Reviews with content warning for Murder - She's Too Pretty to Burn

for real, you’re going to leave us with an open ending to a stand-alone???

now, for the review, there are elements I liked and disliked. the main aspect I despised is the insta-love. a large part of the story takes place in the first ten days after the narrators meet, and they’re talking about love like ten seconds after they’ve met. not my kinda vibe.

however, this book will keep you in a chokehold. you know there will be betrayal, it’s evident in each chapter, but who, when, why, how? some plot twists you’ll see coming, others will leave you questioning your deduction-abilities.

overall, an enjoyable read that was clearly influenced by the picture of dorian gray, but veers off in an exciting, unexpected direction for readers of the original. excited to start my thesis on this.

Content Warnings

vienna_books's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I didn‘t know anything about this book going into it because I‘ve bought it a long time ago and I probably only picked it up because I really liked the cover.

The first few chapters were not for me and I considered giving up on it because it read like an angsty teenage love story. What kept me going was that I really loved reading about the art and photography related themes. One of the main characters is a photographer and another one does illegal art installations that are meant to criticise the system. I would have been more intrigued if I had known that I was reading a thriller but I had intentionally not read the blurb.

The first 100 pages are 2 stars for me but the story picked up speed along the way and I flew through the last few chapters of the book. The more “thrilling“ parts had me on the edge of my seat and I would give them 4.5 stars.

The characters are very much flawed but I feel like it‘s mostly done in a tasteful and age appropriate way. I really enjoyed that we were following a female/female couple and none of the other characters made a big deal about it. There was no storyline about somebody needing to hide, fear of coming out/public dating or judgement from peers. I know that realistically queer people still face a lot of obstacles in our society but it was refreshing to read a book like this where our characters didn‘t need to worry about this. Gives me hope that one day it will be like this for every young queer person.

What I did find strange was how when Veronica posted the photo of Mick she did not discuss the caption with her at all and just posted it with „just kissed“. Even if this wasn’t a same sex relationship, I feel like most people would ask if that is ok for the other person. The fact that it is same sex and they didn‘t even have a discussion about being out makes this behaviour even worse and unrealistic in my opinion.

One other thing I‘ve noticed is that the transitions between chapters are hard to follow at times. The author closes a chapter and opens the next chapter from a different perspective, on a different day at a different location, even skipping multiple days at a time. This made me feel disoriented.

I also have a problem with the fact that this is marketed as a „Picture of Dorian Gray“ inspired story. You can kind of see which aspect of the story is meant to be inspired by it but I feel like there is a fine line between good marketing and misleading the reader in this case.

I believe I would have loved this book a lot when I was 18 (I’m 28) and would definitely recommend it to teenaged thriller fans. I did enjoy the read overall - especially the ending - but I can‘t give a higher rating than 3.75 because I severely disliked the beginning of the book.

Content Warnings

cjreadstoomuch's review

Go to review page

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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

I liked the ending of this book it had me on the edge of my seat. I didn’t like Mick at first but towards the end she grew on me. On the same note I wished the author fixed the toxicity in Micks and Veronica’s relationship at the beginning, but I’m happy they worked through it for the most part. Both mick and Veronica were extremely problematic and I wished it was addressed. Nico was a dick though and manipulated Veronica too. The plot twist was huge though and I didn’t like how it was so open ended.

Content Warnings

raoulalexander's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Open endings are not my favourite, but otherwise it was pretty engaging, so 4 stars. I think it could be cool to look at it again regarding inspiration from The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Content Warnings

esme_t's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

Content Warnings

viviette's review

Go to review page

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

Don’t read this… It really isn’t worth it. The actual “twist” and/or “psychologically thrilling” part is only in the last third of the book—really the last 75 pages (in a 325 page book)—and even then its not surprising or anything. You can guess who’s basically just straight up crazy in the first 100 pages but nothing to do with the character killing people n’ stuff happens until the end. Tbh it’s mostly romance and a very toxic type at most. Veronica is manipulative, Mick is just a messed up girl, and Nico has like no personality except for the fact he likes “unconventional” art, actually. I was hooked from the first page but after page 50 everything just trucks downhill. The characters who actually die we don’t even get to know and they die within seconds so it’s not like there was a chance for the reader to have any fear. I have no idea where there’s a psychological aspect to this either I’m almost 100% that was just a marketing strategy.

Content Warnings

More...