Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Pretty Girls

I really enjoyed this book. Devastating look into a family torn apart by a missing sister. While I was able to predict some of the twists, the details and other parts kept me very interested and caught me off guard. My final listening session (today), I started at 60% and listened to the rest. Really picked up in the end, despite the beginning not really even dragging. The actions of the main characters felt believable and detailed. Overall a good read.

This was incredibly violent and graphic, so I'd recommend reading warnings before starting.

Content Warnings

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I don't think I could ever trust a man ever again after reading this!😵‍💫

If I'm being honest this book wasn't what I thought it was going to be at all. It was one of the thrillers that everyone was talking about because of the crazy twist so I went in blind having no idea what the storyline was or any inclination on what the book was about. Going into it I was completely caught off guard. By going based on the title online I thought it was going to be some high school mean girl revenge story which had me super excited because I have yet to find a thriller that incorporates the horrors of mean-girl culture correctly. I was so excited to read this that I put it above all my books on my tbr. I guess jokes on me for being so overzealous and not just reading the synopsis.

After I realized it wasn't going to be the mean girls' thriller that I hoped it would be I still continued to read it because the missing girl premises still compelled me. I kid you not I did fall asleep a couple of times and as I was reading. I was just feeling very disinterested. Nothing shocking was really happening. I felt like the pacing was pretty slow, but I was already a good chunk in so I figured I'd finished because it was intriguing enough to where I still wanted to keep reading. I have to say this book was pretty gory and grotesque. I'm not really sensitive to stuff like that, but even I found myself wincing and closing my eyes while reading the gory details of what happened to those missing girls.

I have to say the "big twist" sort of slipped me by.

I thought we already knew Paul was behind all the snuff porn. His dad being the one who kidnapped Julia felt very anti-climatic to me because we rarely got any insight into Paul's family at all. To me, he could've been any other masked man and it wouldn't have made any difference. Or was it Paul the one that did those unspeakable things to Julia when he was only a teen boy? I'm still a little unclear as to what happened. Also, I think the author should've added more emphasis on why Paul chose to continue and participate in the "family business". For me, I think the biggest mind-boggling and heartbreaking moment of the book was Claire realizing that Paul was putting on a persona for her the entire time they were together. That was the scary part for me because how could she ever trust another man again? Everything Paul did was so meticulous and calculated which begs the question of how could one see the difference between the mask and the actual genuine person.

The twist was good, scary even, but it just didn't hit for me.

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thatswhatshanread's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

A vastly gripping psychological thriller that packs punch after disturbing punch of twisted lies and chilling in-depth details about a young woman’s disappearance.

Claire and Lydia, estranged sisters brought back together by another tragedy, embark on a journey almost twenty-five years old as new clues come to light about their older sister, Julia, who went missing when she was nineteen and was never found. Nothing is as it seems as present begins to connect rather ominously with the past.

This was my first Karin Slaughter book and man, did it deliver. It’s definitely a very dark book that seems to get darker with each shocking turn, not shying away from grisly facts or chilling thoughts. The writing was intense, fast-paced, evocative. Slaughter’s words made the story so vivid and realistic, my heart pounding the whole way through as if I were one of Julia’s sisters, too.

If you’re a fan of Gillian Flynn, you’ll also devour this one. I found their writing styles quite similar and engaging.

I loved the way this story played out, the different story arcs that came to fruition. Of course, the subject matter is even more sinister then you’d imagine out the gate, but it was used so well in this one.

I suspect I will be thinking of this book for a long time!!

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riella_reads's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was so disturbing and creepy but in the best way. I read this relatively fast compared to how big the book is. The only reason I knocked a half star is because I didn't understand what made Julia and her family so special. I expected to find out, but in less I missed something it was never explained why.

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