A review by lara_ayrolla
Pretty Dead Things: A Mystery by Lilian West

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Before anything, I would like to thank Lilian West, the publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was entertaining but didn't do anything particularly well. Fun enough to enjoy and recommend, bland enough to be forgotten quickly.

Pros:
  • The plot is interesting and kept me engaged.
  • I gasped multiple times with some of the revelations.
  • The past and present interconnected timelines were fun and made me connect much deeper with the mystery and the people involved.
  • The revelation at the end caught me by surprise and made a lot of sense.

Cons:
  • It wasn't clear to me why Cora and Elliott are a couple. They don't seem to have chemistry or much in common.
  • Cora and her motives are very irritating. She knows she's hurting people, and her relationship, but she doesn't stop regardless of that. She could at least own up to it, instead of saying she just wants to return the rings and that she's going to stop.
  • The pacing of the end is anticlimactic and ruins the reveal a little bit.
  • I didn't care about Cora's personality or most of the other characters. The people from the past storylines had way more personality and it made me wonder why Cora was the one getting to tell their stories.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings