Reviews with content warning for Mass/school shootings - She's Too Pretty to Burn

50/50. I hated half of the parts and liked the other half but the entire time my head was spinning asking myself what the f*ck was going on. The book took so long to get started for being a fast paced book and the plot finally unfolds around the 52% mark. After that it’s a total whirlwind-and I decided I’m not a fan of thriller books. The book had me gasping and wanting more, especially when there was literally 30 pages left and a whole series of events went unexplained and left me with no details. I guess that’s the point of a thriller-an ending up for interpretation ? And please check TWs before reading this, so much went down! Also, I found the relationship between Mick and Veronica to be so extremely toxic I put the book down so often because of it. The only character I really liked was probably Claudia, the only person who overall acted rationally. Everyone in this book I would describe as morally grey, and not likable but i feel like this was purposeful, and the author wants the reader to acknowledge this. I would give this book 1.5/1 star if it wasn’t so exciting to read, but because it took me on a rollercoaster of emotions I think the 2.5 stars is deserved. I also gave it an extra .5 star because the author used the book title in the book, and I love when authors do that, it fit well.

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brokenbodybitch's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

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nothingrhymeswithrachel's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

You know how sometimes when you read a book, you aren’t sure how you feel about it? Like you need to sit with it for a minute, read other people’s opinions, etc. before you can actually review it? I definitely had to do that here. The very last sentence was incredible and my mouth was literally gaping. Then I thought, well I’m kind of upset that no one really developed that much in this book? But it also kind of felt like they did.. so I needed time to think, and here’s what I came up with: besides the wild thriller aspects of this book/Nico’s entire personality, the characters are relatable. They don’t have some “ah-hah” moment that snaps them into shape and they’re suddenly the perfect version of themselves. They slowly realize what they’ve done wrong and they try to change where they can. I absolutely love that a revolution never felt forced on them, like they had to suddenly fall on their face to realize they had done bad things. Obviously this happens but it isn’t in the same way as in so many romance books I have read.
The thriller piece was an absolute blindside. I did not read the description of this book before I started it, I never do honestly. So when

Mick was suddenly super into the fires and Nico was encouraging her, I was so confused. And I thought maybe it was a blip that I had read too much into but it definitely wasn’t, haha.

The last thing I will say, and the reason I did not give this 5 stars, is because there is that nagging feeling in my stomach that couldn’t help but be bothered when the kid who was in foster care ended up being the bad guy. I guess technically we don’t know if he was actually in foster care or not but either way, I hate that stereotype that foster care kids are going to grow up and be bad people because they didn’t have a steady home life. It just felt like an unnecessary detail. Otherwise, I loved this book and will keep and eye out for other books by this author.

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christinetyared's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Oh boy, this book was interesting. To be fair, I decided to venture outside of my comfort zone with this novel, I don’t often read thrillers, and was excited to read an LGBTQ+ thriller during pride month. But it was just not the book for me, and based on reviews from other people, it seems that most people either really loved it or hated it.

The plot felt all over the place, the characters were unlikeable and toxic, and the thriller aspect lacked some development.

The plot: the first and second halves of this book felt like two completely different stories to me. Based on the first few chapters of this book, it seems like a story about two girls, where one is a photographer and one is terrified of being photographed. But then at some point it devolves into a

story about a murderous installation artist who wants to kill people and destroy California, for seemingly no reason? There is never an in depth explanation behind why he acted this way, and other than one small clue, based on the main character’s idea of the antagonist, he has never given off any red flags. It just seemed very out of nowhere. Also the plot with Mick’s photo going viral felt really irrelevant to the rest of the story, like yes there were some important beats that tied in with it, but the consequences of that were never really hashed out. Again, I am out of my wheelhouse as I do not read that many thrillers, but even so, it did not feel cohesive or reasonable enough to me. Furthermore, the antagonist becomes weirdly obsessed with the other main character, Mick, with no explanation or reason given as to why he is so infatuated with her, again it seems random and half-baked, which moves us onto the next section, characters.

The characters: I did not like any of the characters in this book except for Veronica’s mom. The main characters were incredibly unlikeable and the side characters were given no depth and all made out to be assholes. Also Mick and Veronica were a super toxic and unhealthy couple.

For one, the fact that they started dating and fell in love within ten days of meeting seems really unrealistic, especially given how they were constantly fighting or lying or hurting each other within that time. Veronica does not understand the concept of consent and constantly steamrolled over Mick’s boundaries for the sake of her art. Mick was weak and whiney and had barely any personality, I don’t understand how Veronica and Nico became so quickly in love with her. Within the ten days of their relationship the two of them kept hurting each other to help themselves, fighting, and then getting back together without working through any of their issues. They never face any consequences for their actions towards one another, and the toxic and unhealthy behavior is never reprimanded in the story, which I think should have been to some extent considering this is meant for young adults. Nico, as already discussed made little sense to me, and his actions didn’t either, it just made the story feel so unrealistic. And considering how both Mick and Veronica are bad people and unlikeable, the stakes of the book are much lower than they should be because I did not find myself rooting for them or even caring if they lived.

Overall, I was not a fan of this book, it may be enjoyable to some, but it was not to me. One thing I will give this book is I loved the running symbolism of fire (and the contrasting ice/water) and I found that to be very compelling and well done.

Also please bear in mind the many trigger warnings for this book before reading. They also include drowning, strangulation, fire, and disregard for consent.

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bookcrushin's review

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dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was intense, but really interesting too.

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baylaurels's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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