Pretty Girls: A Novel

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You have Claire's sister Lydia telling some of the story from her viewpoint, a break in at Claire's house, and a sister that had gone missing years ago. A lot of people like that sort of thing, but I personally felt overwhelmed beginning around the 30% mark, and it didn't really let up until the end. I went into it with just the knowledge that this was about a woman and her sister that hadn't spoken for years and that was about it. Lydia told this story to Claire and her mother Helen, but both women dismissed her immediately, which caused her estrangement. Sisters Claire and Lydia grieved in very different ways and were estranged having not spoken in many years.

The plot was a big slow to start as we are introduced to the characters and it took me a bit of time to really become engaged with the story. From children’s literature to classic 18th century prose, we’ve come up with 90 names - and there’s DEFINITELY something here to suit every bookworm parent. Claire ponders the complicated situation at Paul’s grave and runs into her estranged sister Lydia, who is attempting to urinate on Paul’s grave because he once tried to rape her.An international bestseller, Slaughter is published in 120 countries with more than 40 million copies sold across the globe. Slaughter is the founder of the Save the Libraries project—a nonprofit organization established to support libraries and library programming. Just like watching a horror movie and yelling "don't go in there" to the person on the screen I wanted to yell similar things at Claire and Lydia. Although it does seem that if one can imagine a particularly grotesque form of depravity, there is probably someone, somewhere who is practicing it right now, and with so many folks on the planet, probably more than a few. I just want to start by saying I don't want to list any spoilers here; I think this book was so powerful that I would hate to discourage someone from reading it because I took away from their experience before even beginning the book.

I appreciate your patience because I know y'all love Will and Sara, but long-time readers will know what happens when I get bored and I wanted to take a knee on Will and Sara so that I could take time with the next phase of their stories together. Lydia - her demeanor, her actions, her words, are so believable as to explain why she was such an angry woman. 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. It's up to Lydia and Claire to revisit their past, unearthing the secrets that destroyed their family all those years ago.

I have never read anything by Karin Slaughter before and I was a little bit apprehensive to start with this particular book because of some of the things I was hearing about the subject matter of this one. You’ll get 3 POVs- two sisters Lydia and Claire and the third one is of their dad, which is through the letters that he has written to the missing daughter Julia. These literary baby girl nameshave been inspired by characters in books from all genres and periods. Claire begins to suspect that there is involvement at the highest levels, protecting those responsible for these horrible crimes. I wanted to be sure I'd finished it and could actually stand by suggesting it before I began posting about it.

Anyway, I loved the idea so much that I scrapped the book I had planned for this year (2015*) and started working on the storyline for what became PRETTY GIRLS. The estrangement wasn’t because of Julia-it happened after Lydia accused Claire’s husband of something awful. Sam - his poignant journals to his missing daughter were so heartbreaking to this parent of young girls! It is forbidden to copy anything for publication elsewhere without written permission from the copyright holder. It deals with the agony of a father through his journals and we, as readers, are privy to such unspeakable loss that ripples across the pages.

Claire, married Paul and lived a very affluent lifestyle, while Lydia has been sober for years after a long drug addiction. Oddly enough, the purest bits, the best and profound parts are the journal entries that dot the path of this terrible story.