Reviews

Pretty Little Dirty by Amanda Boyden

angelreadsthings's review

3.0

3 1/2 Stars. Very nice ending. Blunt. Dirty. Nasty. Interesting. Leaves a good after taste.

missmree's review

5.0

I had to keep reading, had to see where Lisa and Celeste were heading. The story was seriously relatable at times, which made it both wistful and tragic and everything all at once. Something sad underneath all the manic fun. Loved it.

satrahsquatch's review

I did not finish this book, so I will not be assigning a rating; however, I was not impressed with the story or characters.

lapistella's review

3.0

Or best friends for life on speed and punk rock. This sums up Pretty Little Dirty by Amanda Boyden. Taglines of a novel that falls short in the way of genius, but is at least entertaining.

Boyden’s main character, Lisa, is self-loathing, short tempered and short-sighted. She worships her best friend—which I can understand being prone to best friend worship myself—but fails to recognize the love she receives back. It is an error in perception that she also inflicts upon her mentally ill mother. She lacks empathy. And in return I lack empathy for her.

I picked up the book because I liked the title and it looked edgy. It did fulfill that expectation. Boyden provides a raw description of two girls taking the hard road from suburbia to underground.

There are a few places where the story falls short for me. She spends a lot of time describing the early years of their “charmed” existence and abruptly drops us in the decent. Also, Boyden uses interesting flashbacks of concerts as a thread through the story but the transitions are rough and it didn’t gel until the end.

However, there were moments of crystalline clarity where Boyden’s writing style came through:

Heroin makes you sick the first try. Cigarette smoking too if you’re lucky. But if you’re not lucky and you develop a taste, if you’re one who senses that cocaine gets better with time, or you’re one who jumps out of a plane and becomes an adrenaline junky, or you’re one who loves the feel of grease melting over your tongue in the form of pecan pie or thick clam chowder or a fat porterhouse or just plain ol’ Doritos by the bagful, and you want to repeat the same comfort and recognizable surprise of that first go, the first indulgence, and yet with each succeeding bite the small hope of true satisfaction slide farther away, then you under Celeste, at least a little.

After her first fuck, she went looking for a better boy. She always went looking after that. – p. 29

New Year’s Day, a freezing-cold day the color of young guilt, I tried to reconcile my growing obsession, this base sexual fascination with guys, with what I knew would too soon the act of committing myself to years and years of study. If I were going to be using my brain in the future, I reason with myself pretty pathetically, it’d be fine to focus on using my body for the time being.

My conscience buzzed like a dying bee in a jar. Eventually I’d learn how to leave it on the windowsill. – p. 270

The hash you smoked half an hour ago purses its lips on your sphincter and kisses. It decided to deep-throat you. Know that you and the dark Turkish pitch are a combustible duo, and that tonight’s show will either be very good in outcome or, diametrically opposite, that you will remain unsullied. – p. 278

These moments and nuggets of good writing made it an interesting book to read, though the lack of continuity ranks it low on my list of favorites. If you are looking for a titillating account of how these girls got bad, then you can get your fix with this book—but it only takes you as far as a good buzz.

kelmc's review

4.0

Good read, pretty raunchy at parts.

casperintherye's review

4.0

This book still holds up for me even after a 10-year gap in reads. My friend group read this book in middle school and it quickly became one of my favorites. I reread it several times in high school and saw a strong parallel between the lives of Lisa/Celeste and my own.

This is one of those books where if people relate to the content, they'll probably enjoy it a lot more. For others it can feel disturbing/unrealistic as Lisa and Celeste go down the path of self-destruction. I definitely love the first half of this more than the second because the build up of Lisa and Celeste's friendship is so pure.

It's definitely not the groundbreaking novel I felt like it was back in 2006, but I still love a lot about it, especially the second-person music breaks between chapters. I got so many great music recommendations from this book. It probably influenced my music taste a lot!

ultrabookgeek's review against another edition

4.0

Sometimes you start a book with the feeling you might not like it or that somehow it's just another book of rich teens and their angst. But then the writer creates a story that pulls you in and makes you care against your wishes, against your better judgement. This book has done this to me. A story of two friends navigating their own sense of rebellion in the late 70's/early 80's, a story of best friends and a meditation of beauty and its impact on their world.