Pretty Dead Queens
ALEXA DONNE
Synopsis:
After the death of her mom (screw cancer), seventeen-year-old Cecelia Ellis goes to live with her estranged grandmother, a celebrated author whose Victorian mansion is as creepy as the murder mysteries she writes. On the surface, life is utterly ordinary in the California coastal town . . . until the homecoming queen is murdered. And she’s not Seaview’s first pretty dead queen.
With a copycat killer on the loose, Cecelia throws herself into the investigation, determined to crack the case like the heroines in her grandmother’s books. But the more Cecelia digs into the town’s secrets, the more she worries that her own mystery might not have a storybook ending.
My rating: ★★★
Categories: YA, upper YA, thriller, romance, mystery, other
Content:
Language: Constant swearing in the form of minor swear words, and plenty of stronger language too, including "s" and "f." Strong language is used dozens of times throughout.
Violence: The focus of the story is a murder, so there are descriptions of corpses and murder, and some fighting. The characters investigate and search for clues to solve the murder, so there is not much actual on-page violence. They discuss the drowning and strangulation of two girls.
This isn't violence, but it should be noted that there is a healthy dose of underaged drinking as well as use of drugs (weed), and one character vapes.
Sex: Several kisses and a bit of a love triangle, as well as a fade-to-black sex scene. There are many allusions to sex throughout the book, some more crass than others, including mentions of "bedroom activities" and skills a character has with their tongue.
There is also an affair and a relationship between an adult and a minor.
LGBTQ: There is a side female/female couple and another gay male/male couple.
My Review (the short version): I was given a free digital ARC in exchange for my review, so the large block of text below is for that. If you want to short version of my review, here it is. I was surprised that even though I guessed the twists in the book, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. The only things keeping me from giving this book a four star rating was the non-stop use of excessive language and the very slow beginning.
My Review:
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Pretty Dead Queens is the second Alexa Donne book I have read, and it was as different from the first (Brightly Burning) as it could possibly have been. Pretty Dead Queens follows Cecelia as she moves in with her famous mystery-writer grandmother after her mother's death, and a copycat kill of a murder that had taken places fifty years before occurs to one of her new friends.
I was torn between giving this book four or three stars. In the end, I went with three for a few reasons. For one, the beginning of the book was so slow and seemingly meaningless that I just was not sure what to do with it. I knew the author was building up to something, but the relationships formed far too quickly even as Donne spent much longer than necessary on setting the scene. I might have abandoned it, but I pushed myself to continue until—at last—the murder came along.
There was also far, far too much swearing for my taste. "S" and "f" were used frequently throughout, apparently for no reason other than to try and create the atmosphere of teens. And while yes, that can be what high school sounds like, it was still excessive.
I did guess the twists, but surprisingly, I still enjoyed it. I knew what was coming and yet I still wished that I was wrong and ground my teeth in frustration when the reveals came. I touched on the slow beginning earlier, but the novel really picked up the pace shortly after the murder occurred. The characters were a bit one-note, but they all played their parts well. I could see most of them committing the murder with all of the woven secrets and possible motives. On the mention of characters, I also actually liked Cecelia as a character. She was a classic YA mystery protagonist, but I enjoyed following her on the journey and wasn't annoyed with her as I often am with the narrators.
I read an ARC, so there were some parts that I was scrunching my brows at, trying to remember if that information had been mentioned before (and in a few cases characters repeated actions that had already been done), but I'm sure that will be edited before the final product is published.
I would certainly read another thriller by Donne.