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A review by vienna_books
She's Too Pretty to Burn by Wendy Heard
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.
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.
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
Graphic: Child death and Murder