Single Sundays: Pretty Dead Girls by Monica Murphy

Single Sundays: While this blog may be focused on reviewing book series as a whole, we can’t forget about the good ole’ standalone novel! On Sundays, I will review a novel that is considered to be a standalone novel. Here is this week’s offering:

Synopsis for Pretty Dead Girls (from Goodreads):
Beautiful. Perfect. Dead.

In the peaceful seaside town of Cape Bonita, wicked secrets and lies are hidden just beneath the surface. But all it takes is one tragedy for them to be exposed.

The most popular girls in school are turning up dead, and Penelope Malone is terrified she’s next. All the victims so far have been linked to Penelope—and to a boy from her physics class. The one she’s never really noticed before, with the rumored dark past and a brooding stare that cuts right through her.

There’s something he isn’t telling her. But there’s something she’s not telling him, either.

Everyone has secrets, and theirs might get them killed.

SERIESous’ Top Picks: Favourite Author
Author: Monica Murphy
Genre: Young Adult, Drama, High School, Mystery, Romance
Heat Rating: warm **suggestive content**
Point of View: First Person, Single
Publication Date: January 2, 2018
Source & Format: Netgalley–eARC | Thank you Entangled Teen!

Why I Picked it Up / My Expectations:

I’m a huge Monica Murphy fan. She has a knack for writing addicting drama in her stories and swoon worthy romances. So I was very excited to see what she could do with a YA suspense novel.

The Concept:

For me, this book wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. I wanted a killer to be stalking in the shadows and dirty secrets being revealed throughout. Instead, we get a story about Penelope and the inconvenience these killings are having on her social and dating life. It wasn’t very suspenseful or exciting to me. In fact, I almost didn’t finish it.

The Plot:

The plot of this story reminded me a lot of Pretty Little Liars in the sense that the focus is on the drama of Penelope’s life with the murders taking a backseat and you only get those little tidbits of suspense throughout. I also imagine it is what Scream Queens is like (though I’ve never watched it). Very little time is dedicated to solving the murders until the very end, with most of the focus being on the everyday dramatic lives of these high schoolers. Which I could do because Monica Murphy is the queen of high school drama and angst for me. Only, the drama wasn’t as juicy as I wanted it to be. I found it all to be rather boring unfortunately.

I will say that the mystery did have me fooled. I had a few theories (based on the little scraps we get throughout the novel) and I was proven wrong in the end so this story wasn’t entirely predictable. That’s a bonus!

The Characters:

Penelope’s priorities are not what mine would be if the girls in my social circle were showing up dead. I’m not saying I would be full-out Sherlock Holmes but I would say that figuring out if Cass likes me and maintaining control over the social group wouldn’t be my biggest concerns. It makes her seem petty and that stopped me from being a fan of hers. I wouldn’t mind her pettiness so much if she had some solid character growth from the whole ordeal but she really doesn’t and so she comes across as a drab character.

The Romance:

As for the romance, it didn’t have me totally swooning either. I didn’t get the chemistry between these two at all and I didn’t like how it made Penelope act at times.

My Rating: 2/5

I think if I went into this book knowing it would be more about the drama of Penelope’s life as murders are taking place around her, I would have enjoyed this more. But the fact of the matter is, I didn’t enjoy these characters and I didn’t find it overly suspenseful either and so I ended up disappointed.

Read if You Like: high school drama, Pretty Little Liars, Scream Queens
Avoid if You: want a true thriller/suspense novel, dislike high school stories