Pretty Girls
A Novel
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4.2 • 5.1K Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
#1 New York Times bestselling author Karin Slaughter’s Pretty Girls is a sophisticated and chilling psychological thriller of dangerous secrets, cold vengeance, and unexpected absolution, in which two estranged sisters must come together to find truth about two harrowing tragedies, twenty years apart, that devastate their lives.
Sisters. Strangers. Survivors.
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 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 secrets that destroyed their family all those years ago . . . and find the astonishing truth where they least expected it.
Powerful, poignant, and utterly gripping, packed with indelible characters and dark, unforgettable twists, Pretty Girls is a masterful novel from one of the finest writers working today.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Karin Slaughter kept us on our toes with this chilling novel about two women pulled apart—and brought back together—by horrific crimes committed two decades apart. We were repeatedly stunned by unexpected twists and awed by the bestselling American author’s crafty storytelling. Pretty Girls features compelling female heroines who overcome staggering obstacles and press on to find some closure. Slaughter intersperses the suspenseful narrative with a grieving father’s first-person revelations, boosting the story’s emotional wallop.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Claire Scott, the heroine of this gripping standalone from bestseller Slaughter (Cop Town), thought she knew everything about her architect husband, Paul, but her posh Atlanta life is turned upside down when he's fatally stabbed in an alley and she uncovers a series of nasty videos on his home computer. Paul's dark side is what drove a wedge between Claire and her sister Lydia 18 years earlier, when Lydia accused Paul of attempted rape. At the time, Claire sided with Paul, and the sisters stopped speaking. The family was already splintered following the 1991 disappearance of Claire and Lydia's older sister, 19-year-old Julia, who vanished near her University of Georgia dorm. Paul's death brings Claire and Lydia back together as they begin peeling back the layers of everything that the meticulously organized Paul kept hidden. Chapters from the girls' father's journal, written to the missing Julia, form a poignant counterpoint to the chilling violence of this unsettling tale.
Customer Reviews
Wow.
Pretty Girls
Karin Slaughter
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I really enjoyed this book. But I could not give it 5 stars for 3 very specific reasons…
This was a book that was a little harder for me read because it contains every trigger warning… for pretty much any awful thing you can imagine like: violent rape, sexual assault, suicide, graphic violence, murder, torture, and at times I honestly wasn’t sure if I could stomach any more of it.
But I was captivated by the writing and I couldn’t stop reading this book. I already had an idea of how it was going to end by half way thru it. But I needed to keep reading it. I finished the book in 5 days.
The story follows two sisters Claire and Lydia who haven’t spoken in years, but when Claire’s husband is murdered, their horrible past comes back to them.
It is an edge-of-your-seat thriller from page 100 till the end. And by the ending I was so heartbroken for Sam. His POV was my favorite.
I loved the 3 different POVs. I love reading books written like this. It was written really well.
But the reason I couldn’t give it 5 stars is because I just really wish we could have had Anna’s POV, Paul’s POV and most of all I really wish the book would have ended with Julia’s POV. I think knowing how those 3 specific characters were feeling would have been the perfect addition to this crazy story.
Too graphic for 5 stars
Do not read this book unless you can stomach horribly graphic descriptions of violence, torture and sexual abuse of women. Repeatedly. Well written, yes. Suspenseful, yes. Sick, for certain. There are better ways to be entertained than this read.
Not as exciting as expected
Not a bad read, but nothing too exciting either. The ending was rather predictable and the antagonist is exactly who you think it is. Average read.