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So Much Pretty
Set in a rural community steeped in silence and denial, So Much Pretty explores all parents' greatest fear, that their child will be hurt. But it also examines a second, equally troubling question: What if my child hurts someone else? The disappearance and murder of nineteen-year-old Wendy White is detailed through the eyes of journalist Stacy Flynn and a host of other richly drawn characters, each with their own secrets and convictions. After Wendy's body is found, Flynn's intense crusade to expose a killer draws the attention of a precocious local girl, Alice Piper, whose story intertwines with Wendy's in a spellbinding and unexpected climax.
287 pages, Paperback
First published March 15, 2011
90 people are currently reading
3920 people want to read
About the author
Cara Hoffman
21 books221 followersHOFFMAN is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Running, So Much Pretty and Be Safe I Love You. She has written for the New York Times, Marie Claire, Salon, and National Public Radio, and is the recipient of numerous awards and accolades including a Folio Prize nomination, and a Sundance Institute Global Filmmaking Award.
She has been a visiting writer at Columbia, St. John’s and University of Oxford.
She currently lives in Manhattan.
She has been a visiting writer at Columbia, St. John’s and University of Oxford.
She currently lives in Manhattan.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 753 reviews
May 5, 2019
maggie-approved!
thank goodness for paul tremblay.
i went to a reading last week to celebrate his wonderful A Head Full of Ghosts and to bask in the glory of hearing him read aloud as the "me-character." also on the bill was cara hoffman, who read a bit from Be Safe I Love You and then had a little onstage conversation with paul about books and process and all that good stuff. and while i own both of her novels, i'd never read her. the stories had both intrigued me, so i grabbed them when they crossed my desk, but there was something about the covers that made me a little hesitant. i wasn't sure if they would be meaty psych suspense or fall into that jodi picoult category where contemporary issues are watered down for book club fodder.
but hearing her speak made me much more confident that i would like her books, especially when she dropped the fact that she got criticism for this book being "too angry."
SOLD!
and yes, it is an angry, angry book. but it is gloriously, righteously angry.
it is the story of the murder of a woman in a small town in upstate new york. it's the story of the woman who exposes the horrors and hypocrisies underlying this single crime by writing about the broader implications of violent crimes against women. it's the story of a brilliant young girl whose idealistic parents have nurtured her talents and encouraged her to think for herself, to be self-sufficient, and who never shield her from the evils of the world.
the place where these stories intersect is nothing short of explosive.
in its broad scope, it is a story about violence and women, but it also includes themes of civic and corporate responsibility, the dangers of idealism, the slight space where well-intentioned hippies can cross over into paranoid preppers, the dying of a small town, and the insidiousness of the silent, complicit misogyny permeating our culture.
it's a dark story, with uncomfortable imagery and a very knotty moral weave.
and there ain't nothing watered-down about it; it's all blistering howl.
so i'm very glad i finally picked it up, and i will definitely be reading Be Safe I Love You as well.
thank goodness for paul tremblay.
thank goodness for cara hoffman.
come to my blog!
thank goodness for paul tremblay.
i went to a reading last week to celebrate his wonderful A Head Full of Ghosts and to bask in the glory of hearing him read aloud as the "me-character." also on the bill was cara hoffman, who read a bit from Be Safe I Love You and then had a little onstage conversation with paul about books and process and all that good stuff. and while i own both of her novels, i'd never read her. the stories had both intrigued me, so i grabbed them when they crossed my desk, but there was something about the covers that made me a little hesitant. i wasn't sure if they would be meaty psych suspense or fall into that jodi picoult category where contemporary issues are watered down for book club fodder.
but hearing her speak made me much more confident that i would like her books, especially when she dropped the fact that she got criticism for this book being "too angry."
SOLD!
and yes, it is an angry, angry book. but it is gloriously, righteously angry.
it is the story of the murder of a woman in a small town in upstate new york. it's the story of the woman who exposes the horrors and hypocrisies underlying this single crime by writing about the broader implications of violent crimes against women. it's the story of a brilliant young girl whose idealistic parents have nurtured her talents and encouraged her to think for herself, to be self-sufficient, and who never shield her from the evils of the world.
the place where these stories intersect is nothing short of explosive.
in its broad scope, it is a story about violence and women, but it also includes themes of civic and corporate responsibility, the dangers of idealism, the slight space where well-intentioned hippies can cross over into paranoid preppers, the dying of a small town, and the insidiousness of the silent, complicit misogyny permeating our culture.
it's a dark story, with uncomfortable imagery and a very knotty moral weave.
and there ain't nothing watered-down about it; it's all blistering howl.
so i'm very glad i finally picked it up, and i will definitely be reading Be Safe I Love You as well.
thank goodness for paul tremblay.
thank goodness for cara hoffman.
come to my blog!
August 17, 2016
Wew.... some book. Took some getting into for me. Even put it away for some time, I see now I first started it in January. But when you get into it... creepy. Proud I saw it through and... it is worth it in the end, really.
They are looking for someone with blond or dark brown hair. Someone with blue or maybe brown or green eyes. ... Searches peaked in the spring and summer months and they are looking for her still. As we are well aware, it is easy for a woman who fits this description to just disappear....
So I've seen this book gets reviews on either side of the scale. Positive and negative. I've been on both sides so can understand. When I started this book, I just couldn't get into it. It did not grab my attention and story went all over the place, seemed a bit land, I had to keep leafing back to catch the storyline and persons in it. I stopped reading and put it aside. But somehow, it pulled me back in... and recently I decided to see it through. It got better, even to very good level. So, it's 3.5 going on 4 for me.
It's the story of Gene and Claire, medics tired of the long hours and big city. They move to the country and a small town, Haeden, and start an idealistic life of farming and living from the land. Seemingly a rather poor but happy family. Their daughter Alice, an extraordinary and intelligent girl, grows up at their farm. Then, a nineteen year old local waitress Wendy disappears and finally gets found, dead, in the woods, molested, after she'd been gone for weeks.... and the story gets a really creepy turn where we wonder who is behind the crime, like reporter Stacy Flynn who digs into the events. The further you get, the more the story seems to give away bits & pieces of a very nasty unfolding of events. Story hops from person to person and bits of police reports, seemingly haphazard but slowly the pieces fit together.
In the end, glad I finished it, it turned out to be worth it anyway...but not the easiest read I've done this year. Persistence paid off. Yes, it is worth it. This story will cling to me for some time I expect and maybe more....
A skillful, psychologically acute tale of how violence affects a small town - LA Times
They are looking for someone with blond or dark brown hair. Someone with blue or maybe brown or green eyes. ... Searches peaked in the spring and summer months and they are looking for her still. As we are well aware, it is easy for a woman who fits this description to just disappear....
So I've seen this book gets reviews on either side of the scale. Positive and negative. I've been on both sides so can understand. When I started this book, I just couldn't get into it. It did not grab my attention and story went all over the place, seemed a bit land, I had to keep leafing back to catch the storyline and persons in it. I stopped reading and put it aside. But somehow, it pulled me back in... and recently I decided to see it through. It got better, even to very good level. So, it's 3.5 going on 4 for me.
It's the story of Gene and Claire, medics tired of the long hours and big city. They move to the country and a small town, Haeden, and start an idealistic life of farming and living from the land. Seemingly a rather poor but happy family. Their daughter Alice, an extraordinary and intelligent girl, grows up at their farm. Then, a nineteen year old local waitress Wendy disappears and finally gets found, dead, in the woods, molested, after she'd been gone for weeks.... and the story gets a really creepy turn where we wonder who is behind the crime, like reporter Stacy Flynn who digs into the events. The further you get, the more the story seems to give away bits & pieces of a very nasty unfolding of events. Story hops from person to person and bits of police reports, seemingly haphazard but slowly the pieces fit together.
In the end, glad I finished it, it turned out to be worth it anyway...but not the easiest read I've done this year. Persistence paid off. Yes, it is worth it. This story will cling to me for some time I expect and maybe more....
A skillful, psychologically acute tale of how violence affects a small town - LA Times
August 6, 2025
Imagine you are the "outsider" and reporter, Stacy Flynn. You came to this farm town in upstate New York via Cleveland to find the "big-picture" story on rural waste dumping here in off-the-grid Haeden. You're twenty-four, alert as a cat, keen to pounce like a tiger, with Malcolm X glasses, a postmodern flair, and a Mencken regard. You've won an award in the big city, and now that the Rust Belt stories are waning, you seek the newly pelted. But after several years of living among wind-battered farmhouses, tall white flagpoles, crumbled colonials, and broken-down buses, you're still waiting and suspicious of the fast-growing, industrialized local dairy farm while writing benign pieces about the latent, wall-eyed community.
You languish restively amid the cultural blankness of concrete and caved-in roofs, among the two thousand near-impoverished citizens and the rancid smell of garbage stabbing the air. Menace lurks beneath the folksy façade of the educationally challenged and is carried on the chemical stench of the industrial breeze of its one prosperous family. There is an unacknowledged power that controls its citizens. Here, where suppression and denial is as rooted and contagious as tree rot.
On April 3, 2009, when the naked, sexually brutalized dead body of Wendy White, a nineteen-year-old woman missing for five months, is dumped and subsequently found in a ditch, the meaning is lost on almost everyone. (This isn't a spoiler--it is the central conceit.) Now, survey the scene. Here is Flynn's story of toxic transgression, but the townspeople aren't talking, or they're talking trash and no one is listening. While people congregate on corners and slink into bars, the police promise they are "pursuing all avenues." The tight-knit community behaves with boilerplate banality and assumes that it must be a drifter or brought on by a cult of anarchists, the hippies who live here and their ilk of "environmental terrorists." The people hang onto apocryphal evidence as gospel. Now the town is praying for Wendy White, and the school observes a moment of silence.
More silence?
Alice Piper is a gifted teen and former swim teammate of Wendy. She is the sixteen-year-old daughter of the widely mistrusted and misconceived Pipers, Gene and Claire, who left their profession as physicians years ago to live a quiet self-sustainable life here in Haeden. They sought a place to reconcile their radical ideologies with the realities of the corporate industrial complex. The Pipers raised Alice to question authority--and to examine--not just see, and to engage--not just comply. Alice, like Flynn, can't simply mourn, move on, and accept an unsolved murder.
The fragmented form of the narrative mirrors the manifest structure of denial, and the gradual revealing of the facts incite the implacable cries of protest. The chapters seem jarring and incongruous at first, detached, non-linear, occupied with unreliable details, specious facts, and compromised evidence. But it reflects the process that Flynn goes through as an investigative reporter, receiving piles of unredacted evidence--exhibits, historical research, interviews, letters, school papers, and chronicles. The reader, like Flynn, is the source of the redaction. What materializes from the inchoate fog is the reader as character and fierce examiner of truth. The view from the pages is malignant and bracing. And that? That is the genius of the author, Cara Hoffman, who appeared to lock me out at the beginning but gripped me in its claw by the end.
This isn't a genre police procedural or conventional crime thriller. There's blood, but it's not gratuitous, and there's violence, but not in a vacuum. The everyday sexploitation in headlines and entertainment is exposed, like a raw nerve, and examined, with a naked eye, but not directly in the text in bankrupt slogans and empty bromides. It's finessed, as a corollary, not milked with pithy epiphanies. If anything, it is turned on its head. The desensitization of civilization results from decades of overgrazing in the vicarious thrill of the kill. The assault on our now denuded senses is acute. We know it. Even as we seek more, we feel less. And that is what Cara Hoffman understands. She doesn't condescend, she weeps. And so did I. And so will you.
You languish restively amid the cultural blankness of concrete and caved-in roofs, among the two thousand near-impoverished citizens and the rancid smell of garbage stabbing the air. Menace lurks beneath the folksy façade of the educationally challenged and is carried on the chemical stench of the industrial breeze of its one prosperous family. There is an unacknowledged power that controls its citizens. Here, where suppression and denial is as rooted and contagious as tree rot.
On April 3, 2009, when the naked, sexually brutalized dead body of Wendy White, a nineteen-year-old woman missing for five months, is dumped and subsequently found in a ditch, the meaning is lost on almost everyone. (This isn't a spoiler--it is the central conceit.) Now, survey the scene. Here is Flynn's story of toxic transgression, but the townspeople aren't talking, or they're talking trash and no one is listening. While people congregate on corners and slink into bars, the police promise they are "pursuing all avenues." The tight-knit community behaves with boilerplate banality and assumes that it must be a drifter or brought on by a cult of anarchists, the hippies who live here and their ilk of "environmental terrorists." The people hang onto apocryphal evidence as gospel. Now the town is praying for Wendy White, and the school observes a moment of silence.
More silence?
Alice Piper is a gifted teen and former swim teammate of Wendy. She is the sixteen-year-old daughter of the widely mistrusted and misconceived Pipers, Gene and Claire, who left their profession as physicians years ago to live a quiet self-sustainable life here in Haeden. They sought a place to reconcile their radical ideologies with the realities of the corporate industrial complex. The Pipers raised Alice to question authority--and to examine--not just see, and to engage--not just comply. Alice, like Flynn, can't simply mourn, move on, and accept an unsolved murder.
The fragmented form of the narrative mirrors the manifest structure of denial, and the gradual revealing of the facts incite the implacable cries of protest. The chapters seem jarring and incongruous at first, detached, non-linear, occupied with unreliable details, specious facts, and compromised evidence. But it reflects the process that Flynn goes through as an investigative reporter, receiving piles of unredacted evidence--exhibits, historical research, interviews, letters, school papers, and chronicles. The reader, like Flynn, is the source of the redaction. What materializes from the inchoate fog is the reader as character and fierce examiner of truth. The view from the pages is malignant and bracing. And that? That is the genius of the author, Cara Hoffman, who appeared to lock me out at the beginning but gripped me in its claw by the end.
This isn't a genre police procedural or conventional crime thriller. There's blood, but it's not gratuitous, and there's violence, but not in a vacuum. The everyday sexploitation in headlines and entertainment is exposed, like a raw nerve, and examined, with a naked eye, but not directly in the text in bankrupt slogans and empty bromides. It's finessed, as a corollary, not milked with pithy epiphanies. If anything, it is turned on its head. The desensitization of civilization results from decades of overgrazing in the vicarious thrill of the kill. The assault on our now denuded senses is acute. We know it. Even as we seek more, we feel less. And that is what Cara Hoffman understands. She doesn't condescend, she weeps. And so did I. And so will you.
April 7, 2011
This was not an easy book to get into. There are multiple points of view as well as several time frames so the reader must pay strict attention in order to move with the story. A girl disappears. A reporter thinks she has an idea about the disappearance but she is from "away" and is disregarded. An unworldly girl genius, raised by a pair of back-to-the-earth doctor parents and their college friends also knows something. Are they really the only ones who know what is happening, or are they the only ones who will see the facts for what they are? One tragedy is heaped upon another. But is it vengeance? Justice? or something else? No matter if we are city dwellers or country people, the questions this book raises are are universal in any male dominated society. How do we think about or and treat those who are different from us? How much will a society, closed or not, accept? What is the higher moral ground? And who should decide? Hoffman has written something which is part murder mystery, part horror story and part social commentary. Whether or not you agree with her premise, if you can stick with it, you will find much food for thought.
June 14, 2012
There's no way around it--this is a horrifying book. It came to me as a loan from Marianne Pita, the Chair of the English department at Bronx Community College, who was duly impressed by the talent of author Cara Hoffman, who is a part-time member of our department. But, while I share Marianne's admiration, I also found the book appalling.
A word here about the writing: Hoffman is certainly gifted and the book certainly merits the praise which it has earned. It is everything the back jacket says--poetic, riveting, fearless--and more; it is a beautifully crafted text, playing at the boundary of affectively charged and objective. Even more: the narrative structure, offering fragments from the perspective of individual characters, is composed with unusual intelligence and precision. I go even further: this is actually an important book, its impact drawing the reader into a political and social concern--the ubiquitous abuse and murder of women--that has been so popularized that it has lost its sense of reality. We expect that women will be tortured and killed; it is part of daily life. A regular part of the news, we glance and turn away and go on to other things. Emotional impact close to zero. We're anaesthetized.
Hoffman takes the headline and forces us to live with it. Really. Which is why, despite its craft and importance, I hated this book. Drawn in by the suspense and the beauty of the language, I felt committed to the book even while I felt it forced upon me a kind of relationship with the torture and murder of women that I absolutely did not want to have. In fact, its fragmentary, almost kaleidoscopic structure acts in a way to victimize the reader in a manner that could be compared to the torture of its principal subject. I felt trapped by the book, drawn ineluctably into the next frame in the narrative sequence, even while dreading what was to come. And, to make things worse, through the multiple narrative perspectives, I felt drawn, too, into complicity with those who torture and murder women.
This is an amazing book, but I also hated it; it interfered with my sleep, my relationship, my sense of self.
13 May 2012
A word here about the writing: Hoffman is certainly gifted and the book certainly merits the praise which it has earned. It is everything the back jacket says--poetic, riveting, fearless--and more; it is a beautifully crafted text, playing at the boundary of affectively charged and objective. Even more: the narrative structure, offering fragments from the perspective of individual characters, is composed with unusual intelligence and precision. I go even further: this is actually an important book, its impact drawing the reader into a political and social concern--the ubiquitous abuse and murder of women--that has been so popularized that it has lost its sense of reality. We expect that women will be tortured and killed; it is part of daily life. A regular part of the news, we glance and turn away and go on to other things. Emotional impact close to zero. We're anaesthetized.
Hoffman takes the headline and forces us to live with it. Really. Which is why, despite its craft and importance, I hated this book. Drawn in by the suspense and the beauty of the language, I felt committed to the book even while I felt it forced upon me a kind of relationship with the torture and murder of women that I absolutely did not want to have. In fact, its fragmentary, almost kaleidoscopic structure acts in a way to victimize the reader in a manner that could be compared to the torture of its principal subject. I felt trapped by the book, drawn ineluctably into the next frame in the narrative sequence, even while dreading what was to come. And, to make things worse, through the multiple narrative perspectives, I felt drawn, too, into complicity with those who torture and murder women.
This is an amazing book, but I also hated it; it interfered with my sleep, my relationship, my sense of self.
13 May 2012
October 26, 2014
I don't know how this book got through the editing process. Didn't anyone bother to tell Cara Hoffman that multiple narrators in a shifting timeline is a bad idea? Didn't her editor tell her that her didactic prose and endless direct characterizations are cheap shot short cuts for doing the real work of writing? How about writing a chapter that is about real action rather than posturing? Or if you are going to put two 'types' of people against each other, in this case simple locals versus educated transplants, these people need to be more than just caricatures? That each side needs to be both equally credible and scornful for the book to even be worth the time to read it. Admitedly, there are about 3 chapters that have real voice and action as well as a lingering haunting echo. Unfortunately those few chapters weren't enough to imbue the remainder of the book with any substance.
If I were the editor of this one, I would have said "Less gimmick. More substance."
If I were the editor of this one, I would have said "Less gimmick. More substance."
May 18, 2011
Or so much drek! I've read some great reviews of this "novel" and was excited to read it. The excitement ended when the book started. Did I read the same book as these rave reviewers? I hardly think so.
I read a quote (not sure what its from but I found it on Amazon) from Hoffman..."as a journalist, I've always thought 'why' was the most important question". On this, at least, the "author" (DO NOT QUIT YOUR DAY JOB!) and I agree. Why indeed? Why did I waste money on this book? Why did I waste time on this book? Why did someone agree to publish this book?
To say this book was slow to start is a gross understatement. It never "started". The choppy writing style is something I'd give a failing grade for to a middle school student. I read the book to its end and I felt unsatisfied. The social commentary attempted in this ill thought out story rings hollow, specifically because the author (I reiterate, DO NOT QUIT YOUR DAY JOB) just tried too hard. Despite her overzealous efforts, she accomplished nothing with this book. The story is a real stinker. The writing style is hard on the brain and nearly painful to read. Reading this book made me feel like Hoffman was just trying overly hard (and failing) to be clever and witty. If her book speaks anything about her, she's neither.
If you set aside the sluggish, pathetic story line and the undisguised attempts at being the "smartest person in the room" with her writing, you still come up with something far less than mediocre. Where was the editor during the proofing phase of this book? It's poorly edited and it should never have made it past the reception desk at any reputable publishing house.
In the end, I couldn't even bring myself to donate this book to my local book drive. It went into the recycling bin with the remnants of products that served much more use to me than this atrocity in written form. I regret spending the money on the book but I'm embarrassed to return it to the shop I picked it up from because I don't even want people to know I once thought it might be readable.
I try hard not to judge an author but a debut but this one was so bad that I can honestly tell you that I will not read anything else Hoffman puts out...should such a thing once again make it through the editing process to become available to the outside world. The thoughts in Hoffman's head should do us all a favor and stay there.
I read a quote (not sure what its from but I found it on Amazon) from Hoffman..."as a journalist, I've always thought 'why' was the most important question". On this, at least, the "author" (DO NOT QUIT YOUR DAY JOB!) and I agree. Why indeed? Why did I waste money on this book? Why did I waste time on this book? Why did someone agree to publish this book?
To say this book was slow to start is a gross understatement. It never "started". The choppy writing style is something I'd give a failing grade for to a middle school student. I read the book to its end and I felt unsatisfied. The social commentary attempted in this ill thought out story rings hollow, specifically because the author (I reiterate, DO NOT QUIT YOUR DAY JOB) just tried too hard. Despite her overzealous efforts, she accomplished nothing with this book. The story is a real stinker. The writing style is hard on the brain and nearly painful to read. Reading this book made me feel like Hoffman was just trying overly hard (and failing) to be clever and witty. If her book speaks anything about her, she's neither.
If you set aside the sluggish, pathetic story line and the undisguised attempts at being the "smartest person in the room" with her writing, you still come up with something far less than mediocre. Where was the editor during the proofing phase of this book? It's poorly edited and it should never have made it past the reception desk at any reputable publishing house.
In the end, I couldn't even bring myself to donate this book to my local book drive. It went into the recycling bin with the remnants of products that served much more use to me than this atrocity in written form. I regret spending the money on the book but I'm embarrassed to return it to the shop I picked it up from because I don't even want people to know I once thought it might be readable.
I try hard not to judge an author but a debut but this one was so bad that I can honestly tell you that I will not read anything else Hoffman puts out...should such a thing once again make it through the editing process to become available to the outside world. The thoughts in Hoffman's head should do us all a favor and stay there.
April 5, 2011
Wow! This was a...you know, it's been days since I've read this and I still catch myself thinking about it.
The basic plot is that a young woman disappears in a small town and when her body is found, everyone seems to think a stranger/drifter killed her, except for two people, a local (and newcomer) reporter, and Alice, who was one of the most fascinating fictional teenagers I've ever read about. (It's Alice who really caught me--days later, I still don't know if what she did was because she wanted justice or she was crazy--that's the beauty of Hoffman's writing, IMO--everyone has so many layers to them that by the end, you're almost dizzy with wondering if any of what you read was real, or just the reflection of the people thinking it)
This book does have multiple narrators, and shifts back and forth in time quite a bit, so if either of those things aren't your cup of tea, I'd strongly recommend skipping this one. I love both things, but there were times where I had to try and remember what year I'd just read about, or how character X fit into the overall thread of things.
But, for me, it was totally worth it. Gorgeously written and haunting in the best--and eeriest--possible way.
The basic plot is that a young woman disappears in a small town and when her body is found, everyone seems to think a stranger/drifter killed her, except for two people, a local (and newcomer) reporter, and Alice, who was one of the most fascinating fictional teenagers I've ever read about. (It's Alice who really caught me--days later, I still don't know if what she did was because she wanted justice or she was crazy--that's the beauty of Hoffman's writing, IMO--everyone has so many layers to them that by the end, you're almost dizzy with wondering if any of what you read was real, or just the reflection of the people thinking it)
This book does have multiple narrators, and shifts back and forth in time quite a bit, so if either of those things aren't your cup of tea, I'd strongly recommend skipping this one. I love both things, but there were times where I had to try and remember what year I'd just read about, or how character X fit into the overall thread of things.
But, for me, it was totally worth it. Gorgeously written and haunting in the best--and eeriest--possible way.
November 27, 2012
I think I just have to stop reading contemporary literature. Two stars because the story compelled me enough to read it and quickly at that. Other than that, the author's clever, literary techniques she learned in her MFA program (different voices, perspectives, times and location) did not work for her.
The inside jacket pronounced this "stylishly written." Too much so for my taste. I felt like the author was trying to impress with her technique, her profanity and her use of jargon (medical, teenspeak etc.)
Finally, I was not convinced, not by a long shot. Is the whole town up at the dairy, taking turns to rape Wendy White. Really? Everyone is that sick and okay with this? I don't believe it. Then Alice goes all Columbine on them for retribution? Followed by busting out of lockdown and escaping to freedom in California? Give me a break. Or maybe the relationship between Flynn and Cutting. "I really like you," he tells her. I'm not sure what he likes about her, since their only encounters were quick, public sex and her repeatedly stating (thinking?) how drunk she is.
Recommeneded for self-absorbed, holier than thou, histrionic types.
The inside jacket pronounced this "stylishly written." Too much so for my taste. I felt like the author was trying to impress with her technique, her profanity and her use of jargon (medical, teenspeak etc.)
Finally, I was not convinced, not by a long shot. Is the whole town up at the dairy, taking turns to rape Wendy White. Really? Everyone is that sick and okay with this? I don't believe it. Then Alice goes all Columbine on them for retribution? Followed by busting out of lockdown and escaping to freedom in California? Give me a break. Or maybe the relationship between Flynn and Cutting. "I really like you," he tells her. I'm not sure what he likes about her, since their only encounters were quick, public sex and her repeatedly stating (thinking?) how drunk she is.
Recommeneded for self-absorbed, holier than thou, histrionic types.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 22, 2012
I may not like postmodern art but I love postmodern literature. Give me multiple perspectives, jumping around in time, and fragments to put together and I am a happy person. This novel had all of these and then it also had the cherry on top... it really surprised me.
This book was a recommendation from John Warner, aka the Biblioracle, based on the following five books I had previously read and enjoyed: number9dream by David Mitchell, Skippy Dies by Paul Murray, Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard, and The Man in My Basement by Walter Mosley. And after reading So Much Pretty I can see how each perfect a recommendation for me this was. The multiple perspectives of Mitchell, Murray, and Flynn are there, as well the horrific elements present in Dark Places. A missing girl drives the story, much like Pittard's novel, and ethics are at the center just like Mosley's.
I don't want to give too much away, because slowly figuring out exactly what was going on is one of the pleasures of reading this novel. In fact, for me, this book was muddling along in 3 star territory until all of a sudden the pieces came together and I was blown away. The multiple perspectives and style might feel a bit slow in the beginning, but stick with it. The payoff is worth it.
This book was a recommendation from John Warner, aka the Biblioracle, based on the following five books I had previously read and enjoyed: number9dream by David Mitchell, Skippy Dies by Paul Murray, Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, The Fates Will Find Their Way by Hannah Pittard, and The Man in My Basement by Walter Mosley. And after reading So Much Pretty I can see how each perfect a recommendation for me this was. The multiple perspectives of Mitchell, Murray, and Flynn are there, as well the horrific elements present in Dark Places. A missing girl drives the story, much like Pittard's novel, and ethics are at the center just like Mosley's.
I don't want to give too much away, because slowly figuring out exactly what was going on is one of the pleasures of reading this novel. In fact, for me, this book was muddling along in 3 star territory until all of a sudden the pieces came together and I was blown away. The multiple perspectives and style might feel a bit slow in the beginning, but stick with it. The payoff is worth it.
June 25, 2011
I'm really torn between four and five stars. This is the best, most intelligent and thoughtful, suspense novel that I've read in a long time... maybe ever. I love the big questions that Cara challenges us with: are "progressive" ideas and opinions really progressive? Can we make a big enough impact carrying on in our own quiet ways, or do we need to DO something BIG to make changes... This book also delighted me because it wasn't absolutely predictable. Some of the suspicions I had of the characters in the beginning proved off, which I love. The characters were fantastic- I fell in love with Alice, and really really relate to the reporter, and the vibe of the small town that is described. Bravo, Cara, for making a thriller so much more- I'll think about this one for a while. The author, by the way is also fascinating- is it possible that this is her first novel? I'll save you some time
my link text
because you'll want to know more about her after you read this.
my link text
because you'll want to know more about her after you read this.
April 6, 2017
Unbearable suspense and extraordinary characters in a novel that grapples with today’s greatest ethical challenges
I can’t get Alice Piper out of my head. Here she is, dashing off a 7th grade paper in English prose worthy of a graduate student. There she is again, fearlessly leaping from bar to bar on the high wire in her parents’ barn. Still again, she is deeply engrossed in a probing philosophical discussion with her parents at age 6. Alice is a bundle of special gifts, a phenomenon.
On its most fundamental level, So Much Pretty is the story of Alice Piper and her parents, from the time of her birth through her mid-teens. But this is no cookie-cutter coming-of-age novel. It’s an inquiry into ethical conduct in an age of moral ambiguity. It’s a study of rural America struggling for survival in a declining industrial economy. It’s a critique of industrial farming. And it’s a novel of suspense that relentlessly drags the reader with increasing urgency toward a conclusion that no one is likely to guess.
Alice and her parents, Gene and Claire Piper, both physicians, have moved from New York City to the upstate town of Haeden, population 2,000, driven by a compulsion to avoid the ethical complications of the city and find a simpler life on the land. Gene devotes himself to promoting organic farming and environmental awareness while Claire brings in a modest income from work at a nearby health clinic. Their “family,” close friends Michelle (“Mickey”) and Constant, both physicians too, are no longer close by. Mickey has enlisted in Doctors Without Borders and moved to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Constant (“Con”) has taken a job with a shady pharmaceutical giant to test new drugs for a salary of $300K, money he has used to buy the land where the Pipers are homesteading and to help out them and his wife from time to time.
The pivotal event in So Much Pretty takes place after Alice has entered high school. Wendy White, a likable young woman who works as a waitress in the local diner, has gone missing, and the whole town, the Pipers included, are swept up in the months-long search for her (or, as feared, her body). But the timeline in this beautifully crafted novel is twisted and turned on itself a dozen times like a cat’s cradle gone mad, so that the reader learns of the young woman’s disappearance very early in the book. Hoffman takes us on a roller-coaster ride through time, ricocheting from the early 1990s in New York City to the late 2000s in Haeden and back again, again and again, and from the perspective of one character after another. Along the way, she paints vivid pictures of many of the players in this morality play: Stacy Flynn, George Polk Award-winning big city journalist who has come to edit Haeden’s little newspaper and research the local consequences of environmental crime; Captain Alex Dino, the good-old-boy police chief who insists that only “drifters” can commit serious crime in Haeden; Wendy White, emerging from anonymity as her adolescent fat melts away and she finds her first real boyfriend.
So Much Pretty was Hoffman’s first novel to reach a wide audience. The New York Times Book Review termed it the Best Suspense Novel of 2011.
Hoffman appears to be as intriguing a character as her protagonist. Raised in upstate New York herself in a place much like Haeden, she dropped out of high school and moved to Europe, working for a time in a hotel in Athens. Back in upstate New York, where she was raised, she worked her way into a job, and ultimately a decade, as an investigative journalist for a series of newspapers; gave birth to a son; and became involved with a series of “alternative” — we used to call them “underground” — ventures, including a “learning collective” and the long-running newspaper, Fifth Estate. Clearly, writing the story of Alice Piper came naturally to her.
I can’t get Alice Piper out of my head. Here she is, dashing off a 7th grade paper in English prose worthy of a graduate student. There she is again, fearlessly leaping from bar to bar on the high wire in her parents’ barn. Still again, she is deeply engrossed in a probing philosophical discussion with her parents at age 6. Alice is a bundle of special gifts, a phenomenon.
On its most fundamental level, So Much Pretty is the story of Alice Piper and her parents, from the time of her birth through her mid-teens. But this is no cookie-cutter coming-of-age novel. It’s an inquiry into ethical conduct in an age of moral ambiguity. It’s a study of rural America struggling for survival in a declining industrial economy. It’s a critique of industrial farming. And it’s a novel of suspense that relentlessly drags the reader with increasing urgency toward a conclusion that no one is likely to guess.
Alice and her parents, Gene and Claire Piper, both physicians, have moved from New York City to the upstate town of Haeden, population 2,000, driven by a compulsion to avoid the ethical complications of the city and find a simpler life on the land. Gene devotes himself to promoting organic farming and environmental awareness while Claire brings in a modest income from work at a nearby health clinic. Their “family,” close friends Michelle (“Mickey”) and Constant, both physicians too, are no longer close by. Mickey has enlisted in Doctors Without Borders and moved to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Constant (“Con”) has taken a job with a shady pharmaceutical giant to test new drugs for a salary of $300K, money he has used to buy the land where the Pipers are homesteading and to help out them and his wife from time to time.
The pivotal event in So Much Pretty takes place after Alice has entered high school. Wendy White, a likable young woman who works as a waitress in the local diner, has gone missing, and the whole town, the Pipers included, are swept up in the months-long search for her (or, as feared, her body). But the timeline in this beautifully crafted novel is twisted and turned on itself a dozen times like a cat’s cradle gone mad, so that the reader learns of the young woman’s disappearance very early in the book. Hoffman takes us on a roller-coaster ride through time, ricocheting from the early 1990s in New York City to the late 2000s in Haeden and back again, again and again, and from the perspective of one character after another. Along the way, she paints vivid pictures of many of the players in this morality play: Stacy Flynn, George Polk Award-winning big city journalist who has come to edit Haeden’s little newspaper and research the local consequences of environmental crime; Captain Alex Dino, the good-old-boy police chief who insists that only “drifters” can commit serious crime in Haeden; Wendy White, emerging from anonymity as her adolescent fat melts away and she finds her first real boyfriend.
So Much Pretty was Hoffman’s first novel to reach a wide audience. The New York Times Book Review termed it the Best Suspense Novel of 2011.
Hoffman appears to be as intriguing a character as her protagonist. Raised in upstate New York herself in a place much like Haeden, she dropped out of high school and moved to Europe, working for a time in a hotel in Athens. Back in upstate New York, where she was raised, she worked her way into a job, and ultimately a decade, as an investigative journalist for a series of newspapers; gave birth to a son; and became involved with a series of “alternative” — we used to call them “underground” — ventures, including a “learning collective” and the long-running newspaper, Fifth Estate. Clearly, writing the story of Alice Piper came naturally to her.
February 9, 2011
I have read more books than I would like centered around the disappearance of a woman. Several recent titles that leap to mind are Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter; The Fates Will Find Their Way; and The False Friend. The missing women in these books are almost certainly dead, but we don’t always find out for certain.
SO MUCH PRETTY is also about a missing woman although in this case we do find out what has happened and it is not good. For me, what sets this book apart from the others is the underlying emotion of the story. It is not grief, or fear, or even anger. It is absolute fury. The kind of fury that reminds you the word was inspired by the avenging deities in Greek mythology who torment criminals. Avenging deities who are usually portrayed as female.
I was bowled over by how well Cara Hoffman was able to harness that fury and not let it overwhelm the story. Her writing is controlled and pointed and utterly merciless. For me, this was a tough and at times a painful read. But I haven’t stopped thinking about this book since I finished it and I will remember it long past the usual time books fade in my memory.
SO MUCH PRETTY is also about a missing woman although in this case we do find out what has happened and it is not good. For me, what sets this book apart from the others is the underlying emotion of the story. It is not grief, or fear, or even anger. It is absolute fury. The kind of fury that reminds you the word was inspired by the avenging deities in Greek mythology who torment criminals. Avenging deities who are usually portrayed as female.
I was bowled over by how well Cara Hoffman was able to harness that fury and not let it overwhelm the story. Her writing is controlled and pointed and utterly merciless. For me, this was a tough and at times a painful read. But I haven’t stopped thinking about this book since I finished it and I will remember it long past the usual time books fade in my memory.
June 19, 2011
I'm really struggling to find the words for how I feel about this book. I'm also struggling to write a review without first going back and reading the book a second time, but I'm going to try to give you an honest review from my first read because I may feel different after I've put the story all together.
A key to this book is that it is contemporary fiction. It's written in a style that I can only relate back to the movie Momento, except the story is being told from the point of view of dozens of people instead of one. The story is told in small pieces that take you forward and backward, up and down, as you try to piece together where each individual piece fits into the bigger puzzle. The book is divided into small "chapters," that skip among numerous characters in the book. Some characters who seemingly don't add a thing, but I'm sure again on my second read, I'd find those characters were actually game-changers. Some of the chapters have years, some of them don't. Some of them are supposed audio recordings where you can only hear one side of the conversation, some are letters, and some are third-person narratives recounting memories. And though at times it doesn't seem like it, all of those pieces somehow add up to one thrilling story.
The only thing I can tell you about the plot without giving anything away is that the story overall is centered around three girls - Wendy, Alice, and Stacy Flynn. The three lived in the same community and were physically just acquaintances but emotionally, somehow connected on a deeper level. And all three in their own way stood for and did what they thought was right, even if society would have chosen a different path.
I will say that this book was one of the most surprising, thrilling, and unique that I've read in a really long time. As many of the reviews on Amazon put it, it was one of the ugliest books I've ever read but incredible at the same time. I wish I could give it five stars and would except for the ugly "F" word that kept coming up throughout the book. For that one reason I can't recommenced it to everyone but if you like contemporary lit and that's not something that bothers you, So Much Pretty is definitely a book to read. If for no other reason, to remember the beauty of being truly and utterly surprised and shocked by a book.
This is Cara Hoffman's debut novel, and I will definitely be picking up whatever she decides to write next.
A key to this book is that it is contemporary fiction. It's written in a style that I can only relate back to the movie Momento, except the story is being told from the point of view of dozens of people instead of one. The story is told in small pieces that take you forward and backward, up and down, as you try to piece together where each individual piece fits into the bigger puzzle. The book is divided into small "chapters," that skip among numerous characters in the book. Some characters who seemingly don't add a thing, but I'm sure again on my second read, I'd find those characters were actually game-changers. Some of the chapters have years, some of them don't. Some of them are supposed audio recordings where you can only hear one side of the conversation, some are letters, and some are third-person narratives recounting memories. And though at times it doesn't seem like it, all of those pieces somehow add up to one thrilling story.
The only thing I can tell you about the plot without giving anything away is that the story overall is centered around three girls - Wendy, Alice, and Stacy Flynn. The three lived in the same community and were physically just acquaintances but emotionally, somehow connected on a deeper level. And all three in their own way stood for and did what they thought was right, even if society would have chosen a different path.
I will say that this book was one of the most surprising, thrilling, and unique that I've read in a really long time. As many of the reviews on Amazon put it, it was one of the ugliest books I've ever read but incredible at the same time. I wish I could give it five stars and would except for the ugly "F" word that kept coming up throughout the book. For that one reason I can't recommenced it to everyone but if you like contemporary lit and that's not something that bothers you, So Much Pretty is definitely a book to read. If for no other reason, to remember the beauty of being truly and utterly surprised and shocked by a book.
This is Cara Hoffman's debut novel, and I will definitely be picking up whatever she decides to write next.
June 23, 2012
There was so much potential in this book. Chapter starters like, "I have her baby teeth saved in a box in my dresser." But the book never went anywhere. With the story told by the POV of a dozen characters, told through narrative, newspaper articles, diary entries, audio transcriptions and interviews... the story is so jarring and lacks flow. It takes effort to read this, akin to a textbook, but you're not learning anything. It isn't even escapism that rewards you for your hard work, because the story doesn't let you escape into it. After giving it my best effort for 50 pages, I skimmed ahead, looking for something compelling for me to latch onto and keep reading. I skimmed all the way to the end. This is a first novel, which usually means it gets more editor effort, more attention to plot flaws and pacing, but the author's background as a reporter must have meant that she knew the right person to lean on in order to get this published. It really could have benefited from some additional editing. Skip it and find something else.
June 29, 2017
This book messed with my freaking mind. The ending was so unexpected. I imagined a bunch of different scenarios and none of them were even close to what happened. The way the book is written both kept me guessing. You're wondering what all the evidence points to. What all of these thoughts and life experiences lead to. You know something horrible happened, but have no idea what. Then something bad happens and you think that's the horrible, but oh no, the horrible is yet to come.
When you finally find out the whole story, you're wondering who was truly in the wrong? Can you really blame the person for what they did and did the victims deserve what happened? Are others to blame for turning a blind eye to certain events? What would you have done if you were in that situation?
1 star off because the beginning dragged. I get that it was to give a feel for the characters and how they were shaped by their upbringings and things like that, but still, it dragged. But the ending definitely gave it the fire it needed to reach 4 stars.
When you finally find out the whole story, you're wondering who was truly in the wrong? Can you really blame the person for what they did and did the victims deserve what happened? Are others to blame for turning a blind eye to certain events? What would you have done if you were in that situation?
1 star off because the beginning dragged. I get that it was to give a feel for the characters and how they were shaped by their upbringings and things like that, but still, it dragged. But the ending definitely gave it the fire it needed to reach 4 stars.
May 12, 2013
Compelling. Frightening. I've seen reviews stating the story is completely unrealistic, unbelievable. I would really hope that this is an unrealistic story. However, I found it inconceivable that 3 women could be held captive in a house in urban America for a decade until this week. One of the most compelling elements of this book (for me) is that you get a sense of what is coming and can't believe it will be so. The thrill is in the telling and seeing how events unfold, how it can be that an entire community might be blind to the evil within. I was glad that I didn't read anything about the author until I'd finished the story. Really made me wonder...
September 21, 2015
this book is hard to review I think without giving anything away!! it was hard to get into and then BAM I cant put it down, I didn't care for the date and character jumping or the sort of open-ended ending. I personally like my endings in a neat little box with a pretty bow :) besides all that, I did enjoy it, although it scared the shit out of me, as a woman it makes you think about everyone around you & the fucking horrible things people are capable of
October 8, 2011
Whaaa????? I'm always amazed when I dislike a book after choosing it because of four and five star reviews on this forum. I'm wondering if the author ever lived in a rural community. I grew up in a tiny prairie community so maybe I was unable to find these characters believable enough to make this book interesting.
February 17, 2017
This book was too f***ing weird. I didn't understand half of the political garbage & the ending didn't even seem plausible. I almost quit reading after the first 50 pages and I SO should have. I only finished it because I wanted to know what happened to Wendy & you never even really find out. Yikes.
January 27, 2024
After reading the description of this book I thought it was going be great. I was sadly disappointed. I found the story hard to read as it switched back and forth. I think the idea was great but it was hard to follow.
March 22, 2011
The feeling of doom that hung over this book from the very beginning made the reading a heart-in-throat kind of experience. The events are supposed to take place in upstate NY, though I read it in Iowa and could very readily translate the portrayal of "family" (now corporate) farms and decaying small towns into that environment. This book has a lot to say about country and city, ideals and realities, and--most affectingly--about the disposable nature of women in a society that treats them as undifferentiated receptacles for the fears, hatreds and dreams of men. This is a murder mystery without seeming like genre fiction and without the "whodunit" really being the point. I loved this book and its insights into the lives of several kinds of women who are, in so many ways, all the same woman. Hint: If you saw Thelma and Louise and thought its portrayal of the limited range of choices open to rebellious women matched your own sensibilities, then this book is for you.
July 24, 2015
I've got some distance now because I finished this on Tuesday, but goddamn, this book was hard to read. I read a lot of crime novels & I don’t think I’m a shrinking violet regarding fictionalized violence, so I didn’t expect to cry & be so sick to my stomach that I had to put the book down when I found out what was done to Wendy White, missing waitress, but there I was. Hoffman hit me hard in the face by making Wendy a human being & then creating characters who dehumanized her so completely that it made me ill. This is filled with quotable lines that will fill you in turn with rage and horror and sadness at the grotesque, rampant misogyny that is a part of the world in this book and the world that I, we live in. "How disposable is a woman's life? How expected. How unsurprising. How normal. How many times a week, a month, a year does this happen?"
January 8, 2015
I first saw this book reviewed on npr.org and immediately added it to my "To-read" list. The premise of the book is fascinating and "So Much Pretty" definitely lived up to my expectations.
The book was a little difficult to get into. I wasn't quite sure where it was leading, but when a story involves the disappearance of a pretty girl in a small town - it is bound to be an important story. That is what I would call "So Much Pretty," an important story.
Some of the characters are ecccentric, just what you might expect in a small town. Other characters are also just what you would expect in a small town - those that establish the pecking order. What makes this story interesting is the way of the eccentric characters turn the pecking order upside down and disrupt the life of this small town.
I was surprised that this was a debut novel. I am excited for Cara Hoffman's next book as writer's tend to only get better and better and this debut novel was excellent.
The book was a little difficult to get into. I wasn't quite sure where it was leading, but when a story involves the disappearance of a pretty girl in a small town - it is bound to be an important story. That is what I would call "So Much Pretty," an important story.
Some of the characters are ecccentric, just what you might expect in a small town. Other characters are also just what you would expect in a small town - those that establish the pecking order. What makes this story interesting is the way of the eccentric characters turn the pecking order upside down and disrupt the life of this small town.
I was surprised that this was a debut novel. I am excited for Cara Hoffman's next book as writer's tend to only get better and better and this debut novel was excellent.
November 19, 2013
So Much Pretty is, without a doubt, one of the best books I've read in the past five years. I have not stopped thinking about it since I read it. Every other book pales in its shadow.
But really, Katie Coyle at The Female Gaze says it best: "The dead girl in So Much Pretty is nearly as much of a cipher as any other, but the novel speaks for her, champions her. It says, like all girls, this one was flawed, but loved. She did not deserve to live with this anger, this fear. Like all girls, she did not deserve to be raped. Like all girls, she did not deserve to die. So what are we going to do next? What are we going to do now?"
But really, Katie Coyle at The Female Gaze says it best: "The dead girl in So Much Pretty is nearly as much of a cipher as any other, but the novel speaks for her, champions her. It says, like all girls, this one was flawed, but loved. She did not deserve to live with this anger, this fear. Like all girls, she did not deserve to be raped. Like all girls, she did not deserve to die. So what are we going to do next? What are we going to do now?"
June 20, 2012
I found this book absorbing and interesting, but I consider it only half complete.
Unfortunately, while the author seemed to have a good sense for what makes "outsiders" move to the country and get off the grid, she remains clueless about rural communities themselves.
The book turned somewhat polemical about violence against women. The author offered no insight about the perpetrators and their families. They were just one-dimensional bad guys. The book contained a lot of condescension toward rural America and read like it was written by a big-city journalist just passing through, resorting to stereotypes.
I also dislike resorting to cheap sexual prurience, a la Jane Smiley in "Thousand Acres." There comes a point where the crimes are so horrible that the reader dismisses the entire work as sordid fantasy.
I could see the potential for this book, and "Thousand Acres," to become almost Shakespearean classics speaking universal truth. As executed, however, their caricatures of evil become too easy to dismiss as "not me, not my people."
Unfortunately, while the author seemed to have a good sense for what makes "outsiders" move to the country and get off the grid, she remains clueless about rural communities themselves.
The book turned somewhat polemical about violence against women. The author offered no insight about the perpetrators and their families. They were just one-dimensional bad guys. The book contained a lot of condescension toward rural America and read like it was written by a big-city journalist just passing through, resorting to stereotypes.
I also dislike resorting to cheap sexual prurience, a la Jane Smiley in "Thousand Acres." There comes a point where the crimes are so horrible that the reader dismisses the entire work as sordid fantasy.
I could see the potential for this book, and "Thousand Acres," to become almost Shakespearean classics speaking universal truth. As executed, however, their caricatures of evil become too easy to dismiss as "not me, not my people."
July 5, 2017
Ratings (1 to 5)
Writing: 4
Plot: 5
Characters: 4
Emotional impact: 5
Overall rating: 4.5
This was a very engrossing story presented in an interesting way, through non-linear narratives, letters, essays and interviews, leaving the reader to piece together both the facts and the truth, which are not always the same thing. Really good!
Writing: 4
Plot: 5
Characters: 4
Emotional impact: 5
Overall rating: 4.5
This was a very engrossing story presented in an interesting way, through non-linear narratives, letters, essays and interviews, leaving the reader to piece together both the facts and the truth, which are not always the same thing. Really good!
September 28, 2024
Wow this was a journey. It took me almost an entire month to read because I really couldn’t get into it!
‘It would hardly be rational to accept that I live inside a thing made of flesh that people capture, hide, and then wait in line to rape’
This book was such an eye-opener and I’m so glad I stuck with it. Such an important overarching message about protecting women’s safety and a dark twist in this case, when women ultimately fight back. It was darker than I thought it was going to be but really hit home with the parallels of how men and women are treated. Some of it I found to be overly political and not entirely relevant, in terms of farming and living a cult-like, off-grid lifestyle. Maybe I missed something?
The multiple perspectives and tenses took a bit of getting used to, but I think were essential in facilitating the telling of this story.
‘Men raped her, men killed her, men dumped her, men found her, men are examining her remains, men are looking for the men who did it. Then the men who did it will be represented in court by men, and a man will make the decision based on laws men made throughout the legal history of this country’
‘It would hardly be rational to accept that I live inside a thing made of flesh that people capture, hide, and then wait in line to rape’
This book was such an eye-opener and I’m so glad I stuck with it. Such an important overarching message about protecting women’s safety and a dark twist in this case, when women ultimately fight back. It was darker than I thought it was going to be but really hit home with the parallels of how men and women are treated. Some of it I found to be overly political and not entirely relevant, in terms of farming and living a cult-like, off-grid lifestyle. Maybe I missed something?
The multiple perspectives and tenses took a bit of getting used to, but I think were essential in facilitating the telling of this story.
‘Men raped her, men killed her, men dumped her, men found her, men are examining her remains, men are looking for the men who did it. Then the men who did it will be represented in court by men, and a man will make the decision based on laws men made throughout the legal history of this country’
March 30, 2011
This review first appeared on my blog: http://www.knittingandsundries.com/20...
This novel was inspired by a real case that the author encountered as a police beat reporter.
Told in alternating POV's, we meet Claire Piper, her husband Gene, and their daughter Alice, a happy girl who was a leader in her school and in life. They live in the small community of Haeden, where the Pipers lead a rather unconventional "back to earth" life, given that they are both Harvard-educated, with medical degrees that they don't put to use.
We also meet Flynn, a reporter from the community's small paper who moved there from Cleveland when she was 24, looking for "the story" that would put gain accolades and reporting fame, in this case the environmental damage caused by the commercial dairy farm of the Haytes' family, also a point of contention for Gene, whose words about it seem to fall on deaf ears. After all, he and his family are relative newcomers in comparison to the Haytes, whose rich farm is one of the oldest in the county.
When "classic country girl" Wendy White goes missing, and then is found, naked, dead, and having obviously experienced ongoing trauma for quite some time prior to her death, Flynn is determined to find out what really happened to her and who was responsible for her death.
Here is where I pull away from the pack: "Everyone" seems to like this one - a LOT! I didn't. I read it; don't get me wrong, and at the end, I appreciated the underlying story, but getting there was a long, vague, meandering, choppy, and often confusing path. The varying POV's and switching from first person to third person to second person and back didn't help either. I didn't like Flynn's promiscuity and unnecessary "tough girl" profanity - it felt fake, like a toughness mask was put on her. She also looked down on the people around her, which I also didn't like. I didn't feel a connection with any of the characters until almost the very end, when we find out what Alice is accused of and why she did it, but even then, in truth, I had to go back to re-read a section or more to actually figure out what just happened. All of the many characters felt like pastel sketches, with no depth, confusing motives, and no heart. The flow was disconnected, and I often found myself feeling puzzled as players were introduced.
Again, I am apparently in the minority on this opinion, as there are many glowing reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.
QUOTE: I watched men who had no business doing anything other than writing traffic tickets, working the crosswalk, or wrangling drunks handle the series of intimate procedures involved in packing and shipping a body that had once belonged to their friend's daughter or their kids' babysitter.
This novel was inspired by a real case that the author encountered as a police beat reporter.
Told in alternating POV's, we meet Claire Piper, her husband Gene, and their daughter Alice, a happy girl who was a leader in her school and in life. They live in the small community of Haeden, where the Pipers lead a rather unconventional "back to earth" life, given that they are both Harvard-educated, with medical degrees that they don't put to use.
We also meet Flynn, a reporter from the community's small paper who moved there from Cleveland when she was 24, looking for "the story" that would put gain accolades and reporting fame, in this case the environmental damage caused by the commercial dairy farm of the Haytes' family, also a point of contention for Gene, whose words about it seem to fall on deaf ears. After all, he and his family are relative newcomers in comparison to the Haytes, whose rich farm is one of the oldest in the county.
When "classic country girl" Wendy White goes missing, and then is found, naked, dead, and having obviously experienced ongoing trauma for quite some time prior to her death, Flynn is determined to find out what really happened to her and who was responsible for her death.
Here is where I pull away from the pack: "Everyone" seems to like this one - a LOT! I didn't. I read it; don't get me wrong, and at the end, I appreciated the underlying story, but getting there was a long, vague, meandering, choppy, and often confusing path. The varying POV's and switching from first person to third person to second person and back didn't help either. I didn't like Flynn's promiscuity and unnecessary "tough girl" profanity - it felt fake, like a toughness mask was put on her. She also looked down on the people around her, which I also didn't like. I didn't feel a connection with any of the characters until almost the very end, when we find out what Alice is accused of and why she did it, but even then, in truth, I had to go back to re-read a section or more to actually figure out what just happened. All of the many characters felt like pastel sketches, with no depth, confusing motives, and no heart. The flow was disconnected, and I often found myself feeling puzzled as players were introduced.
Again, I am apparently in the minority on this opinion, as there are many glowing reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.
QUOTE: I watched men who had no business doing anything other than writing traffic tickets, working the crosswalk, or wrangling drunks handle the series of intimate procedures involved in packing and shipping a body that had once belonged to their friend's daughter or their kids' babysitter.
May 14, 2012
I received this book from the publisher in return for an honest review.
SO MUCH PRETTY is a mystery and a thriller. But it's not the kind where the events could never happen. It's the kind where you hope they never happen to YOUR family, but we read about them all too frequently. This novel is not YA, but still something I can see YA readers picking up to read as they get older. I would recommend this one only for the oldest of the group. There's swearing, sex, violence and general human atrocities.
A small town girl disappears, only to reappear months later...dead...less than a mile from her apartment. She's a nice girl, just got her own apartment, waitresses, graduated a couple years ago, just began dating the well-to-do son of the local dairy farmer. When she disappears, the townspeople insist it had to be a drifter, it couldn't possibly be one of them.
There's three main voices in this book:
Wendy - the missing girl. The chapters from Wendy are few and far between, but are hard hitting.
Stacy Flynn - Reporter/Editor of the local paper. She came from the big city as she's sure she's going to find her big story out here in the boonies.
Alice Piper - 15 yo genius daughter of hippie parents who were doctors in NYC and moved her to live off the land and be part of the community. However, the community still considers them outsiders and weirdos after all these years. But people like Alice, she's smart, athletic, friendly.
The characters are interesting, as is the story. However, I had to concentrate while reading it. There's a lot going on - jumping viewpoints, lots of undercurrents politically and within the community. I felt like the only character I really got to know was Stacy Flynn, and then still only on the surface. Alice, although apparently filled with moral outrage, seemed entirely to calculating and aloof. Wendy - there wasn't enough for me to feel anything more than sorrow for a wasted life. I wanted to connect with her, to care about her, but she seemed to be more of a vehicle of the story than someone that really mattered.
I really felt like too much time and detail was spent on Alice's parents - what they did in the past, what they're doing now, their political thoughts and ideals. Also the dairy farm issues about contaminating the water supply - which was brought up and never mentioned again. It seemed like not that much mattered. I know that her parents influenced Alice, but it seemed that they influenced her in a way that they didn't mean to...as it may be with a lot of parents. I felt like some of that space could have been used to make me see Wendy more clearly.
I'm not really sure how I feel about this book. Have you read it? What do you think?
SO MUCH PRETTY is a mystery and a thriller. But it's not the kind where the events could never happen. It's the kind where you hope they never happen to YOUR family, but we read about them all too frequently. This novel is not YA, but still something I can see YA readers picking up to read as they get older. I would recommend this one only for the oldest of the group. There's swearing, sex, violence and general human atrocities.
A small town girl disappears, only to reappear months later...dead...less than a mile from her apartment. She's a nice girl, just got her own apartment, waitresses, graduated a couple years ago, just began dating the well-to-do son of the local dairy farmer. When she disappears, the townspeople insist it had to be a drifter, it couldn't possibly be one of them.
There's three main voices in this book:
Wendy - the missing girl. The chapters from Wendy are few and far between, but are hard hitting.
Stacy Flynn - Reporter/Editor of the local paper. She came from the big city as she's sure she's going to find her big story out here in the boonies.
Alice Piper - 15 yo genius daughter of hippie parents who were doctors in NYC and moved her to live off the land and be part of the community. However, the community still considers them outsiders and weirdos after all these years. But people like Alice, she's smart, athletic, friendly.
The characters are interesting, as is the story. However, I had to concentrate while reading it. There's a lot going on - jumping viewpoints, lots of undercurrents politically and within the community. I felt like the only character I really got to know was Stacy Flynn, and then still only on the surface. Alice, although apparently filled with moral outrage, seemed entirely to calculating and aloof. Wendy - there wasn't enough for me to feel anything more than sorrow for a wasted life. I wanted to connect with her, to care about her, but she seemed to be more of a vehicle of the story than someone that really mattered.
I really felt like too much time and detail was spent on Alice's parents - what they did in the past, what they're doing now, their political thoughts and ideals. Also the dairy farm issues about contaminating the water supply - which was brought up and never mentioned again. It seemed like not that much mattered. I know that her parents influenced Alice, but it seemed that they influenced her in a way that they didn't mean to...as it may be with a lot of parents. I felt like some of that space could have been used to make me see Wendy more clearly.
I'm not really sure how I feel about this book. Have you read it? What do you think?
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