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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
3.6/5 stars, full review to come! My face reading the end of this book:
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
GOD I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH !!! Lesbians. Arson. Murder. Amazing.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was not ready for the dramatic lesbians of it all but by the time I’d made 3/4 of the way through this book I was completely hooked on the drama of the Nico, Victoria, Mick interactions and couldn’t wait to keep reading.
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death, Death, Murder
3.7 - a thrilling story delivered with excellent pacing and addicting writing.
Overall, this book was… fine? The characters and narration had fun, dynamic voices, but they were also unbelievably stupid. I’m talking remarkably dumb. The author also doesn’t put in much leg work describing them physically, which was a bit of a hangup for me since 90% of the book revolves around a photo. (Also, just a nitpicky thing: Mick apparently has hot pink hair, but 1.) she’s on a swim team and lifeguards, which would strip the color right out, and 2.) she’s poor, so she wouldn’t be able to afford to touch it up constantly.) Oh, also (SPOILER:) Veronica kind of assaults Mick at one point? What was up with that??
(3.75 stars) Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book! She’s Too Pretty to Burn was definitely not what I was expecting. The writing was beautiful and sucked me right into the story. However, the first half of the book was so slow! I thought it took so long to get to any action in the book but once I did, I finished it in a couple hours. I think the last 20% of the book could have been expanded to be the majority of the story.
I really enjoyed the characters. I thought Mick and Veronica were relatable in that they were flawed and their relationship wasn’t perfect. I would have loved to learn more about Nico, I still don’t quite understand his decisions or motivation.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed She’s Too Pretty to Burn! It’s one of those stories that I’m still thinking about long after I finish the book.
I really enjoyed the characters. I thought Mick and Veronica were relatable in that they were flawed and their relationship wasn’t perfect. I would have loved to learn more about Nico, I still don’t quite understand his decisions or motivation.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed She’s Too Pretty to Burn! It’s one of those stories that I’m still thinking about long after I finish the book.
3.5 stars
Nggh I wanted to enjoy this much more than I did.
The first two-thirds were amazing. I'm a big Dorian Gray nerd so I was just picking up the details that made this a retelling left and right and enjoying the parallels between the two stories immensely. I've read The Picture of Dorian Gray about four times total, and I've never reread a classic, so I was just so excited for this, and at first it didn't disappoint. I could clearly see the parallels, and even if the retelling is pretty loose, the vibes were there and that's all I wanted.
What disappointed me is that it didn't actually lean into the *vibes* of the ending of the original. I didn't want it to be carbon-copy, the rest of the book wasn't, and I didn't care. I just wanted this book to lean into the messed-up places of the original, and the fact that the main character's ending is not a happy one, or at least that he does severly messed-up stuff to get where he wants. I didn't see it here, despite the very messed-up stuff happening, and I'll get into spoilers next to explain why.
Also, can we really market this as murderous sapphic thriller when none of the sapphics are doing the murders? Gosh, I really wanted some big Mick violent fuckup towards the end. It could have been so damn perfect (to me) if it really took the general murder/violent paranoia/corruption arc vibes of Dorian Gray. But like, I'm definitely judging the book from a The Picture of Dorian Gray nerd perspective, and it's probably not doing it justice as it stands on its own, but STILL, I can't quite unsee all this.
I'm also forever going to be puzzling on the intentions of the author on the parallels between characters. Seemed pretty clear to me at the beginning that Mick was Dorian, Veronica Basil, and Nico Lord Henry. Towards the end, I started wondering if there wasn't a bit of Dorian in Nico too, and a bit of Lord Henry in Veronica? I'm not sure I want a clear answer to this, and it's not actually a fault of the book, but it got me wondering.
Another reason I didn't rate this book higher was the major, glaring plot hole. A whole chunk of the events happening at the end happen because Veronica messages Mick on her phone, which Nico has stolen. BUT, a few chapters earlier, Mick told Veronica she lost her phone. She told her. Veronica knew Mick didn't have her phone, and that never came up. I could have ignored that if at some point Veronica thought "shit I forgot about the phone thing" but she never did and I was just there staring in disbelief. It's a pretty glaring plot hole that was hard to forgive, because if Veronica remembered Mick didn't have her phone, it could have changed the whole last quarter of the book.
Anyway, I kind of wanted this to be messier than it was in the end. I understand that it's a YA sapphic book and I think there's a certain expectation to what the ending of a queer YA book should look like. But I would have loved this so much if it had leaned into the messed-up characters and messed-up ending more, and not only for the bad guy of the book.
Still, it has some solid Dorian Gray retelling vibes, a good amount of murder and messed-up kids, I just wanted more from it than I got.
Nggh I wanted to enjoy this much more than I did.
The first two-thirds were amazing. I'm a big Dorian Gray nerd so I was just picking up the details that made this a retelling left and right and enjoying the parallels between the two stories immensely. I've read The Picture of Dorian Gray about four times total, and I've never reread a classic, so I was just so excited for this, and at first it didn't disappoint. I could clearly see the parallels, and even if the retelling is pretty loose, the vibes were there and that's all I wanted.
What disappointed me is that it didn't actually lean into the *vibes* of the ending of the original. I didn't want it to be carbon-copy, the rest of the book wasn't, and I didn't care. I just wanted this book to lean into the messed-up places of the original, and the fact that the main character's ending is not a happy one, or at least that he does severly messed-up stuff to get where he wants. I didn't see it here, despite the very messed-up stuff happening, and I'll get into spoilers next to explain why.
Spoiler
So like, not a big spoiler for Dorian Gray, but Basil gets killed by Dorian, Dorian kinda-sorta accidentally kills himself, Lord Henry lives for some reason despite being the worst asshole of the bunch. I wanted this book to lean into that so bad. I kind of wanted a major character death, or for Mick to do something truly messed-up at the end, to parallel Dorian. We get Nico being a dramatic creep instead, and good, but also I felt like the happy(ish) ending for Mick and Veronica cheapened their messier moments, resolving them a little bit easily.Also, can we really market this as murderous sapphic thriller when none of the sapphics are doing the murders? Gosh, I really wanted some big Mick violent fuckup towards the end. It could have been so damn perfect (to me) if it really took the general murder/violent paranoia/corruption arc vibes of Dorian Gray. But like, I'm definitely judging the book from a The Picture of Dorian Gray nerd perspective, and it's probably not doing it justice as it stands on its own, but STILL, I can't quite unsee all this.
I'm also forever going to be puzzling on the intentions of the author on the parallels between characters. Seemed pretty clear to me at the beginning that Mick was Dorian, Veronica Basil, and Nico Lord Henry. Towards the end, I started wondering if there wasn't a bit of Dorian in Nico too, and a bit of Lord Henry in Veronica? I'm not sure I want a clear answer to this, and it's not actually a fault of the book, but it got me wondering.
Another reason I didn't rate this book higher was the major, glaring plot hole. A whole chunk of the events happening at the end happen because Veronica messages Mick on her phone, which Nico has stolen. BUT, a few chapters earlier, Mick told Veronica she lost her phone. She told her. Veronica knew Mick didn't have her phone, and that never came up. I could have ignored that if at some point Veronica thought "shit I forgot about the phone thing" but she never did and I was just there staring in disbelief. It's a pretty glaring plot hole that was hard to forgive, because if Veronica remembered Mick didn't have her phone, it could have changed the whole last quarter of the book.
Anyway, I kind of wanted this to be messier than it was in the end. I understand that it's a YA sapphic book and I think there's a certain expectation to what the ending of a queer YA book should look like. But I would have loved this so much if it had leaned into the messed-up characters and messed-up ending more, and not only for the bad guy of the book.
Still, it has some solid Dorian Gray retelling vibes, a good amount of murder and messed-up kids, I just wanted more from it than I got.