Grab the Lapels

Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter

*This is the 4th book in the 13 Books of Fall.

Okay, my overall thoughts on Pretty Girls is that it is needlessly sadistic, I only finished it so I could fill a Book BINGO square, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. It is rife with violence (physical and sexual, towards minors and adults) described in graphic detail. I don’t trust Slaughter enough to read another novel by her. If the characters in Pretty Girls were real, the situation would be several Ted Bundys in one person, so it’s not trying to maintain credulity. The plot is so unrealistic that I wanted about 100 pages cut, and for it to be over in general. Throughout are chapters meant to appeal to your pathos; the father of one murdered teen girl writes letters to his daughter, assuming she’ll come home some day. He goes on about how he imagined walking her down the aisle at her wedding and how “No matter what happened to you, no matter what horrors you endured when you were taken away, you will always be my pretty little girl.” Does that gross anyone else out, or just me?

21 comments

  1. I hold Karin Slaughter entirely responsible for my complete aversion to American crime novels. I read one of her books 20+ years ago and found it so dreadful for many of the reasons you outline here that I vowed never to read another by her. I then made a conscious effort to find crime novelists from other parts of the world and that’s how I got into translated crime…

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    • I read Pretty Girls for book club, and this is a rather large book club of about 35 people (it’s broken into two meetings to accommodate more people and meets in a local brewery). We always start by saying our name, whether we read or listen to the book, and how many stars we would give it out of five. I was astounded by how many people said this was a five-star read for them. I said zero stars. Of course, once we were done going around, everybody wanted to know why I said zero stars. I said that it was completely unethical of the author and her publishing team to release this book without any kind of content warnings. I know those are controversial to a lot of people, but I shouldn’t learn that a book is full of rape torture by reading the first sentence that describes the rape, torture and graphic detail. Eventually, other people started to see it my way, so I’m glad for that. When I first was teaching college, it was really controversial to even talk about content warnings because there’s this idea that students are too coddled. However, I do think that authors can write something like, “to see the content warnings for this book go to my website.” Some authors have done that. So yeah, I definitely made an argument that Karin Slaughter is an unethical author.

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      • Perhaps your insights might make members of your book group think about things more deeply. I find it worrying that people are so desensitised to graphic and gratuitous violence that they don’t even notice it or see nothing wrong with it.

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  2. I’m sorry you felt you had to read it Melanie … it certainly doesn’t sound like the book for me but I really appreciate your clarity about how this book came across to you. I’m sure it will be useful for many to have this POV out there.

    But kimbofo, I don’t think you can judge a nation’s crime writing by one writer?

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    • Perhaps not, but from my experience American crime novelists have a tendency to glorify crime and the perpetrators of crime and are not interested in exploring victim or societal impact or the reasons why crime is committed. When I switched to Scandi crime I was so amazed to find there was a whole different perspective to telling a story, one that focused on the why (and not the how/what). I have had a similar experience reading European and Japanese crime. Even Australian crime writers (ie. Garry Disher) apply a wider societal lens to crime stories. That said, there’s still a propensity to normalise violence against women and to use dead women as plot devices. I have stopped reading those kinds of crime novels regardless of the author’s nationality. It’s time to change the story.

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      • Of course I read very little crime and when I do it’s not for violence or escapism but for ideas, so what you say makes sense. It’s more that I’m a bit uncomfortable with tarring all of US writing with one brush but I can’t offer any alternatives! I can certainly understand not being bothered to try when there’s a whole wealth of writing from around the world out there!

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  5. I read a lot of US crime fiction, though less these days as I do less driving and read more from my Audible library. A lot of it seems pornographically bloody, and perhaps even competing with each other to be the bloodiest. All of a piece with where America seems to be heading.

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    • I hadn’t realized the pornographic violence was an American crime thing. I’m glad you mentioned that, as I don’t want to read those sorts of stories. I have to wonder why we’re so uptight about nudity (and breastfeeding) yet so excited for sexual violence.

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  6. I’ve only read one Karin Slaughter book, but I do recall it being extremely graphic and uncomfortable. I agree with the content warnings, it always feels shocking and unfair to come across a graphic sexual abuse or rape scene in a book that I wasn’t prepared for. The alternative of having to check out a website or something to see the content warning is a great idea!

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