I don't like The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie (originally published in Australia as Becoming Bindy Mackenzie) as much as I like the other books in this series. The pacing is really strange, the suspension of disbelief is harder, and being in Bindy's head the whole time can be kind of a struggle.

However, this is one of the best character portraits I've ever read. Jaclyn Moriarty once again draws a detailed, compassionate, and accurate portrait of a flawed teenager and captures that teenager's voice perfectly. She expands the cast of characters at Ashbury High. She explores a very silly but also very high-stakes murder mystery plot.

Bindy Mackenzie is an insufferable character with every reason to be how she is. I adore the scene late in the book when her FAD group analyzes all of the reasons why she's like this. It's exactly what the reader will have already been doing, and yeah it's a bit obvious, but it's also very in-character for everyone involved.

Bindy reminds me of myself in a lot of ways, though I was kind of the opposite high-achieving student: I was so good at school that I never learned how to study, and when I finally had to, I crashed and burned.

Not to diagnose fictional characters, but WOW is Bindy undiagnosed autistic. I don't think Moriarty did this on purpose, but it's very much there.

And also, I really hope that she will work through her comphet eventually and realize that she's a lesbian.