Pretty Girl-13, by Liz Coley

Pretty Girl-13, by Liz Coley

Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Mystery/Thriller

Rating: 4/5 stars










Goodreads Summary: "Pretty Girl-13 is a disturbing and powerful psychological thriller about a girl who must piece together the story of her kidnapping and captivity and then piece together her own identity.

When thirteen-year-old Angela Gracie Chapman looks in the mirror, someone else looks back--a thin, pale stranger, a sixteen-year-old with haunted eyes. Angie has no memory of the past three years, years in which she was lost to the authorities, lost to her family and friends, lost even to herself. Where has she been, who has been living her life, and what is hiding behind the terrible blankness? There are secrets you can’t even tell yourself.

With a tremendous amount of courage and support from unexpected friends, Angie embarks on a journey into the darkest corners of her mind. As she unearths more and more about her past, she discovers a terrifying secret and must decide: when you remember things you wish you could forget, do you destroy the people responsible, or is there another way to feel whole again?"

Review:

• Just like the summary says, this was a disturbing novel. Make sure that you're ready for something totally creepy and vicious, unlike most mystery stories. 
• I had really low expectations for this novel, but I really wanted to give it a try because of its interesting cover (how can I not say that?) and it's suspenseful summary. I mean, when do we find a mystery story where the heroine goes missing and unexpectedly shows up back home again? Let me tell you, that doesn't hardly happen, even in reality today. We usually find the body inside a body of water. :l
• Angela was... disgusting. I hated her as a heroine. Although she was going through a severe memory loss and trauma, the author over-exaggerated with her personality. I felt like I was reading about a four year old protagonist! This "heroine," if you even would call her that, was absolutely disturbing. She had almost no sense and her, and her mommy was her only hope, seriously. This is a teen novel, if you want to make the protagonist go through memory loss, then make it at least a little more mature, please.
• The whole mystery itself was horrifying, but in a good and natural way. I really enjoy reading mysteries that have some romance and more of a decent plot that turns toward teenagers today without going too "detective-like," and Pretty Girl-13 was definitely one of those. There were many plot twists, and mysteries within the mystery of the book. 
• Creepifying and wicked!