The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
zeina8's review
3.0
My scale:75%
plot: This book is about four friends Sarah Paige Talulah and jess they all went to high school together and now go to university together. Then one day Sarah finds Paige at the bottom of a pool and a few days later Jess is found dead. These three girls must now deal with the death of their friend as well as a sinister figure in their lives that may strike again
characters: Sarah: is known as the sensible one and is the only one of the friends who isn't rich
Paige: is brave and is a diver she is also the least experienced in terms of a relationship.
Talulah: I fun and a party girl who is the pretty one of the group
Jess: was known as the wannabe and tried to be like Talulah.
setting: this is set in Australia at a university called Galston College where alot of rich kids go to uni.
Writing: the writing was alright I liked the duel point of view but the third person dialect made it hard to understand who was speaking sometimes.
overall enjoyment: I thought this book was okay the story was good but I thought the characters where gullible and sometimes stupid at points. I also guessed the antagonist pretty early on so I wasn't shocked. overall it was a good read but not that good of a thriller or mystery.
plot: This book is about four friends Sarah Paige Talulah and jess they all went to high school together and now go to university together. Then one day Sarah finds Paige at the bottom of a pool and a few days later Jess is found dead. These three girls must now deal with the death of their friend as well as a sinister figure in their lives that may strike again
characters: Sarah: is known as the sensible one and is the only one of the friends who isn't rich
Paige: is brave and is a diver she is also the least experienced in terms of a relationship.
Talulah: I fun and a party girl who is the pretty one of the group
Jess: was known as the wannabe and tried to be like Talulah.
setting: this is set in Australia at a university called Galston College where alot of rich kids go to uni.
Writing: the writing was alright I liked the duel point of view but the third person dialect made it hard to understand who was speaking sometimes.
overall enjoyment: I thought this book was okay the story was good but I thought the characters where gullible and sometimes stupid at points. I also guessed the antagonist pretty early on so I wasn't shocked. overall it was a good read but not that good of a thriller or mystery.
ceejayturtle25's review against another edition
4.0
Okay, this is a tough one. This book starts slow but by the end of chapter 1 I was hooked. It is complicated yet simple at the same time. You could easily guess who the killer was but as the book progressed you start to understand why. The way it ended didn't wrap everything up in a little bow. You are left with a feeling that something isn't right with Sarah anymore and you start to worry for her. There is little explanations for this, you almost need to check back in with the girls a few years after, see how they have handled it. This book could easily go on to talk about serious issues, yet it doesn't quite get there.
gracealicia's review against another edition
4.0
While somewhat predictable, Pretty Girl still makes a gripping read. J.C. Burke’s young adult novel centers around four-college freshman as they deal with the loss of one of their own. Told through the perspective of Sarah the Sensible and Paige the Brave, we follow along as the girls fight the pressure of their secrets. As Paige heals from a horrible accident that left her with days of lost memories, she clutches at the sole bright spot — her secret relationship with charming Jack. Meanwhile, Sarah meets romantic Johnny, and all it takes for her to fall is a compliment.
Immediately I identified with Sarah, being the one who doesn’t really drink, or smoke. I understand that feeling of being on the outside, of friendships of wealth — the isolation that comes with feeling a step away. Her early relationship with Wil is perhaps not the love of her life, but she is fond of him. I loved that phrasing “fond”. In so many YA books it’s love at first sight, passionate and brutal. It’s nice to see something more common, more every day. Not everyone has had an amazing passionate relationship. Most have had a fond one though.
I love the back and forth of Sarah. We watch as she lives through her day and then later we get a taste of her grief, as the things she likes and dislikes seem to become unimportant in the face of her friend's death. Watching Sarah fall for Johnny is painful – it’s hard not to see his flaws, his potential danger. At the same time, I can see why she does, he plays so well into her biggest insecurity.
Paige’s POV is interesting, we start to get a clearer picture of the girls, Tallulah always confident and partying hard, Jess was vapid and reckless and now dead. We also begin to get a taste of the mystery of the story – Jack. As an outsider, the red flags are big and bright! Isolating her from her family and friends. Jumping between hot and cold. Never easily contactable. Lack of social media presence. These all hint to his questionable motives. What makes it so scary is Paige’s (and Sarah’s) inability to see this – the holes is her memory stripping her of valuable insight.
One of the things I really loved in this book was the use of symmetry. Burke employs the use of symmetry to highlight the similarities of the girl’s journeys with Jack/Johnny. For instance, we see Johnny show up at Sarah’s door, drenched, to confess his feelings. Only to see almost the exact same scene play out with Paige in the next chapter. The creepiness of Paige telling Jack/Johnny everything he needed to know to later target Sarah was a great detail. The tantalizing slow release of details of Paige’s incident — the way it’s triggered through scent, was also really well done.
While I found Jack/Johnny to be an obvious baddie from his very first appearance, it didn’t detract from my overall read. The suspense was built well and the characters were relatable and well-written. I empathized with Sarah and Paige and enjoyed the little details used to build the suspense. I would recommend this to anyone looking for young adult fiction with hints of mystery and romance.
Immediately I identified with Sarah, being the one who doesn’t really drink, or smoke. I understand that feeling of being on the outside, of friendships of wealth — the isolation that comes with feeling a step away. Her early relationship with Wil is perhaps not the love of her life, but she is fond of him. I loved that phrasing “fond”. In so many YA books it’s love at first sight, passionate and brutal. It’s nice to see something more common, more every day. Not everyone has had an amazing passionate relationship. Most have had a fond one though.
I love the back and forth of Sarah. We watch as she lives through her day and then later we get a taste of her grief, as the things she likes and dislikes seem to become unimportant in the face of her friend's death. Watching Sarah fall for Johnny is painful – it’s hard not to see his flaws, his potential danger. At the same time, I can see why she does, he plays so well into her biggest insecurity.
Paige’s POV is interesting, we start to get a clearer picture of the girls, Tallulah always confident and partying hard, Jess was vapid and reckless and now dead. We also begin to get a taste of the mystery of the story – Jack. As an outsider, the red flags are big and bright! Isolating her from her family and friends. Jumping between hot and cold. Never easily contactable. Lack of social media presence. These all hint to his questionable motives. What makes it so scary is Paige’s (and Sarah’s) inability to see this – the holes is her memory stripping her of valuable insight.
One of the things I really loved in this book was the use of symmetry. Burke employs the use of symmetry to highlight the similarities of the girl’s journeys with Jack/Johnny. For instance, we see Johnny show up at Sarah’s door, drenched, to confess his feelings. Only to see almost the exact same scene play out with Paige in the next chapter. The creepiness of Paige telling Jack/Johnny everything he needed to know to later target Sarah was a great detail. The tantalizing slow release of details of Paige’s incident — the way it’s triggered through scent, was also really well done.
While I found Jack/Johnny to be an obvious baddie from his very first appearance, it didn’t detract from my overall read. The suspense was built well and the characters were relatable and well-written. I empathized with Sarah and Paige and enjoyed the little details used to build the suspense. I would recommend this to anyone looking for young adult fiction with hints of mystery and romance.
imaginethisreader's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Kidnapping, and Toxic friendship
maddyisnotilliterate's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
This is why you can never trust a guy whose name starts with J. Especially in Australia.
prisoner_of_books's review against another edition
4.0
This book was my first experience with thriller, and to be honest I am glad that it was. I will say that I do agree with the other reviews in saying that you could see the end coming from a mile away. But as someone who hasn't read much mystery or thriller I think that it was a great introduction. And while it was predictable I thought that J.C. Burke wrote this book really well. And I absolutely loved the ending, yes I would have rathered a little bit more detail on how everything turned out, but I did like how she brought it to a close. Overall, a good read for those just starting to get into mystery/thriller books, or someone that would rather a less frightening thriller.
victoriasc's review against another edition
Very predictable to the point which I could tell what was going to happen a quarter of the way through and just ended up skipping to the end
More...