Pretty Girl - 13
By: Liz Coley
Synopsis From Goodreads:
Pretty Girl-13 is a disturbing and powerful psychological thriller about a girl who must piece together the story of her kidnapping and captivity and then piece together her own identity.
When thirteen-year-old Angela Gracie Chapman looks in the mirror, someone else looks back--a thin, pale stranger, a sixteen-year-old with haunted eyes. Angie has no memory of the past three years, years in which she was lost to the authorities, lost to her family and friends, lost even to herself. Where has she been, who has been living her life, and what is hiding behind the terrible blankness? There are secrets you can’t even tell yourself.
With a tremendous amount of courage and support from unexpected friends, Angie embarks on a journey into the darkest corners of her mind. As she unearths more and more about her past, she discovers a terrifying secret and must decide: when you remember things you wish you could forget, do you destroy the people responsible, or is there another way to feel whole again?
Liz Coley’s alarming and fascinating psychological mystery is a disturbing—and ultimately empowering—page turner about accepting our whole selves, and the healing power of courage, hope, and love.
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My Review:
Rating:
⭐⭐⭐
“I contain multitudes.”
I am a sucker for a good psychological mystery.
Several years back a friend and I went to a book signing where Liz Coley spoke of her book Pretty Girl-13. I was intrigued but never did pick up a copy until many years later when I found it sitting on the shelf at my local flea market.
Pretty Girl-13 takes you down a dark and twisting path as we learn what happen to poor Angie Chapman. A psychological mystery that catches you by surprise within the first few chapters. Now while I was hooked at the beginning the further on the story went, the less intrigued I became and the harder it was to finish.
Angie, in a daze, wanders home after being missing for 3 years. She has no idea where she has been and in her mind no time has passed at all. The last memory Angie has is of her and her friends camping when she was 13 years old. What happened during those 3 years? Where was she? Did someone have her locked away?
At first I found myself enjoying the path the story was taking, however over time I lost interest. Sure there were some twists at the beginning but after that one bombshell everything else seemed pretty predictable.
And don't get me started on Angie's mom, her character was just plain odd at times. Much of her dialogue did not seem to go with the mood of the scene. After such a tragic event she seems to be at a constant state of "overly happy." Not even overly protective just constantly elated, even by the darkest of news.
Other than those few tidbits, the book was well written and incorporated a near perfect balance of psychology and mystery. I would still recommend, even though it wasn't my favorite read of 2020. Pretty Girl-13 is definitely worth reading at least once.
Published by: K
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