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rebeccaelizabeth94's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Oh my gosh! I absolutely loved this story. I was hooked from the opening line and didn’t want to stop listening to it. We find Cecelia on her way to live with her rich estranged grandmother, who is also a mystery author with a career spanning decades. Her grandmother treats her like a house guest and prides herself on the social connections that Cecelia makes at high school. On the first day of school Cecelia falls into the popular crowd from the start. The town is shrouded in the real life murder turned thriller turned blockbuster movie. Caroline was found dead in the pool floating next to her crown 50 years ago. The town has Weston Con where murder enthusiasts come to see where the murder that inspired their favorite thriller took place. On the night before homecoming two of the girls in Cecelia’s friend group got into a very public fight over homecoming outfits. The next thing we knew was Natalie, daughter of the mayor, head bitch on campus was found dead in the pool. Along with finding the body people start to wonder if there’s a copycat to the murder from 50 years ago. Cecelia works with Brontë, her new best friend as well as Amber, Brontë’s girlfriend and police chiefs daughter, Ben Cecelia’s love interest and Gabriel, Brontë’s brother to figure out who killed Natalie. The thing is Cecelia works with people one or two at a time not as a whole group. The more Cecelia digs the more dirt and blackmail she uncovers. Everyone has dirt on someone else. Like Natalie was recording all the therapy sessions the people of the town had with her mother. She would then exploit their secrets for her gain. Amber played both sides of the law to help her friend and her dad. Gabriel worked 3 jobs but always was where he needed to be to help out. Morgan wanted to sleep with Natalie’s dad this lead to Cecelia announcing to the whole town at Natalie’s funeral that the mayor was into underage girls. That was a real bombshell. Bens grandfather is going to sue the town for his moms death and there’s animosity there and hate fucking did take place before he got with Cecelia. I loved the women I. This book they had the town on lock. By the time Cecelia got to the pool with the mysterious messages I knew Ben would be the killer. I didn’t see the grandmother twist coming but what a revelation. It was an ending I didn’t see coming and it was so much better than I hoped. 10/10 I wanted to start it again as soon as I finished it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Pedophilia, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Death, and Blood
Moderate: Cancer, Grief, Car accident, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, and Drug use
swiveller's review against another edition
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Car accident, Murder, Blood, Classism, Drug use, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
jjstallone's review against another edition
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Death, Alcohol, Child death, Murder, Pedophilia, Outing, Death of parent, Drug use, Infidelity, Bullying, Grief, and Misogyny
Minor: Car accident and Cancer
hollyk's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I loved this book. Point blank.
Pretty Dead Queens follows Cecelia Ellis following the wake of her mother's death, as she moves to northern California to live with her prolific writer of a grandmother. Her grandmother's success? Writing mysteries, the first of which was based on the true story of a homecoming queen in the town some fifty years earlier. When a second homecoming queen turns up dead, Cecelia throws herself into the mystery--both present and past, for answers. But in this small town, secrets are aplenty, and no one is completely innocent.
Alexa Donne knows how to write teenagers. All of the teens in this book act like their age. Does that mean at times my decrepit 22 year old self was internally screaming at some of the actions? Yes. But what is being a teenager if not being reckless and involving yourself in a murder investigation? Okay, maybe not the latter, but you get my point.
There are essentially two mysteries going on, while Cecelia is dealing with (read: avoiding) the grief of losing her mother. The two mysteries are eerily similar: homecoming queen found dead in the school's pool. But fifty years earlier, the supposed culprit was caught. Or was he? The twists! The turns! I loved it. I could have done without theLuke and Caleb being in a secret relationship--the whole secret gay relationship trope feels a bit problematic? Especially since there was a lesbian couple in the book and there wasn't homophobia outside of an incident in middle school that's briefly mentioned? But I am also not a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, so I may be out of my depth here.
I did call it towards the beginning, but I was definitely questioning myself throughout which is always a good thing! I am also never going to be upset by guessing an ending--I feel vindicated when I get it right.
Cecelia's group of friends are great, diverse, and very supportive. They also have distinct personalities and do push back against her at times--oftentimes I think new friend groups in YA tend to just fully accept the new girl right off the bat, but not so here.
There's a small love triangle, but nothing like cheating or a lot of conflicted pining, which is always appreciated.
Cecelia is a smart girl, if a bit hasty in actions--she's a complex person and I loved her as a character. And she likes K-pop so we're basically besties. I haven't lost a parent, so I can't understand that aspect, but my mom did have breast cancer, and I know the stresses and fears that come with that. Cecelia deals with her grief by hyper-focusing on something else--the murders.
This book isn't just about solving a murder (or murders, as it may be), it's also about the complexities of mourning and how there are different ways of grieving. Alexa Donne effortlessly weaves deeper issues into her work without overwhelming the reader and keeping the entertainment factor high.
I would highly recommend this to anyone who loved The Ivies, loves an overlapping in old cases and new cases, and loves small town murder mysteries.
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for sending me an e-arc in exchange for my honest review!:)
TW (contains spoilers):Blood, murder, death of a parent, grief, drugging, strangulation, kidnapping, attempted murder, knives, adult-minor relationship, homophobia, blackmail</spoilers>
Pretty Dead Queens follows Cecelia Ellis following the wake of her mother's death, as she moves to northern California to live with her prolific writer of a grandmother. Her grandmother's success? Writing mysteries, the first of which was based on the true story of a homecoming queen in the town some fifty years earlier. When a second homecoming queen turns up dead, Cecelia throws herself into the mystery--both present and past, for answers. But in this small town, secrets are aplenty, and no one is completely innocent.
Alexa Donne knows how to write teenagers. All of the teens in this book act like their age. Does that mean at times my decrepit 22 year old self was internally screaming at some of the actions? Yes. But what is being a teenager if not being reckless and involving yourself in a murder investigation? Okay, maybe not the latter, but you get my point.
There are essentially two mysteries going on, while Cecelia is dealing with (read: avoiding) the grief of losing her mother. The two mysteries are eerily similar: homecoming queen found dead in the school's pool. But fifty years earlier, the supposed culprit was caught. Or was he? The twists! The turns! I loved it. I could have done without the
I did call it towards the beginning, but I was definitely questioning myself throughout which is always a good thing! I am also never going to be upset by guessing an ending--I feel vindicated when I get it right.
Cecelia's group of friends are great, diverse, and very supportive. They also have distinct personalities and do push back against her at times--oftentimes I think new friend groups in YA tend to just fully accept the new girl right off the bat, but not so here.
There's a small love triangle, but nothing like cheating or a lot of conflicted pining, which is always appreciated.
Cecelia is a smart girl, if a bit hasty in actions--she's a complex person and I loved her as a character. And she likes K-pop so we're basically besties. I haven't lost a parent, so I can't understand that aspect, but my mom did have breast cancer, and I know the stresses and fears that come with that. Cecelia deals with her grief by hyper-focusing on something else--the murders.
This book isn't just about solving a murder (or murders, as it may be), it's also about the complexities of mourning and how there are different ways of grieving. Alexa Donne effortlessly weaves deeper issues into her work without overwhelming the reader and keeping the entertainment factor high.
I would highly recommend this to anyone who loved The Ivies, loves an overlapping in old cases and new cases, and loves small town murder mysteries.
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for sending me an e-arc in exchange for my honest review!:)
TW (contains spoilers):
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Cancer, and Violence
Moderate: Drug abuse, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Mental illness, and Alcohol
Minor: Car accident and Lesbophobia
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