Two Minute Review: Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

Title: Pretty Girls
Author: Karin Slaughter
Genre: mystery, thriller
Series: N/A
Pages: 688
Published: expected September 29 2015

Source: publishers via edelweiss
Rating: 3/5

Sisters. Strangers. Survivors.

More than twenty years ago, Claire and Lydia's teenaged sister Julia vanished without a trace. The two women have not spoken since, and now their lives could not be more different. Claire is the glamorous trophy wife of an Atlanta millionaire. Lydia, a single mother, dates an ex-con and struggles to make ends meet. But neither has recovered from the horror and heartbreak of their shared loss—a devastating wound that's cruelly ripped open when Claire's husband is killed.

The disappearance of a teenage girl and the murder of a middle-aged man, almost a quarter-century apart: what could connect them? Forming a wary truce, the surviving sisters look to the past to find the truth, unearthing the secrets that destroyed their family all those years ago . . . and uncovering the possibility of redemption, and revenge, where they least expect it.

This was my first book by this author, and she came recommended for the thriller and mystery genre. And while this is highly readable, I don't know that it's good. And, honestly, reading this has made me nauseous several times. It's dark and violent and gruesome. I am reminded again and again why this is a genre I rarely reach for. It's like an episode of Criminal Minds for 700 pages but more explicitly and sexually violent. It's full of some twists and turns (several of which were entirely predictable) but this is often a hard novel to read.

I liked some of the writing and a few of the characters. But this is a bloated behemoth. Somewhere in those 700 pages is a 450 -page taut thriller. And while this never necesarily lagged -- it zips, honestly -- it's just exhausting to read. If fewer of the twists had been obvious or telegraphed, if the villains were more than just one-note (if horrifying), this could have been a better read for me. But as it was -- with all the violence and torture and pain -- Claire's occasional oneliners and Lydia's snark weren't enough for me to enjoy this.

In the end, this is just not a book or author for me. It was an experiment I am glad I tried, but I will stick to thrillers and mysteries that don't disturb me.