Pretty Girls

Pretty Girls

Karin Slaughter

Genre: Mystery, Thriller

Summary (from Goodreads): #1 internationally bestselling author Karin Slaughter returns with a sophisticated and chilling psychological thriller of dangerous secrets, cold vengeance, and unexpected absolution, in which two estranged sisters must come together to find truth about two harrowing tragedies, twenty years apart, that devastate their lives.

Sisters. Strangers. Survivors.

More than twenty years ago, Claire and Lydia's teenaged sister Julia vanished without a trace. The two women have not spoken since, and now their lives could not be more different. Claire is the glamorous trophy wife of an Atlanta millionaire. Lydia, a single mother, dates an ex-con and struggles to make ends meet. 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.

The disappearance of a teenage girl and the murder of a middle-aged man, almost a quarter-century apart: what could connect them? Forming a wary truce, the surviving sisters look to the past to find the truth, unearthing the secrets that destroyed their family all those years ago . . . and uncovering the possibility of redemption, and revenge, where they least expect it.

Powerful, poignant, and utterly gripping, packed with indelible characters and unforgettable twists, Pretty Girls is a masterful thriller from one of the finest suspense writers working today.

Review: Wow, this was a seriously creepy and disturbing psychological thriller!  I picked it up solely because it was on the top 5 list of a Goodreads Listopia list that I've been voting on - What Women Born in the 1970s Have Read So Far This Year.  All I can say is that women born in the 1970s must have a lot higher tolerance for gruesome violence than I do.  I was immediately drawn into the story; the author has an easy to read style that quickly brings the characters to life.  But I found myself having to skip paragraphs because I couldn't handle the graphic descriptions of unimaginable torture and rape.  I read it all the way to the end because I HAD to find out what happened, but overall, it was just too much for me.

Rating: 3 stars