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A review by mellabella
Pretty Is by Maggie Mitchell
2.0
I don't know. I think that this book had the potential to be a better read for me. The premise, etc. Are good...
Lois and Carly Mae are abducted when they are 12. Lois's parents are distant. Carly's dad is fine. If not a little cowed by her step mom. Or maybe he just can't deal with raising a girl since her mom died. Whatever the case, her stepmom Gail runs the show.
Enter Zed. He is described as young and handsome. He abducts Carly first by telling her he'll give her a ride. Then Lois by asking for directions and, telling her to get into the car out of the rain.
I'm not going to question why the girls got into the car. They're 12. Or, the Stockholm Syndrome that follows. They are with Zed for 2 months. They are under heavy surveillance. He doesn't do anything to them physically. He watches and gets angry from time to time (especially when Carly asks him questions about himself). But no abuse, molestation, or anything like that. Just good old manipulation and taking their freedom.
As adults Carly is an actress and Lois is a professor. They are both kind of living their lives the way Zed would have wanted them to.
I think I got a little irritated with the whole Sean story line.
Sean is a student of Lois's that come across her childhood trauma and becomes creepy. Pestering her to give him information for a book he is going to write? Except Lois already wrote a fictionalized account of her past experience. It's being made into a movie that Carly (now named Chloe) is going to star in.
Except the way Lois handles Sean is not the way most would.
Also, most people-upon realizing a creepy student/stalker that had threatened them with a knife had remotely accessed their computer (and their calendar and personal info) would have done way more.
I liked Carly/Chloe's parts more. Those, and the flashbacks to when they were kidnapped. Neither character was very likable. They don't HAVE to be. But whatever.
Lois and Carly Mae are abducted when they are 12. Lois's parents are distant. Carly's dad is fine. If not a little cowed by her step mom. Or maybe he just can't deal with raising a girl since her mom died. Whatever the case, her stepmom Gail runs the show.
Enter Zed. He is described as young and handsome. He abducts Carly first by telling her he'll give her a ride. Then Lois by asking for directions and, telling her to get into the car out of the rain.
I'm not going to question why the girls got into the car. They're 12. Or, the Stockholm Syndrome that follows. They are with Zed for 2 months. They are under heavy surveillance. He doesn't do anything to them physically. He watches and gets angry from time to time (especially when Carly asks him questions about himself). But no abuse, molestation, or anything like that. Just good old manipulation and taking their freedom.
As adults Carly is an actress and Lois is a professor. They are both kind of living their lives the way Zed would have wanted them to.
I think I got a little irritated with the whole Sean story line.
Sean is a student of Lois's that come across her childhood trauma and becomes creepy. Pestering her to give him information for a book he is going to write? Except Lois already wrote a fictionalized account of her past experience. It's being made into a movie that Carly (now named Chloe) is going to star in.
Except the way Lois handles Sean is not the way most would.
Also, most people-upon realizing a creepy student/stalker that had threatened them with a knife had remotely accessed their computer (and their calendar and personal info) would have done way more.
I liked Carly/Chloe's parts more. Those, and the flashbacks to when they were kidnapped. Neither character was very likable. They don't HAVE to be. But whatever.