Pretty girls was fantastic. It had tension, thrills, suspense, horror, gore and emotion. You get so enraptured with the drama that you are likely to lose huge chunks of time whilst reading this.
We have a family torn apart by the disappearance of a daughter a long time ago. There’s mum, dad and the two remaining daughters – Lydia and Claire. Both so very different to one another. One married well and has a picture perfect life, the other is a recovering drug addict with a not so dandy existence.
Lydia had a drug problem. She also had a kid with her ex. So now she has to be self employed (because who wants to employ an ex-junkie) and raise her little girl by herself. There’s been news of a missing girl in town and Lydia can’t detach from it. Claire is a the stereotypical beautiful house wife, with little to do in her day except play tennis and lunch with friends.
Claire and beautiful, attentive, kind, funny hubby Paul are out one night trying to ‘get it on’ down some dingey back alley, when things go a bit awry. A baddie comes and kills poor old Mr perfect. Distraught and trying to get on with things, Claire thinks it best to clear out his computer… this was a bad idea, things only go downhill for her from here! And so our story begins.
With the help of Lydia, whom Claire has not seen or been friendly with in a LONG time, they uncover ghastly truths about Paul, and hope to uncover what happened to Julia the day she disappeared all those year ago.
We switch between the different characters perspectives. And when a young girl goes missing in the present day, it reminds each of the family members of Julia- their missing piece.
The way it is written is so realistic and it feels like they are there with you telling their story. I could differentiate between the characters easily whilst reading their accounts. Dad Sam’s journal entries are especially heart wrenching.
This is a very disturbing story that gets uncovered, and one which some readers may find a bit too much. I loved the grittiness of it. It’s raw and we see people at their base emotions. The ending was just superb. It’s hard to review without giving spoilers away. But I would not hesitate in recommending this book to every Slaughter and thriller fan alike.
Becca x
The Beautiful Book Break 