Pretty Girls: A Novel
by Karin Slaughter
On This Page
Description
"More than twenty years ago, Claire and Lydia's teenaged sister Julia vanished without a trace. The two women have not spoken since, and now their lives could not be more different. Claire is the glamorous trophy wife of an Atlanta millionaire. Lydia, a single mother, dates an ex-con and struggles to make ends meet. But neither has recovered from the horror and heartbreak of their shared loss--a devastating wound that's cruelly ripped open when Claire's husband is killed. The disappearance show more of a teenage girl and the murder of a middle-aged man, almost a quarter-century apart: what could connect them? Forming a wary truce, the surviving sisters look to the past to find the truth, unearthing the secrets that destroyed their family all those years ago . . . and uncovering the possibility of redemption, and revenge, where they least expect it" -- show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
Member Reviews
After close to two decades of estrangement, sisters Claire Scott and Lydia Delgado are brought together following the brutal murder of Claire’s husband, Paul. Their family had been shaken to the core years earlier when the oldest sister, Julia, disappeared from her college dorm. Worry and unanswered questions hang over the family like a dark rain cloud and each has been touched by the fallout.
When Claire makes an unsettling discovery about her husband, she ultimately calls into question everything she ever thought she knew about her sisters, her father’s suicide, her husband, and herself. As she digs deeper into Paul’s life, she discovers that nothing is as she believed it to be, and nothing will ever be the same again.
As show more characters, both sisters are flawed. Claire is particularly unlikable; she has abdicated from any hint of responsibility and simply allowed her husband to take charge of things. Despite her own infidelity, she embraces a holier-than-thou attitude which, when coupled with constant reminders of her beauty, does little to endear her to readers. Younger sister, Lydia, has, through hard work and grit, redeemed her life from its earlier dependence on drugs, but she is filled with resentment and anger. The third narrator, the girls’ father, Sam, died several years earlier, apparently a suicide, and speaks only through letters he had written to his oldest daughter after she disappeared.
The story is at its best when it is focused on the family, on the reactions and the coping mechanisms each member embraces following the disappearance of the oldest daughter. The writing is first-rate; rich detail and depth abound. The tension builds, the story unfolds in ever-increasing urgency and angst. The father’s letters to his missing daughter bring to the narrative a poignancy that borders on heartrending.
And yet, there is an overabundance of escalating graphic depravity spilling across page after page. Focused on all manner of evil perpetrated against women, it is difficult to read, sickening to the spirit, and detestable to the soul.
Yes, suspense thrillers are often about unspeakable acts and the malevolence of those who commit them. But the books that resound with readers tend to balance the “good” and the “evil” in such a way that, in the end, the reader finds that justice has been served and that satisfaction in some way mitigates the violence.
By blurring those lines, “Pretty Girls” tumbles into a disturbing, dark degeneracy. When Sam tells Claudia, “There are some things you can’t unsee,” he might well be warning readers that there are also some things you can’t unread. And, with its surfeit of harrowing horror, many readers are likely to wish they could unread this one. show less
When Claire makes an unsettling discovery about her husband, she ultimately calls into question everything she ever thought she knew about her sisters, her father’s suicide, her husband, and herself. As she digs deeper into Paul’s life, she discovers that nothing is as she believed it to be, and nothing will ever be the same again.
As show more characters, both sisters are flawed. Claire is particularly unlikable; she has abdicated from any hint of responsibility and simply allowed her husband to take charge of things. Despite her own infidelity, she embraces a holier-than-thou attitude which, when coupled with constant reminders of her beauty, does little to endear her to readers. Younger sister, Lydia, has, through hard work and grit, redeemed her life from its earlier dependence on drugs, but she is filled with resentment and anger. The third narrator, the girls’ father, Sam, died several years earlier, apparently a suicide, and speaks only through letters he had written to his oldest daughter after she disappeared.
The story is at its best when it is focused on the family, on the reactions and the coping mechanisms each member embraces following the disappearance of the oldest daughter. The writing is first-rate; rich detail and depth abound. The tension builds, the story unfolds in ever-increasing urgency and angst. The father’s letters to his missing daughter bring to the narrative a poignancy that borders on heartrending.
And yet, there is an overabundance of escalating graphic depravity spilling across page after page. Focused on all manner of evil perpetrated against women, it is difficult to read, sickening to the spirit, and detestable to the soul.
Yes, suspense thrillers are often about unspeakable acts and the malevolence of those who commit them. But the books that resound with readers tend to balance the “good” and the “evil” in such a way that, in the end, the reader finds that justice has been served and that satisfaction in some way mitigates the violence.
By blurring those lines, “Pretty Girls” tumbles into a disturbing, dark degeneracy. When Sam tells Claudia, “There are some things you can’t unsee,” he might well be warning readers that there are also some things you can’t unread. And, with its surfeit of harrowing horror, many readers are likely to wish they could unread this one. show less
Ho-ly Crap!
Calling this a page-turner is an understatement. I don't think I've ever finished a book this long (688 pages aka 14 hours of audio) in such a short period of time. Good character development and storytelling. Lots of twists -- some I saw coming, while others had me blind-sided.
I do need to put a HUGE disclaimer on this book, though. It's very dark and extremely disturbing with graphic descriptions of despicable, unspeakable violence. I didn't sleep well last night after finishing the book, and today while eating my lunch I was thinking back to some specific scenes and had to stop eating. I couldn't finish my meal.
I've heard that this is Slaughter's most graphic book. Knowing that, and also knowing that she wrote a very show more tight, well-conceived story, I will likely look into her other books. This one was good, but I'm not sure I could stomach another one quite as dark. show less
Calling this a page-turner is an understatement. I don't think I've ever finished a book this long (688 pages aka 14 hours of audio) in such a short period of time. Good character development and storytelling. Lots of twists -- some I saw coming, while others had me blind-sided.
I do need to put a HUGE disclaimer on this book, though. It's very dark and extremely disturbing with graphic descriptions of despicable, unspeakable violence. I didn't sleep well last night after finishing the book, and today while eating my lunch I was thinking back to some specific scenes and had to stop eating. I couldn't finish my meal.
I've heard that this is Slaughter's most graphic book. Knowing that, and also knowing that she wrote a very show more tight, well-conceived story, I will likely look into her other books. This one was good, but I'm not sure I could stomach another one quite as dark. show less
Many novels appear with the label “psychological thriller” but the promised content falls flat. Not so with this novel, this one engages the readers mind, twists it, and stirs not so gently. This is full of horror and violence, but not a lot of unnecessary explicit sexual violence. Think of what “snuff films” implies and you get an idea of what kind of gruesomeness you will find in this work. But all of this is the acting out of a psychopath. To find out the why of the actions, refer to the author’s phrasing of how the story unfolds, “it’s like skinning the layers of an onion.”
Claire and Paul are in love. Claire feels comfortable, safe, protected, and lucky to be married to Paul. He did have a tendency to over organize show more everything. If Paul carried a pistol, it would be a label maker. Their house was spotless, everything in its place and even labeled. The obvious coffee maker was labeled “coffee maker.” There was a jarring feeling of sterility with the predominantly white everything, but Paul was the person who kept things in order, Claire just enjoyed it. Until he died in a robbery gone wrong. And that is in chapter one.
As Claire grieves the reader finds out that she has a lot more to grieve about than a murdered husband. Julia, Claire’s sister had disappeared several years previously. Police would not investigate, convinced that Julia was a runaway. Julia’s body was never found. Sam, father to Claire, Julia, and Lydia, harassed the police for several years while writing a series of letters to Julia detailing his efforts to discover her fate. Sam and wife Helen, mother of the three daughters, divorce over Sam’s inability to move on and accept the loss of Julia, whether that loss had ended in death or desertion.
Lydia and Claire went on with their lives in the absence of Julia. Lydia chose a surrealistic lifestyle provided by drugs and predictable free sex. Claire had Paul. Early in the novel we don’t know a lot about Helen’s or Sam’s reactions to Claire’s Paul. He seems to be a person who liked to please people. Father Sam feels uncomfortable with him, but does not have solid evidence for why he feels the discomfort. Lydia does not like Paul, understandable in that he tried to rape her. No one believed Lydia’s rape story as by the time of the recounting Lydia was already deep into a lifestyle supported by money she got by stealing from her parents, getting into trouble with the police, and lying constantly.
Lydia completely broke from all members of her family, even grandma Ginny, when her story about Paul’s rape attempt was not accepted. Although geographically close, there were no phone calls, visits, or communication for almost twenty years until a chance meeting at Paul’s gravesite where Claire came across Lydia urinating on her husband’s grave. After a tense meeting where the two sisters agreed to continue disagreeing, Lydia went home to boyfriend Rick and daughter Dee. Claire went home to an empty house full of Paul’s stuff. And the newly discovered snuff film tapes.
After a bit of time for shock to wear off, Claire takes the tapes to the police. Investigators say they have seen these kinds of things before and point out to her points proving that the films were fakes. Claire has already determined that the killer depicted in the films is not Paul, but she wants to know why Paul had the tapes. She is not completely sure the films are fake and she is puzzled why the police are not more excited.
The story moves on with the aid of flashbacks and recollections by Sam (now dead, but he left notebooks), Helen (descriptions of coping mechanisms after Julia’s disappearance), and childhood recollections of Lydia and Claire (about life with Julia and life after Julia). The reader will also wonder why the police are passive. What is Agent Nolan from the FBI doing? Why would multi-millionaire Paul embezzle only three million dollars from his company? And how does Paul come back from the dead?
This is fast paced. I found it impossible to put down, read it into late one evening, and took a vacation day the following work day. Which I guess makes the novel NSFW. I will read more from this author. show less
Claire and Paul are in love. Claire feels comfortable, safe, protected, and lucky to be married to Paul. He did have a tendency to over organize show more everything. If Paul carried a pistol, it would be a label maker. Their house was spotless, everything in its place and even labeled. The obvious coffee maker was labeled “coffee maker.” There was a jarring feeling of sterility with the predominantly white everything, but Paul was the person who kept things in order, Claire just enjoyed it. Until he died in a robbery gone wrong. And that is in chapter one.
As Claire grieves the reader finds out that she has a lot more to grieve about than a murdered husband. Julia, Claire’s sister had disappeared several years previously. Police would not investigate, convinced that Julia was a runaway. Julia’s body was never found. Sam, father to Claire, Julia, and Lydia, harassed the police for several years while writing a series of letters to Julia detailing his efforts to discover her fate. Sam and wife Helen, mother of the three daughters, divorce over Sam’s inability to move on and accept the loss of Julia, whether that loss had ended in death or desertion.
Lydia and Claire went on with their lives in the absence of Julia. Lydia chose a surrealistic lifestyle provided by drugs and predictable free sex. Claire had Paul. Early in the novel we don’t know a lot about Helen’s or Sam’s reactions to Claire’s Paul. He seems to be a person who liked to please people. Father Sam feels uncomfortable with him, but does not have solid evidence for why he feels the discomfort. Lydia does not like Paul, understandable in that he tried to rape her. No one believed Lydia’s rape story as by the time of the recounting Lydia was already deep into a lifestyle supported by money she got by stealing from her parents, getting into trouble with the police, and lying constantly.
Lydia completely broke from all members of her family, even grandma Ginny, when her story about Paul’s rape attempt was not accepted. Although geographically close, there were no phone calls, visits, or communication for almost twenty years until a chance meeting at Paul’s gravesite where Claire came across Lydia urinating on her husband’s grave. After a tense meeting where the two sisters agreed to continue disagreeing, Lydia went home to boyfriend Rick and daughter Dee. Claire went home to an empty house full of Paul’s stuff. And the newly discovered snuff film tapes.
After a bit of time for shock to wear off, Claire takes the tapes to the police. Investigators say they have seen these kinds of things before and point out to her points proving that the films were fakes. Claire has already determined that the killer depicted in the films is not Paul, but she wants to know why Paul had the tapes. She is not completely sure the films are fake and she is puzzled why the police are not more excited.
The story moves on with the aid of flashbacks and recollections by Sam (now dead, but he left notebooks), Helen (descriptions of coping mechanisms after Julia’s disappearance), and childhood recollections of Lydia and Claire (about life with Julia and life after Julia). The reader will also wonder why the police are passive. What is Agent Nolan from the FBI doing? Why would multi-millionaire Paul embezzle only three million dollars from his company? And how does Paul come back from the dead?
This is fast paced. I found it impossible to put down, read it into late one evening, and took a vacation day the following work day. Which I guess makes the novel NSFW. I will read more from this author. show less
I am not a mystery reader really so I did not know what to expect going into this except that I had heard that this is a very intense book. That is absolutely correct. This book is dark and gory and at times it's hard to keep going in the story. I am not the type of person to be that frightened by books so I wouldn't say I was scared exactly but I did only read this in bit sized chunks because it could be so dark.
I definitely liked this book. I liked how we had a complicated relationship with all the characters. I found this book to be kind of unrealistic but also not so much that I could not buy into the story. I think even if this particular story is a bit unrealistic, many of us will have experienced a time where we weren't sure who show more we could trust, including authority figures or others we thought we could trust implicitly. I thought the relationships between all that characters were so dynamic and well fleshed out. The complicated family dynamic is really well written and a very honest portrayal of how families deal with loss and how they can grow apart.
I really appreciated the setting of this book as it takes place in Athens and outside of Atlanta. I almost went to the University of Georgia and I've been to Athens many times and I live in Atlanta and was able to have a very clear picture of the settings though I think even if you have never been to Atlanta, the setting is very well described. Some of the characters went to Auburn University for college which is where my moms whole family went and is another place I've been many times. This is obviously not necessary to enjoy this book but was some added fun for me.
Frankly, I am still not much a mystery reader and I don't know how many books like this one I am going to pick up in the future but I did appreciate the craft of this book and I'm glad I read it. show less
I definitely liked this book. I liked how we had a complicated relationship with all the characters. I found this book to be kind of unrealistic but also not so much that I could not buy into the story. I think even if this particular story is a bit unrealistic, many of us will have experienced a time where we weren't sure who show more we could trust, including authority figures or others we thought we could trust implicitly. I thought the relationships between all that characters were so dynamic and well fleshed out. The complicated family dynamic is really well written and a very honest portrayal of how families deal with loss and how they can grow apart.
I really appreciated the setting of this book as it takes place in Athens and outside of Atlanta. I almost went to the University of Georgia and I've been to Athens many times and I live in Atlanta and was able to have a very clear picture of the settings though I think even if you have never been to Atlanta, the setting is very well described. Some of the characters went to Auburn University for college which is where my moms whole family went and is another place I've been many times. This is obviously not necessary to enjoy this book but was some added fun for me.
Frankly, I am still not much a mystery reader and I don't know how many books like this one I am going to pick up in the future but I did appreciate the craft of this book and I'm glad I read it. show less
This was a ride of a book, let me tell you. Every time you think "oh no, that's awful, can't get much worse than that", it said "wait, watch this". I was questioning every character's motives, intentions and their status as good or bad with each interaction with them. Every. Single. Character. This was very well written with a great pace and the perfect amount of description...you know, enough to paint the picture but not so much you're skipping pages to be done with it already. I will absolutely read more from this author, including her series, and I really recommend this one to anyone that is looking for a mystery/thriller that has many elements you don't see coming.
I will warn it's a bit graphic when describing the gore and the show more assaults etc... so if you're squeamish maybe skip it. I personally thought it added the right amount of tension to the already tight mystery (mysteries?) but some people are not fans of that. Also, if you have triggers, maybe check for trigger tags for this, there are a few things I'm sure are triggering for many. show less
I will warn it's a bit graphic when describing the gore and the show more assaults etc... so if you're squeamish maybe skip it. I personally thought it added the right amount of tension to the already tight mystery (mysteries?) but some people are not fans of that. Also, if you have triggers, maybe check for trigger tags for this, there are a few things I'm sure are triggering for many. show less
Slaughter speaks the unspeakable. I'm torn: on one hand, maybe it's brave and necessary to acknowledge the parts of humanity that are most evil. Maybe it's important to remind ourselves how easy it is to fall into traps set by the most despicable among us. On the other hand, this is fiction, and fiction doesn't need this. The strongest parts of this story -- the family dynamics, examination of love and loss etc -- would have been just as strong without the absolutely sickening gore. Evil can be written subtly and hit just as hard, if not harder, than this. Look at Toni Morrison, who I think gives voices to the voiceless in fiction while also managing not to turn their pain into a spectacle. That's not to say that every author who wants show more to write difficult fiction should write like Morrison, or even be subtle about it, but this book made me wonder if, ethically, we as writers have a responsibility to be tactful when creating and sharing pain.
I don't think any of the above takes away from Slaughter's obvious skill. I just can't rate a book like this with a number system. show less
I don't think any of the above takes away from Slaughter's obvious skill. I just can't rate a book like this with a number system. show less
CLAIRE: A glamorous trophy wife of an Atlanta millionaire. LYDIA: A single mother dating an ex-con, who struggles to make ends meet. JULIA: The sister whose devastating disappearance more than two decades earlier shattered their family. When the shocking murder of Claire’s husband brings the horror and heartbreak of the cold case of her sister’s disappearance roaring back, she is forced to form a wary truce with Lydia, whom she has not spoken to in decades. Two crimes, nearly a quarter century apart: What could connect them? Haunted, the surviving sisters begin to unearth the dark family secrets that destroyed their family all those years ago … and find the astonishing truth where they least expected it. Powerful, poignant, and an show more utterly gripping crime thriller, packed with indelible characters and dark, unforgettable twists, The secrets connecting a brutal murder to a decades-old disappearance are about to be unearthed, but will the truth save them, or bury them forever?
The story was interesting, as well as sinister with well-developed characters. It also had more secrets than "Pandora’s box". Claire had had multiple affairs, which had included her husband’s best friend and his business partner. Lydia and Claire’s father continued investigating Julia’s disappearance even though everyone else had given up. He went as far as going to visit a serial killer on death row numerous times to get information about his daughter. Lydia and Claire’s mother had continued to see their father even after she remarried. And then there was Paul. He was almost two entirely different people. He was Paul, the loving husband, and he was Paul, the serial killer. Even the cops in this one, had secrets. You couldn't trust anyone. Then there was Lydia. We learned that she had had a drug addiction and a very unfortunate past. She tried being honest with her sister about Paul’s attempt to attack her, and as a result to that, her sister cut her completely out of her life. This book is incredibly detailed; almost too much so. This might be seen as a strength, but I found it to be more of a weakness. Also, the reader should be aware that they need to have a very strong stomach, since there are some very graphic details about the murders. The murders were all recorded and the tapes hidden, Lydia finds them...watches them and graphic details, shares the contents with the readers. I didn't mind that, but some readers diffidently will. This book is for those with very strong stomachs.
I had to know what was going to happen. Every chapter leaves another question unanswered. If you can make it through the murder tapes and the descriptions, you will be captivated and intrigued to the very end. The author did a really good job of wrapping everything up. I would definitely recommend it to mystery lovers but remember it is graphic. show less
The story was interesting, as well as sinister with well-developed characters. It also had more secrets than "Pandora’s box". Claire had had multiple affairs, which had included her husband’s best friend and his business partner. Lydia and Claire’s father continued investigating Julia’s disappearance even though everyone else had given up. He went as far as going to visit a serial killer on death row numerous times to get information about his daughter. Lydia and Claire’s mother had continued to see their father even after she remarried. And then there was Paul. He was almost two entirely different people. He was Paul, the loving husband, and he was Paul, the serial killer. Even the cops in this one, had secrets. You couldn't trust anyone. Then there was Lydia. We learned that she had had a drug addiction and a very unfortunate past. She tried being honest with her sister about Paul’s attempt to attack her, and as a result to that, her sister cut her completely out of her life. This book is incredibly detailed; almost too much so. This might be seen as a strength, but I found it to be more of a weakness. Also, the reader should be aware that they need to have a very strong stomach, since there are some very graphic details about the murders. The murders were all recorded and the tapes hidden, Lydia finds them...watches them and graphic details, shares the contents with the readers. I didn't mind that, but some readers diffidently will. This book is for those with very strong stomachs.
I had to know what was going to happen. Every chapter leaves another question unanswered. If you can make it through the murder tapes and the descriptions, you will be captivated and intrigued to the very end. The author did a really good job of wrapping everything up. I would definitely recommend it to mystery lovers but remember it is graphic. show less
Members
- Recently Added By
Published Reviews
ThingScore 100
*****
“My girl, what happened to you now…”
There are tons of cliches that reviewers fall back upon to describe how much effect a book had upon them. It kept me up, all night, I couldn’t put it down, etc. Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter brought a new one to life for me. The entire time I was reading this astounding novel I was so jittery and on the edge of my seat that I felt like I had show more just downed a triple-shot of Starbuck’s strongest.
I have read a few of Ms. Slaughter’s other novels, and she is easily one of the most daring and fearless suspense novelists working today. She takes chances, and has the skill and daring to make them work, and all of her talents are brought to to bear again here, and then some. Pretty Girls knocked me out.
When teenaged Julia Scott disappears, it destroys her family. Her father Sam becomes so obsessed with her fate that it destroys his marriage with his wife, Helen. Older daughter Lydia becomes a drug-abusing party girl, and younger sister Claire subsumes her ambitions and marries Paul, a mild-mannered and orderly architect who becomes a multimillionaire.
We watch Lydia right her life; becoming a middle-class single mother with her own business, she works endlessly with her boyfriend Rick to provide a good life for her daughter, Dee. Adding to her everyday worries is the news that a girl from Dee’s school has gone missing. Claire meanwhile, has become a tennis-playing trophy-wife with a dark underside that is revealed when she assaults another trophy wife with a tennis racket.
Then Paul is murdered during a robbery in front of Claire. Lost in grief she is further shocked to find that her home has been burgled during his funeral. Searching for insurance documents on her husband's computer she comes across some hidden videos that shatters her image of her husband. Not having spoken to her sister for years, she still decides that she needs Lydia’s help.
Understand that this is less than a fifth of the way into the story, and that so many twists and turns and revelations follow that I have opted out rather than try to describe them without spoiling the beautiful house-of-cards plot constructed my Ms. Slaughter. I wasn’t blowing smoke when I called Ms. Slaughter fearless, either; this is a visceral novel that doesn't dissemble or shy away from brutality and violence, both physical and emotional. Yet even as it stares into the abyss I found this to be a work full of strength and hope, both embodied in the touching and psychologically nuanced relationship between the sisters, Lydia and Claire.
Both are fully-realized characters, and they grow and evolve and deepen as Ms. Slaughter steers them into ever deeper and darker situations that test their resolve. Just about every character in the book feels real and true, and Ms. Slaughter’s prose never fails to captivate. Her first-person narration of Sam’s story, the father, is particularly vivid, and just about broke my heart.
If all of this wasn’t enough, Ms. Slaughter shows a very deft hand in action scenes, bringing the physical violence to life without shying from the pain and blood. I may not have mentioned it yet, but her prose is smooth and assured and the setting is vivid and feels true-to life.
As the end this novel comes to terms, with grace and skill, with the fact that life is very seldom about winning and losing, but more often about surviving. That is more than enough.
Review by: Mark Palm
Full Reviews Available at: http://www.thebookendfamily.weebly.co... show less
“My girl, what happened to you now…”
There are tons of cliches that reviewers fall back upon to describe how much effect a book had upon them. It kept me up, all night, I couldn’t put it down, etc. Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter brought a new one to life for me. The entire time I was reading this astounding novel I was so jittery and on the edge of my seat that I felt like I had show more just downed a triple-shot of Starbuck’s strongest.
I have read a few of Ms. Slaughter’s other novels, and she is easily one of the most daring and fearless suspense novelists working today. She takes chances, and has the skill and daring to make them work, and all of her talents are brought to to bear again here, and then some. Pretty Girls knocked me out.
When teenaged Julia Scott disappears, it destroys her family. Her father Sam becomes so obsessed with her fate that it destroys his marriage with his wife, Helen. Older daughter Lydia becomes a drug-abusing party girl, and younger sister Claire subsumes her ambitions and marries Paul, a mild-mannered and orderly architect who becomes a multimillionaire.
We watch Lydia right her life; becoming a middle-class single mother with her own business, she works endlessly with her boyfriend Rick to provide a good life for her daughter, Dee. Adding to her everyday worries is the news that a girl from Dee’s school has gone missing. Claire meanwhile, has become a tennis-playing trophy-wife with a dark underside that is revealed when she assaults another trophy wife with a tennis racket.
Then Paul is murdered during a robbery in front of Claire. Lost in grief she is further shocked to find that her home has been burgled during his funeral. Searching for insurance documents on her husband's computer she comes across some hidden videos that shatters her image of her husband. Not having spoken to her sister for years, she still decides that she needs Lydia’s help.
Understand that this is less than a fifth of the way into the story, and that so many twists and turns and revelations follow that I have opted out rather than try to describe them without spoiling the beautiful house-of-cards plot constructed my Ms. Slaughter. I wasn’t blowing smoke when I called Ms. Slaughter fearless, either; this is a visceral novel that doesn't dissemble or shy away from brutality and violence, both physical and emotional. Yet even as it stares into the abyss I found this to be a work full of strength and hope, both embodied in the touching and psychologically nuanced relationship between the sisters, Lydia and Claire.
Both are fully-realized characters, and they grow and evolve and deepen as Ms. Slaughter steers them into ever deeper and darker situations that test their resolve. Just about every character in the book feels real and true, and Ms. Slaughter’s prose never fails to captivate. Her first-person narration of Sam’s story, the father, is particularly vivid, and just about broke my heart.
If all of this wasn’t enough, Ms. Slaughter shows a very deft hand in action scenes, bringing the physical violence to life without shying from the pain and blood. I may not have mentioned it yet, but her prose is smooth and assured and the setting is vivid and feels true-to life.
As the end this novel comes to terms, with grace and skill, with the fact that life is very seldom about winning and losing, but more often about surviving. That is more than enough.
Review by: Mark Palm
Full Reviews Available at: http://www.thebookendfamily.weebly.co... show less
added by thebookendfamily
Lists
FAB 2022
16 works; 1 member
Kirkus Starred Fiction Reviews of Books Published in 2015
310 works; 6 members
Top Five Books of 2015
811 works; 241 members
Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction of 2015
98 works; 6 members
ALA The Reading List
490 works; 28 members
Ultimate Thriller Guide
52 works; 4 members
Books Read in 2019
4,052 works; 108 members
31 Psychological Thrillers that Will Mess With Your Head
31 works; 1 member
READ IN 2022
206 works; 2 members
Secret Histories
28 works; 6 members
Books Read in 2022
5,164 works; 113 members
Author Information
104+ Works 59,319 Members
Karin Slaughter was born in Georgia on January 6, 1971. In 2001, she published her first novel, Blindsighted, which made the Dagger Award shortlist for Best Thriller Debut. She is the author of the Grant County series and the Will Trent series. Her stand-alone novels include Cop Town, Pretty Girls, and Pieces of Her. (Bowker Author Biography)
Some Editions
Awards and Honors
Awards
Work Relationships
Is contained in
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Mooie meisjes
- Original title
- Pretty Girls; Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes [short story]; Fallen
- Original publication date
- 2015-09-29; 2016-09-16
- People/Characters
- Claire Scott; Paul Scott; Lydia Delgado; Rick Butler; Adam Quinn; Fred Nolan (show all 12); Julia Carroll; Carl Huckabee; Sam Carroll; Helen Carroll; Eleanor Fitzpatrick; Anna Fitzpatrick
- Important places
- Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Dunwoody, Georgia, USA; Athens, Georgia, USA
- Important events*
- Rache
- Epigraph
- A particularly beautiful woman is a source of terror. --Carl Jung
- Dedication
- FOR DEBRA
- First words
- When you first disappeared, your mother warned me that finding out exactly what had happened to you would be wore then never knowing.
- Quotations*
- 'Een beeldschone vrouw is een bron van verschrikking.'
- Carl Jung - Last words*
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Je blijft altijd mijn mooie meisje
- Blurbers
- Child, Lee
- Original language
- English
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 813.6
- Canonical LCC
- PS3569.L275
- Disambiguation notice
- Do not combine with the short story "The Truth About Pretty Girls."
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 4,600
- Popularity
- 3,128
- Reviews
- 212
- Rating
- (3.87)
- Languages
- 13 — Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish, Vietnamese, Portuguese (Portugal)
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 91
- ASINs
- 22