Pretty Girls is a psychological thriller, a whodunit about the disappearance and murder of one sister, while the other two sisters continued their lives on different paths. It’s about family, grief, and cruelty. When I read books about psychopathy, I find they rarely get it right, but this author got it quite close to the truth. It’s a truly disturbing and bone-chilling read.
The book answers the question – what happens to pretty girls who disappear?
Obviously, the answer is one of many, but the details revealed were really graphic and horrifying. Apart from the horrific elements, there were also a lot of psychological pieces that made the book deeper than it needed to be. Not to mention, I did not expect the main character to be so deeply clever and so unlikable half the time. In the end, though, I was rooting for her. The mystery of the ‘villain’ was thoroughly enjoyable… and while I guessed most of the twists, I still couldn’t stop reading. The most satisfying part of the book was definitely the end, which isn’t always the case with mysteries.
There were some parts where I got a bit bored because I felt the author was constantly reinforcing the same points or pointing out obvious things, and sometimes the story felt too neat and tidy to invoke an emotional reaction. But boy, did I cry at the end of the book! It was inevitable.
So if you want a really dark thriller with psychological twists that is about the effects of a disappearance on a family, about how deep and dark psychopathy goes, and about pretty girls who disappeared without a trace and another pretty girl trying to put it all to rights, then this is your book. Expect to get chills, to cry, and to remember this book for a long time. If however you do not enjoy disturbing scenes or darkness in your psychological thrillers, then maybe this is one to skip.
Reviewed by Violeta Nedkova
