Review: Pretty Girls
Originally, I bought this book for my mum for Christmas, and after she finished reading it, she gave it to me to read. She told me it was a good pick, and when I read it for myself, I agreed. Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter is a thriller, but it is also a book you need to be patient in – which is why it took me a while to really get into it, because it took a while for all of the separate stories to come together and for the book to really get into the thriller genre. It took me a lot longer than I would’ve liked to actually finish this book, I mean, I had time, I just chose to do other things, which is extremely weird for me, because I absolutely love reading. Anyways, I kinda regret not reading it earlier, because the end quarter or so of the book was pretty great.
So, I thought character development wasn’t too bad, except, Claire went from the passive trophy wife, to a murderer (although she did bash someone’s knee in with a tennis racquet). I thought that it was a bit too much of a transformation, like okay, I get the circumstances, but I find it hard to believe that she would actually do what she did at the end of the book without hesitation. Other than this dramatic (?) change in character, I think the development of the other characters was normal I guess. Especially because Paul is a very complex character, and I felt that Slaughter really wrote him well.
There were some elements of the book that confused me, and I think that’s just because most of the book was from Claire’s point of view and she was confused. Also, I wasn’t really a fan of the fact that Claire stepping out on her husband and Paul’s comment on both of them stepping out on each other, was said with nonchalance, like cheating on your partner is a normal thing? So I get the circumstances of their relationship in accordance with the story isn’t like a normal one, and I get that not all relationships are perfect and stuff like this happens, which kind of makes it more of a real relationship I guess, or not? I don’t even know anymore. But I did like the fact that the three million dollars Paul stole was one million dollars for each time Adam Quinn fucked his wife.
Storyline wise, it was an interesting read. There was this overhanging mystery of Julia and her disappearance and other elements that came with that. Throughout the book, there were other things that were revealed and more questions were raised and this contributed to the whole mystery of the book and it was great. So I’d like to be one of those people who can predict what the twist will be and where the book is going, but honestly, I’m not, and maybe it’s just because the book is unpredictable, or it’s because I just can’t.
Overall, although it took a while for me to actually get into the book, I enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed the end quarter or so because I guess that’s where most of the action was. This is probably going to give off a bad vibe about me, haha, but I was all “hell yes” when Claire went all badass with gun – I probably shouldn’t like that. Oh well though.
