Pretty Girls: A Psychological Thriller Novel Exploring Secrets and Lies Among Sisters

I wasn’t going to write a review because I wasn’t sure what to write, BUT here are my thoughts: This book was so disturbing. Truly a punch to the gut and a heartbreak wrapped into one. This is one of those books that gets under your skin and stays there, long after you’ve put it down. Karin Slaughter doesn’t shy away from dark, graphic, or emotionally devastating material, and it shows on every page. It’s absolutely not for the faint of heart. Some scenes were so intense and brutal that I had to take a breath before continuing, but that rawness is also what made the story so gripping. It’s dark, twisted, and unflinching, but if you can handle the heaviness, it’s a powerful read that leaves an impact. Every Karin Slaughter book I’ve read so far has been emotionally devastating and Pretty Girls was no different.

Many novels appear with the label “psychological thriller” but the promised content falls flat. Not so with this novel, this one engages the readers mind, twists it, and stirs not so gently. This is full of horror and violence, but not a lot of unnecessary explicit sexual violence. Think of what “snuff films” implies and you get an idea of what kind of gruesomeness you will find in this work. But all of this is the acting out of a psychopath. To find out the why of the actions, refer to the author’s phrasing of how the story unfolds, “it’s like skinning the layers of an onion.” Claire and Paul are in love. Claire feels comfortable, safe, protected, and lucky to be married to Paul. He did have a tendency to over organize everything. If Paul carried a pistol, it would be a label maker. Their house was spotless, everything in its place and even labeled. The obvious coffee maker was labeled “coffee maker.” There was a jarring feeling of sterility with the predominantly white everything, but Paul was the person who kept things in order, Claire just enjoyed it. Until he died in a robbery gone wrong. And that is in chapter one. As Claire grieves the reader finds out that she has a lot more to grieve about than a murdered husband. Julia, Claire’s sister had disappeared several years previously. Police would not investigate, convinced that Julia was a runaway. Julia’s body was never found. Sam, father to Claire, Julia, and Lydia, harassed the police for several years while writing a series of letters to Julia detailing his efforts to discover her fate. Sam and wife Helen, mother of the three daughters, divorce over Sam’s inability to move on and accept the loss of Julia, whether that loss had ended in death or desertion. Lydia and Claire went on with their lives in the absence of Julia. Lydia chose a surrealistic lifestyle provided by drugs and predictable free sex. Claire had Paul. Early in the novel we don’t know a lot about Helen’s or Sam’s reactions to Claire’s Paul. He seems to be a person who liked to please people. Father Sam feels uncomfortable with him, but does not have solid evidence for why he feels the discomfort. Lydia does not like Paul, understandable in that he tried to rape her. No one believed Lydia’s rape story as by the time of the recounting Lydia was already deep into a lifestyle supported by money she got by stealing from her parents, getting into trouble with the police, and lying constantly. Lydia completely broke from all members of her family, even grandma Ginny, when her story about Paul’s rape attempt was not accepted. Although geographically close, there were no phone calls, visits, or communication for almost twenty years until a chance meeting at Paul’s gravesite where Claire came across Lydia urinating on her husband’s grave. After a tense meeting where the two sisters agreed to continue disagreeing, Lydia went home to boyfriend Rick and daughter Dee. Claire went home to an empty house full of Paul’s stuff. And the newly discovered snuff film tapes. After a bit of time for shock to wear off, Claire takes the tapes to the police. Investigators say they have seen these kinds of things before and point out to her points proving that the films were fakes. Claire has already determined that the killer depicted in the films is not Paul, but she wants to know why Paul had the tapes. She is not completely sure the films are fake and she is puzzled why the police are not more excited. The story moves on with the aid of flashbacks and recollections by Sam (now dead, but he left notebooks), Helen (descriptions of coping mechanisms after Julia’s disappearance), and childhood recollections of Lydia and Claire (about life with Julia and life after Julia). The reader will also wonder why the police are passive. What is Agent Nolan from the FBI doing? Why would multi-millionaire Paul embezzle only three million dollars from his company? And how does Paul come back from the dead? This is fast paced. I found it impossible to put down, read it into late one evening, and took a vacation day the following work day. Which I guess makes the novel NSFW. I will read more from this author.

I'm sad to say that I must cheat on Will Trent. Will's books have been my favorite until now. Pretty Girls was perfection. The suspense was absolutely killing me. I started the audio on a drive and by the end of the four-hour drive, I had to switch to the book. The audio was not fast enough for me. There were things I wanted to know but I was scared of waiting for. So I did something I never do. I look for spoilers. Sadly for me, the questions I needed an answer for were not in the spoilers I read. Pretty Girls has an awesome twist. One I didn't see coming. Smaller twists were also there but I was able to guess them earlier on. Karin Slaughter spindles a story so perfect that you're unable to walk away from it, even for a second. I was glued to it. Nothing was more important than finishing her novel. Karin writes a malevolous psychopath. Such a sordid story that gave me a sour taste in my mouth. There are some scenes involving the psychopath and his victims that were very hard to read. I hope Karin Slaughter is nice and sweet in real life because her mind is freaking twisted. It was hard to listen to some of the things the masked man does to the women he captures. If I could have skipped those parts, I would have (It's kind of hard to skip parts when you're driving on the interstate). In Pretty Girls, Karin gives us the story of the Carroll family. We have Sam, the father. We have Helen, the mother and three sisters: Julia, Lydia and Claire. When Julia goes missing in 1991, the family breaks. Sam becomes obsessed with finding his daughter's kidnapper. He's unable to give up and Helen can't watch him self-destruct. She divorces him. Lydia turns to drugs and sex while Claire tries to be perceived as not existent. Twenty years later, a new girl has gone missing and something happens in Claire's life that forces her to seek Lydia's help. The sisters' relationship has been estranged for many years. What follows is the unraveling of the mystery surrounding Julia's disappearance and a deception so shocking, it will stay in my mind forever. Earlier on, I talked about spoilers which I needed to know. Well, if someone is looking for them, I'll post them here: (view spoiler) Pretty Girls was exciting, nail-biting, gruesome, and a terrifying novel. It was hard to read it at times. Yet, I couldn't put it down. Cliffhanger: No 5/5 Fangs

i think i have to sit with this one for a little bit so i might come back and bump my rating up or down, but this is what i'm feeling for now. so. hmm. pretty girls was a tough read i gotta be honest. i spent a decent chunk of the book deeply disturbed, and almost an equal part of the book wildly bored. i liked it enough to finish and i can tell karin slaughter is a good writer so i think i'd like to try another one of her stories. but i just felt like the whiplash i was experiencing made it hard to get through. also take a shot for every tesla mention (eye roll). however, the part i especially loved was the inclusion of the journal entries. they were devastating and had me tearing up in the end. this is one where you'll want to listen to the trigger warnings and people telling you how dark it really is. i thought i was prepared and i consume a lot of horror/thriller content but it's not an exaggeration how sick some parts of this book made me. was it worth it? i think so. but proceed with caution.

Pretty Girls is a dark, brutal, and relentlessly tense psychological thriller that does not pull punches. It follows two estranged sisters brought back together by a shocking crime that reopens the mystery of their missing sister from decades earlier. • Deeply disturbing but gripping: This book goes to very uncomfortable places violence, misogyny, and cruelty are explored head-on. If you like thrillers that actually unsettle you, this delivers. • Strong emotional core: Beneath the horror is a story about grief, guilt, and sisterhood. The family trauma feels raw and real. • Twists that land: The reveals are layered and genuinely surprising not cheap shock twists, but slow, horrifying realizations. • Fast pacing: Once it gets going, it’s hard to put down. Chapters end with that “okay, one more” energy.

Julia went missing at the age of nineteen. Her parents held search parties and hung signs everywhere. They never stopped looking. It took a toll on their marriage and eventually they filed for divorce. Claire, Julia, and Lydia were sisters. Claire married and became the wealthier sister. Lydia was married then divorced and was the poorer sister. After years of disappointment in their search for answers the family split up. Claire and Lydia went their separate ways. Twenty years later the sisters were reminded of Julia's loss when the reports of a young beautiful missing girl continued to taunt them. After twenty years of living with the loss of Julia, Claire suffered an unexpected fate of her own when her husband died. Claire watched her husband get stabbed in an alley. The story was ladled with potential suspects. Highlighting and making notes had become my focus. I became a detective trying to unlock the puzzle of who was taking pretty girls. An illusion of the truth was hidden in lies. The lies and secrets unraveled in the tidy world that Claire blindly lived in. Paul, Claire's husband was a neat freak and a control freak. He functioned best when everything was labelled and organized. Paul hid his life in plain sight. It was hard to identify who was the good guy and who was the bad guy. I was on pins and needles eagerly awaiting Claire and Lydia's investigative work to have a moment of clarity. They continued to find more clues but it led to more questions. They did not know who to trust. It was exciting and sad all at the same time. Claire detailed every speculation and worked through every angle she could think of. Lydia played devils advocate to more than one of Claire's ideas. The mystery and list of potential monsters became long. Chapters with Roman numerals were journal entries written by Sam for his daughter Julia. It's a smart story. Written well. Well thought out. The characters were complex and fully developed. The main characters growth exceeded my expectations. Many surprises encompassed the story. The story was graphic and violent. It was a murder mystery. The story was high energy. It was exciting and thrilling. It was good but when I finished I felt I still needed answers. Some stuff was not plausible like how long this had been happening. I wanted to understand why this began or how it came about. I wanted to understand how the girls were chosen. Claire gave you hope when everything else seemed dire. Helen was calm and smart. Family pulled together in a time of crisis. What a tragic situation to endure.

PRETTY GIRLS [2015] By Karin Slaughter My Review Five Stars***** I was already a fan of Karin Slaughter's novels two decades ago when I was renting books on tape to “read” during the extensive driving that was required by my job at the time. It was more recently (2018) that I decided to read both her GRANT COUNTY and WILL TRENT series in chronological order. A few were re-reads but even those were exceptionally entertaining. Slaughter quickly ascended to the list of my top five authors on the planet Earth. I was “blown away” by the sheer power of Slaughter’s works, and as I commented in a review of her debut novel BLINDSIGHTED [2001] she is the author that set the new gold standard for excellence. I had already read the entire WILL TRENT series before I began the earlier GRANT COUNTY books. She did not stop writing after half a dozen novels, or continue to write but with diminishing returns. We refer to "Early Cornwell", "Early Patterson", "Early Koontz".. and at least in my case "Early Stephen King" for a reason. The NYT Bestseller PRETTY GIRLS was released six years ago but it was the first standalone novel I’ve read by Karin Slaughter. It was so riveting that I would have stayed up all night to finish it if I hadn’t had commitments. Even so, I finished it in two sittings. I absolutely LOVED it. That was hardly a surprise to me. I have commented in the past that I become so completely mesmerized by her novels that I become almost oblivious to my immediate environment. I think there could be a tornado roaring like a train, a home invasion in progress, or a house fire blazing and I would still be holding my Kindle in a death grip reading her words and turning pages. She has the power to invoke what I like to refer to as “immediacy”. As a reader I feel like I am right there in the moment. This doesn’t need to be a long or wordy review. Amazon has logged 8642 ratings so heaven only knows how many readers rated this bestseller on Goodreads. I just looked it up and the answer is a whopping 205,017 (to include 18,548 reviews)! Tess Gerritsen, also among my top five favorite writers, commented that Slaughter is “One of the boldest thriller writers working today”. Translated that means that Slaughter does in fact “write with a razor” and her characters and scenes cut to the quick. If a reader doesn’t want to encounter raw realism and brutal reality, then stay away from Slaughter. Her works slice to the bone and deliver a visceral punch to the gut and a precordial thump to the heart that sends our emotions in freefall. Like Gillian Flynn has been quoted so often “I’d follow her anywhere”. I have to read the rest of her standalone works on my Kindle. I intentionally wanted to parse them out to prolong the thrill, but PRETTY GIRLS was so d--- great I’m not sure I can wait. The most impressive characteristic of Karin Slaughter’s works IMO is that the creative genius she possesses does not seem to give any indication of waning. Her ability to take the reader into the darkest most depraved minds and acts of sadistic predation on women sets her apart from anyone writing today. She doesn’t hesitate to “pull the trigger” on the sickest and most shocking scenes with forensic details that are not for everyone. Slaughter’s peers are writing crime fiction that tackles the same underlying theme of violent crimes against women, and their works include riveting thrillers that knock my socks off. It isn’t that the works of giants like Gerritsen and prolific authors like Hoag cannot deliver the goods on this theme. There is just “something” about Slaughter that goes where no mainstream crime fiction queen has gone before. Gerritsen called it “bold” and I think that’s putting it mildly. I have to say as I am ready to post my own “two cents worth” that I am surprised by not only the number of negative reviews I see but also by their relevant fervor about the visceral impact and graphic depiction of violence in PRETTY GIRLS. This is a small percentage of readers when you consider the whole of course. In any case, I find it annoying those readers post reviews saying they cannot bear to finish the book…that there ought to be warnings about the content, and so on. Good heavens. If you don’t want your emotions and your sensibilities to be stripped raw then don’t read Karin Slaughter’s works.

This was my first Karin Slaughter book and I went into with a little trepidation based on some of the reviews I read regarding the content of the story and plot details. However, at the end of it all, I was glad I went ahead and read this book since it ended up being a very well written psychological murder suspense thriller. While the book did start off slowly, with establishing the backgrounds of Lydia, Claire and the disappearance of Julia and its effects on the family. But once the story and plot started moving, the pace and entertainment level ratcheted up. You become engrossed into the story and made you want to find out how everything gets resolved. While some of the details and content of the plot is disturbing (especially if you’re a female), it’s nothing so out there that I haven’t read with other thriller suspense novels and isn’t something that should turn you away from this book. Looking back on this read, while this is a murder suspense thriller, it’s more of a psychological thriller. That complaint I had earlier about the slow start and information building? It served a bigger purpose in that it established the foundation on which the suspense and thrill is built upon. Learning about Lydia, Claire, and their family before and after Julia’s disappearance made you emotionally invested in them and how dysfunctional they all became after the loss of Julia. Once you come to understand them, you in turn understand the severity of all the revelations that you come to learn about Julia’s disappearance and the personal nature of it. It’s where the tension and suspense comes from more so than from the actual crime as horrible as it is. And in the end, this is really a story about a family who has suffered greatly from a loss and the unknown status of a missing loved one. Without Slaughter writing a compelling family dynamic, the overall story wouldn’t have worked. While there are certain aspects of the story that I would question (e.g. the extent of the cover up and participants in a small town) as a whole I thought this was a smart, suspenseful and engrossing read. It was well-written and, aside from the beginning, was nicely paced. The book didn’t follow any kind of formulaic thread you would expect from a psychological thriller. While there is an overall disappearance/murder/conspiracy umbrella plot, its heart lays in the complex and complicated nature of a family who is still suffering the effects of missing a loved one and trying to find closure.