For me the worst part was that I don’t understand why there’s this artificial seriousness in different elements of the book. It just doesn’t sit right with me. It all comes across as manufactured gravity, and I don’t believe it as a reader. And that takes a lot of the story away for me.
Book Blurb of Pretty Dead Queens:
Seaview High’s homecoming queen is dead . . . and she’s not the first. A thriller about a decades-old mystery, a copycat killing, and the teen who won’t stop until she discovers the truth.
After the death of her mom (screw cancer), seventeen-year-old Cecelia Ellis goes to live with her estranged grandmother, a celebrated author whose Victorian mansion is as creepy as the murder mysteries she writes. On the surface, life is utterly ordinary in the California coastal town . . . until the homecoming queen is murdered. And she’s not Seaview’s first pretty dead queen.
With a copycat killer on the loose, Cecelia throws herself into the investigation, determined to crack the case like the heroines in her grandmother’s books. But the more Cecelia digs into the town’s secrets, the more she worries that her own mystery might not have a storybook ending.
Book Review of Pretty Dead Queens:
To begin: I came across this audiobook because it was narrated by someone I’d previously listened to and liked. This is also close enough to genres I do like, so I gave it a shot.
This book is called Pretty Dead Queens, and what happens is this teenage girl Cecelia moves to a new town and starts investigating this murder that’s happened. She’s really new to the place, and she suddenly gets really into this friend group, starts dating a person, while meaning to investigating the murder – and all of which is fine. It’s just that it happened so fast. The teenage protagonist is very quickly very into the whole thing.
On top of that, it’s like everyone just goes along with it. People are going out of their way, coming forward, and everybody’s opening up to her and telling her everything. At what point is this reasonable, right? For so many people to simply do this. Yes, she is a famous author’s granddaughter, well known in the town. If that is why everybody is helping her thing, sure. However, that’s not really what comes across in their interactions, especially all the kids in school. Unless maybe they’re trying to show that since all their families’ kids are going to the same school and just recommending that they be nice to her. Local famous person’s granddaughter, y’know?
For me the worst part was that I don’t understand why there’s this artificial seriousness in different elements of the book. It just doesn’t sit right with me. The way she acts like fully intensely in love with this boy in school that she dated for like a week, or something. It all comes across as manufactured gravity, and I don’t believe it as a reader. And that takes a lot of the story away for me.
Another little thing that bugs me is how much she (protagonist) overreacts to every little thing that happens. No spoilers, so I won’t get into it, but for example saying things like ‘oh wow her life is in danger’ in situations when it’s obviously not the case. Actually, if she could just calm down, she might be able to take a better decision. At the end of the day, this is a book for teens and maybe I’m probably expecting something more, maybe too much, in terms of maturity. Things like how you react to situations and occurrences. Probably that’s my bias as a reader since I often felt like ‘this doesn’t make sense to me’, but then again, I’m not a teenager.
I’ve been done with most YA fiction for a while – whether mystery or scifi – and this kind of cemented that decision for me. There are, of course, a few notable exceptions.
I think the highlight of it, for me, has been the narrator of this audiobook, Pheobe Strole. I liked her work before, and I actually picked up this book because it was narrated by her. Funny enough, that’s about the only thing I liked. I still like her and I will probably be listening to more of her work, but this story is simply okay. The narration was great! I think if I was reading the book instead, it would have gone to DNF.
