Pretty Girls: A Novel

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I can’t just walk away from this. I have to know. There isn’t anything left in my life except finding out the truth.” <--- my sentiments exactly! *keeps reading* This is also a book with absolutely no fluff. You can't skim anything because you'll miss crucial elements or reveals. It's intricate and layered. This author clearly spent a great deal of time plotting out her story before writing it because everything happens for a reason, every piece of the story has a purpose, and by the end, they all fit together. One reason I'm always wary of thrillers is I rarely find them satisfying but this book gave every single answer to every single question. I'm a fast reader and will usually breeze through full-length book in an afternoon but it took me 2 days to read this (3 technically since I read the first 10% one night, and the rest over 2 days) because there was just so MUCH going on in it... A lovely audio interview with the author by Steve White of Literary Week. The sound levels are off a bit, his volume being too loud relative to hers, but it’s worth putting up with. I don’t know if you’ve managed to piece this together yet, but I read a lot. Good books, bad books, romance books, crime books, I don’t judge. Of course, I have my favorites. But I try to approach each book with an open mind. I don’t necessarily mind violence in books. Or misogyny. I don’t even mind if a book has sexual violence in it, as long as there’s a compelling reason. This kind of thing happens in real life. They are horrible. But this is the next level of horrible crimes. It’s hard to read this book in one sitting cause you’ll want to take a break while reading the descriptions of the crimes.

Fair warning, this book is very much a thriller and contains graphic moments of sexual content and violence. However, that's part of what makes it so enthralling within it's genre. I might be too much for some to handle but if you're up for it, I can't even begin to recommend this book enough. Considering what Pauline's been through . . ." Will began, then stopped himself. "She's not very nice." Now this is happening in the middle of so much other stuff that your mind is racing at this point of the book. You have Claire's sister Lydia telling some of the story from her viewpoint, a break in at Claire's house, and a sister that had gone missing years ago. Then throw in another recent missing girl from the area. After I was well into the book I started to realize that the gruesomeness might be too much for me. I was starting to skip over the descriptions (very graphic descriptions) and feeling quite bothered. Other readers may not have an issue with it but I just felt a bit overloaded with details of such horrific acts. I ended up having to skip over quite a few parts.I've never read a book like this. There are so many twists and turns a race car driver would have trouble navigating. I literally cannot stop thinking about all of the people and events in this book. I went into it with just the knowledge that this was about a woman and her sister that hadn't spoken for years and that was about it. Holy moly did this get good! I was deeply moved by the family dynamics. My favorite part in this book is the father’s POV/letters to the girls. I wish I’d gotten more of the three sisters so that I could see more clearly the shift in their bond before/after the tragedy and their split. From children’s literature to classic 18th century prose, we’ve come up with 90 names - and there’s DEFINITELY something here to suit every bookworm parent. I like how we got a lot revealed quite early on in the book, but that didn’t really make me lose interest. It just made me want more to be explained, and therefore, my eyes were glued to this one. I was somewhat confused in the beginning because of a lot of details that were given without much connection, but it all made sense in the end. You couldn’t turn on the TV without hearing about the missing teenage girl. Sixteen years old. White. Middle class. Very pretty. No one ever seemed quite as outraged when an ugly woman went missing.”

Throughout the book my heart hurt for all of the families. I can't even imagine some of the things described happening. There really are some things that can't be unseen. Heartfelt and heartbreaking you could feel the love Sam had for his family as he bared his soul in letters to his missing daughter. This isn't your run-of-the-mill thriller. No, no. This is big kid stuff. The stuff that gets called "chilling" and "heart pounding" and "edge of your seat" and "thriller" and "psychological". Twenty years ago, Claire and Lydia Scott's older sister vanished without a trace. Her disappearance had a devastating effect on their family.Julia goes missing one night at age 19, following an evening out with her college friends to a local bar. Julia's 2 sisters Claire and Lydia, grow up in the shadow of her disappearance and take different paths in their lives.