Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter on September 29, 2015
Genres: Fiction / Mystery & Detective / General, Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Police Procedural, Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Women Sleuths, Fiction / Thrillers / Crime, Fiction / Thrillers / Psychological, Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense
Pages: 592
Format: Paperback
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“No matter what happened to you, no matter what horrors you endured when you were taken away, you will always be my pretty little girl.”
In 1991 Julia Carroll disappeared. Her body was never found. In the following years the family coped in very different ways. The mother while forever quietly grieving, moved on and made a new life for herself. The father spent years looking for any clue as to what happened. Sisters Claire and Lydia grieved in very different ways and were estranged having not spoken in many years. Now over twenty years later, there has been another disappearance of a teenage girl and a murder of a middle-aged man that seem to be connected. This causes the sisters to reunite. With chilling echoes of the past, the two are confronted with a shocking discovery, and nothing will ever be the same…
What an amazing read! I was sucked in instantly and stayed that way throughout the entire book! What a wild ride! This book was heavy. I just can’t think of a better word to sum up how I feel after finishing this. I know some of the subjects are triggers for many people, especially women. For me, I felt the extreme graphic violence was necessary to put the power behind the punch of the storyline. I have felt lately that nothing really “shocks” me in a book anymore, almost like I’ve read too many graphic stories. This one was different. I felt she did a good job relaying the anguish of a family who has lost a child. A loss this deep affects everyone and it literally tore them apart.
I gave this novel a HUGE five star rating! The story kept my attention constantly. It is the perfect definition of a suspenseful thriller. While the graphic violence was extremely disturbing, I felt it did not distract me from the story, but can understand why it would have for anyone. If you have the stomach for graphic descriptions of what violent serial psychopaths can do to a person, then I HIGHLY recommend this book.