Reviews

Pretty Dead Girls by Monica Murphy

lyndajdickson's review

4.0

Penelope is president of the Larks, a group of elite female students at a private school. When one of the Larks shows up dead, rumours fly and suspects abound, as she was a typical mean girl. When another member of the Larks is found murdered, Penelope thinks it might be more than just a coincidence. What is the murderer’s motivation and who will be next?

The story is a mix of Pretty Little Liars, Beverly Hills 90210, and Scream Queens. It’s told in two first-person accounts, one by the murderer and one by Penelope. Unfortunately, it's sometimes difficult to tell who's narrating. The writing is good, the tone is conversational, and the speech and teenage behaviors are realistic. The beginning is a bit slow and repetitive, but the author maintains the tension and manages to build the suspense. Even though I guessed who the killer was, I was still interested to see how it played out.

Warnings: coarse language, sexual references, violence.

I received this book in return for an honest review.

Full blog post (19 January): https://booksdirectonline.blogspot.com/2018/01/pretty-dead-girls-by-monica-murphy.html

ive_colon's review against another edition

3.0

3.5

Although an entertaining read, not much of a twist as I figured it out kind of earlier than what I'm accustomed to. I did enjoy the audible and kept me intrigued.

The Larks are being attacked one by one. It's all of the seniors though who are getting killed. Penelope is trying to figure out before she's next.

k100dra's review against another edition

3.0

2.75 ☆
It started well. But then the romance basically became the main plot and I just didn't care. I just kept hoping that Cass would be the killer (it would make sense considering he came out of nowhere at the beginning of the book) Instead it was someone completely random.
I feel like the author didn't want us to guess who it was so she ruled out all the main suspects towards the end, but we didn't get to know the junior larks enough to know which one could've done it. And I believe that the reader should be able to guess who did it in a murder mystery, else it is just underwhelming. Yes, we know who did it and why, but the author never gave us any clue (the bullying story comes out of nowhere). Even the main character guessed who it was because she wasn't smiling on a picture ? The girl is supposed to be a mastermind who got away with three murders and yet she isn't able to act like she doesn't hate her next target ??
And don't get me started on the romance... Penelope sees all her friends dying one by one, she knows she's probably next and yet all she cares about is a stupid boy she met five minutes ago. It just doesn't make sense and I'm tired of these useless romance subplots.
I also wish Penelope wasn't portrayed as this nice girl who is just hanging out with the mean girls but really she doesn't like them (except Dani who is nice like her) and of course it was the others who did the bullying, not her...
That being said, it wasn't all bad. The beginning was gripping and I always wanted to continue reading, but the second half kinda ruined it for me. An underwhelming ending can really ruin a thriller tbh.

caszriel's review against another edition

4.0

Initial thoughts: I really liked this one, especially Penelope and Cass, but there were also bits I didn't like so much. I wish I could rate this book two stars and five stars simultaneously for the different parts, because that's how I felt about Pretty Dead Girls! I'll explain why in my review.
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~I received an e-ARC from Entangled Teen and willingly reviewed it~

RTC

eroof514's review against another edition

2.0

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review. This book is a teenage thriller and high school students are being killed one by one. This would be a good book for fans of pretty little liars since it has a suspense element. I thought certain aspects of this book could have been better and I cringed at some parts. The romantic interest was the typical bad boy and the main character is the president of the cheer squad and a group called the larks. I have also never used snapchat and that was a something the characters used and I found it to be annoying. I guess I am getting too old for these high school books even though I love the ya genre. All of the characters were loaded with money and got their way and had no parental involvement which is unrealistic. The bad boy of course was out of place and didn't have as much as the popular girls. Try it you might like it better than I did.

shellysbookcorner's review against another edition

4.0

Reading this story reminded me of “Pretty Little Liars”, “Mean Girls” and “Scream Queens” all into one and I was not disappointed at all.This was the first book that I’ve read by Monica Murphy and I really enjoyed this story. It was well written, fast paced and kept me on my toes. I have to give the author points for catching me off guard with the killer. Murphy did a good job painting others as the potential suspects but as a horror movie fan, I had a feeling they were innocent. When the killer is revealed and the reasoning I wasn’t expecting that at all. I had one small issue with the story and that’s the way it ended. I would have liked to see what happened a few months down the road with the surviving characters. Overall, I was very impressed with this new to me author that is Monica Murphy. I will be sure to check out more books by this author.

*Review copy provided by NetGalley*

For more reviews check me out at: http://www.shellysbookcorner.com

morguebooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

bookwormbetty's review against another edition

5.0

Love this book, it was fast paced and kept me on the edge of my seat. This book is a mix between Clueless, Mean Girls, and Scream Queens, with a dash of Pretty Little Liars. These characters are everyday types of teens, and that is what makes it do great. There is always a queen been, there is always the outcast, the jocks, the geeks, so this was an amazing mix with suspense and romance thrown in. Told in Penelope's POV.

jhilty11's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.5

Predictable, cliche, and rushed with a huge lack in detail that *would have* made this a fantastic thriller. Lacks depth. I did finish it, did not expect the ending…which should have thrilled me, but just annoyed me. There were zero clues throughout and it seemed like she just slapped the killer label on whoever she could think of first when she got to that scene. 

kimo1983's review against another edition

4.0

This was really good – I didn’t suspect the killer at all – read in one day – couldn’t put it down