Pretty Girls/Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes – Karin Slaughter
100-Word (or Less) Synopsis: After Claire’s husband is murdered during an attempted robbery, the duplicity she slowly uncovers might be connected to her sister’s disappearance 20 years earlier.
Expectation: A top-shelf mystery thriller of family and spousal secrets.
Reality: A needlessly violent and aggressively mediocre story that’s way longer than it needs to be.
Recommended For: Die-hard fans of mystery thrillers.
Why I Read It: My husband gave the novel and its novella prequel five stars, which now makes me question his taste in fiction.
My Take:
Karin Slaughter’s "Pretty Girls" and its novella prequel "Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes" had been on my “to be read” list for nearly three years because my husband absolutely loved the story, and he was convinced I would like it too.
Spoiler alert: I did not.
In fairness, the mystery thriller genre ran its course for me somewhere in early 2016. After being completely enamored with the Gillian Flynn masterpiece trifecta of “Gone Girl,” “Dark Places” and “Sharp Objects,” in 2013, I spent the next several years falling for marketing hype over “the next ‘Gone Girl’” only to disappointed by whatever variation on flawed female anti-hero protagonist murder mystery topped the bestseller list.
There were some notable exceptions — Simone St. James’ “The Broken Girls” and Paul Tremblay’s “A Head Full of Ghosts” — but as a whole, I find this genre to be a mill of trite ideas, lazy character development and extreme violence that serves no narrative purpose.
I won’t go into the plot, because, let’s be honest, you’re either going to be all-in on this or want to avoid it based on the dust jacket. But here’s why I thought "Pretty Girls" illustrated the worst parts of the mystery thriller genre:
The chapters alternate narrators, some as a flashback, which takes a beat to figure out, but eventually all the stories intertwine — so original!
The writing is quick, but every character’s chapter features only a slightly interesting revelation, usually discovered way too easily, that makes the book feel repetitive. GET TO THE POINT, KARIN.
The two best characters — Julia and Sam — are dead and brought to life only through flashbacks. That leaves us with two unreliable narrators — Clarie and Lydia — that are not likeable. Again, so original!
The violence is unnecessarily descriptive and frequent. The plot centers on snuff films, torture and rape. Oftentimes it felt like the screenplay to Hostel. If urine waterboarding sounds like something you want to read about, then you’ll love this!
It’s a scattershot of ideas to see what sticks, meaning none of it really does. From conspiracy theories to political connections (hello, shades of Jeffrey Epstein), at times I felt like the story was going in a unique direction only to be brought down to mediocre-ville by another one of Clarie’s and Lydia’s bonehead moves.
At a mere 64-pages, I found the novella prequel, “Blond Hair, Blue Eyes,” a supplement to “Pretty Girls” to be more enjoyable, mainly because the story centered on Julia pre-abduction and it tied together some events mentioned in the main story. While it’s not action-packed, it shows what better pacing, stronger character development and more focus could’ve done for “Pretty Girls.”
As someone who prefers to fall asleep watching Law & Order: SVU, I completely understand how the tried and true tropes make, for many, the mystery thriller genre literary comfort food. Even with the violence there's something oddly comforting about knowing what you're getting into. Still, I’m in no rush to pick up another one soon.
“Pretty Girls”
Rating (story): 2/5 stars
Rating (narration): 2.5/5
Format: Audiobook (library loan)
Dates read: December 26, 2020 – January 9, 2021
Multi-tasking: Good to go!
“Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes”
Rating (story): 3/5 stars
Rating (narration): 2.5/5
Format: Audiobook (library loan)
Dates read: January 9, 2021
Multi-tasking: Good to go!
