Pretty Girls: A Novel
By: Karin Slaughter
Rating: 5 of 5
This was a terrific but really horrifying book to read. I have not read any of Karin Slaughter’s previous books (which is something that I will remedy soon), so I didn’t know what to expect. A thriller, yes, but a book that kept me glued to the page and left me with visuals in my head was not what I thought of with such a sweet and innocuous title.
The story is about three sisters and their father. One of the girls, Julia, goes missing years ago at age 19 and we read about the ensuing years in a journal that the father kept in the form of letters to her. The story about the remaining two sisters is in the present day, though we do hear their remembrances and thoughts about the past, too. The sisters are separated by something that occurred later but which has kept them apart for many years. When another young woman goes missing, the two of them are brought back together again and together they discover their true past and present.
I have two sisters and I can certainly relate to the sibling issues that the book discusses. Julia is the elder and missing child, Lydia is the wild-child middle sister, and Claire is the observant and more than slightly disturbing younger sister. I was the younger sister, too, and think the author has caught the dynamic of three sisters perfectly.
That is the easy part of the story. The hard part of the story involves some horrifying scenes. I wish I could think that such things didn’t really happen but, unfortunately, I really think that they do. The graphic and well-written descriptions created visuals in my head and that is a real compliment to the author. I not only could understand and relate to the characters, but I could see what they saw and think the way they thought, too.
I highly recommend the book but only for adults. I plan to read more by this author in the near future and am pleased to have found someone whose works move me. I almost said whose works I enjoy but that was really the wrong word. There was some enjoyment to be had in the story (seeing the mother and daughter dynamics at work and reading how much a father loved his children) but much of it was shocking and not really enjoyable so much as part of a story that really needed to be told.
I received a complimentary copy of this book via the publisher.
This was a terrific but really horrifying book to read. I have not read any of Karin Slaughter’s previous books (which is something that I will remedy soon), so I didn’t know what to expect. A thriller, yes, but a book that kept me glued to the page and left me with visuals in my head was not what I thought of with such a sweet and innocuous title.