Kill Joy

Murder, both fictional and actual, is an important motif in the text. The fictional murder-mystery game that Pip and her friends play parallels the real-life murder in their town of Fairview, Connecticut. Andie Bell’s murder is evoked multiple times throughout the game and is never far from the teenagers’ minds: “Pip sometimes forgot how un-normal it was to have such a terrible thing so close to their lives” (15). This parallel is important, as Pip’s growing interest in the game will eventually lead her to wanting to look deeper into Andie’s murder.

Pip’s inquisitive nature and ardent desire for justice fuels a growing interest in the game: “Maybe solving murders wasn’t too different from homework after all. She could feel herself falling headfirst into it, the rest of the world fading out” (31). This moment foreshadows Pip’s later decision to base her capstone project around re-investigating the murder of Andie. Pip feels dissatisfied by the outcome of the game, disappointed with the “obvious” and overly simplified explanation. However, the dissatisfying outcome of the game, coupled with Pip’s desire to bring the truth to light, leads Pip to rethink the accepted truth of Andie’s murder and Sal Singh’s guilt.