.

Read more: When does A Good Girl's Guide to Murder start on TV? (Yahoo Entertainment)

Jackson has been closely involved with the adaptation from the start and is all too aware of the importance of keeping her fans happy. She told The Bookseller that she "made sure that some of the most fan-favourite quotes and moments from the books made it in there" and has confessed in multiple interviews that she was very nervous about getting the key casting right.

The author even admitted at MCM London Comic-Con that she was "a bit of a control freak" when it came to making sure the adaptation was true to her work. She added: "I've been sticking my nose in wherever I bloody well can, I would go to set maybe one or two times every week to to play with [the cast], mostly mess around and get told off. No, I was very helpful actually."

So the stakes are high for the adaptation given the legions of fans all over the world who are determined to see these characters brought to life in a way that's true to the source material.

Asha Banks, who plays the role of Cara in the TV show, explained that the book's global fanbase created a surprising headache while filming. She said: "We had fans of the book travelling from America to watch us film and we were baffled as to how they knew where we would be because such information isn’t made public."

Myers went further, suggesting that she often thought "there must be a spy in the camp". Now that would be a whole new crime for Pip to investigate.

So with one book down, the question will inevitably be whether BookTok's favourite crime trilogy will get to continue its journey to TV. Well, if Myers has her way, she'll finish the books in her role as Pip. She said: "If it does well and people really love it, I would love to finish the books, for sure. You want more of the characters."

Read more: A Good Girl's Guide to Murder's Emma Myers reveals challenge of Pip costume (Digital Spy)

If the world has learned anything over the past few years, it's that you never underestimate the power of Pip Fitz-Amobi.

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder is available on BBC iPlayer now.