Twenty years ago, Julia went missing and has not been seen since. The book shows how her disappearance affected her family. Her father never stopped searching and wrote her letters. Her mother suffered depression and drank before pulling herself up by her boot straps and tried to have a life. Claire, married Paul and lived a very affluent lifestyle, while Lydia has been sober for years after a long drug addiction. She is a single mother in a relationship with a man who is also in recovery. The book lets us know that a young girl has gone missing. Her disappearance triggers feelings in both sisters and remind them of their owns sister's disappearance. You'll probably hear a lot about characters and the literary merits (ha ha, I hope!) but make no mistake--at its heart, this book is a thriller. There are lots of twists and turns and all the stuff that folks have come to expect from me. The only thing missing is cops. Not that there aren't cops in the story (because they usually show up when there's a crime) but the narrators are just two ordinary women who are thrown into extraordinary circumstances. The real question is whether or not they can rise to the occasion (or will they make it at all?) I simply cannot say enough good things about Pretty Girls. The plot is terrifying yet makes you want to read on because you have to know what happens. Literally every chapter gives you a new twist. The characters are so real I could picture them inside of my mind as I read and the scenery... I could see it all. This is also a book with absolutely no fluff. You can't skim anything because you'll miss crucial elements or reveals. It's intricate and layered. This author clearly spent a great deal of time plotting out her story before writing it because everything happens for a reason, every piece of the story has a purpose, and by the end, they all fit together. One reason I'm always wary of thrillers is I rarely find them satisfying but this book gave every single answer to every single question. I'm a fast reader and will usually breeze through full-length book in an afternoon but it took me 2 days to read this (3 technically since I read the first 10% one night, and the rest over 2 days) because there was just so MUCH going on in it... chills and shivers again. How amazing is this writing?? I hate that I have to go to bed now because I want to keep reading!!

But Pretty Girls is a book about women being hurt. Nameless, terrified, hopeless women being brutalized in every way possible. And then they think of more ways to hurt them. Tied to meat hooks, disemboweled, whatever you can think of. It’s like if Criminal Minds went on a coke bender. And yes, the book is written by a woman and mostly told through the perspective of two women. I’m sure to some that mitigates the issue of the over-the-top violence against women. But I can’t get past the gratuitous, almost gleeful sexual sadism that permeates this novel. This was one of the hardest books to read that I’ve ever read. It has trigger warnings for pretty much any awful thing you can imagine like: violent rape, sexual assault, suicide, graphic violence, murder, torture, and at times I honestly wasn’t sure if I could stomach any more of it. But I was captivated by this writing and I couldn’t stop reading this book, I had to figure out how it would end. 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. Ahhhhh, love this!!! “He had been so very, very cunning, hiding all of his transgressions in plain sight. The only question now was how many more transgressions was she going to find?” Karin Slaughter is the author of more than twenty instant NEW YORK TIMES bestselling novels, including the Edgar–nominated COP TOWN and standalone novels THE GOOD DAUGHTER, PRETTY GIRLS, and GIRL, FORGOTTEN. She is published in 120 countries with more than 40 million copies sold across the globe. PIECES OF HER is a #1 Netflix original series starring Toni Collette. The Will Trent Series is on ABC (and streaming on Hulu in the U.S and Disney+ internationally). THE GOOD DAUGHTER and FALSE WITNESS are in development for film/tv. Slaughter is the founder of the Save the Libraries project—a nonprofit organization established to support libraries and library programming. A native of Georgia, she lives in Atlanta.The compelling standalone novel from Sunday Times No. 1 bestselling author of Girl Forgotten and Pieces of Her, now a major Netflix series . Re-issued with a stunning new cover.

Pretty Girls is a captivating thriller written by Karin Slaughter, an acclaimed author known for her ability to create gripping and suspenseful narratives. Published in 2015, this novel dives deep into the dark and twisted world of secrets, violence, and revenge, leaving readers on the edge of their seats from beginning to end. A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Fair warning, this book is very much a thriller and contains graphic moments of sexual content and violence. However, that's part of what makes it so enthralling within it's genre. I might be too much for some to handle but if you're up for it, I can't even begin to recommend this book enough. Julia is a college student concerned about the recent disappearance of a couple of girls who are strikingly similar in appearance. She is hoping to be a reporter/journalist and wants to write a story about rape statistics. Julia goes missing one night at age 19, following an evening out with her college friends to a local bar. Julia's 2 sisters Claire and Lydia, grow up in the shadow of her disappearance and take different paths in their lives. Ms. Slaughter’s writing is that she always finds a social issue to champion, be it racism, sexual discrimination, homophobia, or child abuse. In this book, the spotlight is on sexual harassment and rape, the subject that Julia planned to feature in her article. So I am still glad that I gave this book a chance. Not all books are 5 stars, and that’s okay. Wow that last line. Wow! How strangely beautiful for such a chilling story as this. Definitely a beautiful way to end things. Loved the book!