Pretty Wicked - Kelly Charron

Title: Pretty Wicked
Author: Kelly Charron
Publisher: Dark Arts Publishing
Date Published: 30th September 2016
Pages: 288
Source: NetGalley

Buy It Here: Pretty Wicked

The daughter of a local police detective, fifteen-year-old Ryann has spent most of her life studying how to pull off the most gruesome murders her small Colorado town has ever seen.

But killing is only part of it. Ryann enjoys being the reason the cops are frenzied. The one who makes the neighbors lock their doors and windows on a hot summer’s day. The one everyone fears but no one suspects.

Carving out her own murderous legacy proves harder than she predicted. Mistakes start adding up. And with the police getting closer, and her own father becoming suspicious, Ryann has to prove once and for all that she’s smarter than anyone else—or she’ll pay the ultimate price. " - Goodreads

This book was sent to me by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really really enjoyed this book. Anyone who knows me will know that I love reading about serial killers. I don't know what it is about these kinds of books, but it's unbelievably fascinating to be in the mind of a killer. It's crazy.

I'm going to try and keep this review short, I have a habit of going on and on and I'm sure no one cares about half of what I say!





I've decided I'm going to start re-structuring the way I write my reviews (although I don't know exactly how yet), so I'm going to separate them into different categories and do a likes/dislikes type of thing!

Firstly, I want to start off with the writing. 

Likes: 

• How easily it flowed. It read very easily, not much description, a lot of inner-talking (if that's a thing!) As if she was talking to me personally, which gave the book the added "God this is fucked up" factor! 

Dislikes: 

• I thought it could have been written a lot better, I'm no writer so I feel odd criticising someone else's writing, cos I could not do it any better but there was something that was lacking with this book and I feel like the writing makes all the difference in creating more suspense and tension. 

Secondly, I want to mention the plot: 

Likes: 

• I really liked the way it was set out, I mean it was even believable.. to an extent. I thought each kill was cleverly done and well-thought out! Which isn't hard to believe could be done, there are sooo many shows that will teach you how not to mess up!

Dislikes

• The direction that this novel took was slightly predictable and a little unoriginal. I've read a lot of 'serial killer' books and they're all pretty much the same. There was nothing different or special about this book so that was a little disappointing. Like hellooo does she have to have a policeman father?! It's so over-done! 

Finally, the characters: 

Likes

• I liked the fact that Ryann was flawed. She wasn't perfect, she tried to be and she pretended to be, which I thought was so relatable. We've all tried to pretend we were perfect and I'm sure we've all messed it up; so I really liked that! 

Dislikes 

• Ryann was the world's biggest idiot. Okay, she had clever, well-thought out (sort of) plans for all her murders, but she left behind evidence and clues, she did things that were just idiotic and she claimed that she did tons of research, she had a 'cop' for a dad so she should know what they look for when they're investigating murders, but she still made stupid mistakes that even I know not to make. It felt very forced, as if she had to make these stupid mistakes for the plot to progress. It lacked originality and thought. 

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. Serial killer books will always have a special place in my heart, I will always read them, I will always make it through and I will always try to pretend the flaws don't exist, because I just love reading about them. However, this book had a lot of flaws and the more I think about them, the more it annoys me. There was so much potential, but the execution just wasn't good. This could have easily been a 5* book if a few details had been changed but it fell flat for me... It reads more like a first or second draft, not like a finished product. So for that reason, I've rated this book: