Diamonds

Pretty Killers #1

by Jordan McKinney

(Revised Version)


Life had not been too kind to Tomika Drake. Other than growing up in one of the most ill-reputed cities in the state, at age 13, she lost her beloved mother. And soon after, her father was incarcerated. For the next three years, she lived her life stuck in a suburban hell with her narcissistic half-sister and her equally evil mother, but on her 16th birthday, Tomika's life changed when she was forced to unwrap the powerful superhuman gift that was bestowed upon her at birth.
Pretty Killers examines millennial American pop culture, politics, and society through a whirlwind week starting when a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with a famed fashion mogul brings the feuding family to the sparkling metropolis of Queen City. But the shine quickly fades when they learn that the neighboring burg has been tackling an issue with humongous mutants and other terrors, including a gang that Tomika's half-sister gets caught up in. When the fate of the city ends up on Tomika's shoulders, will she find it in her heart to save her half-sister, or take the chance to finally do away with the scourge while saving the city from her gang's tirades?

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction

316 pages, ebook

First published January 3, 2012

About the author

Jordan McKinney is an indie author and annoying '90s kid who constantly blathers on about Power Rangers and how Nickelodeon "isn't what it used to be" while making esoteric jokes that are not even funny to the people who are familiar with the details of the subject. His work attempts to balance drama and comedy through the use of pop culture and its sociological aspects, but is considerably amateurish on a good day.

But most of all... he just wants to make you laugh. Wocka Wocka Wocka. Power to the people.

Reviews

[Justine · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a Read 2 Review book that I was given free by the author to give an honest review.

To start off the prologue. I actually had to go back and read what the book was about because I thought I had gotten the wrong book. The prologue had nothing to do with what the book synopsis said. Plus it was filled with to many adjectives so it made it really hard to read through. 

Then you get to the real book and it's full of swearing, fighting, stereotyping and racism. It's terrible. I hops that people don't act like this is real life, and if they do I feel sorry for them. 

Then there are the anomalies. Which I still am confused by. When theses one into play the book jumps to something totally different. It talks about government, religion and other crap. It's so confusing. It jumps all over and doesn't make any sense. There is one whole chapter that these two girls talk about if the nineties are better then now and basically list every show ever made in that decade, every show. ARGH, it makes me want to rip out my hair.

So yea really didn't like anything about this book. I found it super slow and that I had to force myself to get through it. The title gave it potential to be a good book, but once you opened it that flew out the window. If there is a second one I WILL NOT read it.

[Angela · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book took me forever to read. It was like trying to get blood out of a stone. I normally finish my R2R within a few days and have plenty of time to follow up with the review. This took me 3 weeks and I am so very late with this review.

Anyway back to the book “Pretty Killers” itself was not a bad idea, it just was not written very well. It was very hard to navigate through the, for lack of better words Colorful language. I’m sure Jordan was trying to make it a realistic as possible but there is only so much cursing I can handle. To add to the bad choice of words used I found it very hard to follow in some places as he would jump from being in a conversation with Tomika and friends to Niki speaking with her sister in a whole different country. With a professional editor and much needed cleansing of the language this book would have been much more enjoyable to read.

I really can’t give this book anymore than 1 star and I am sorry to say that I could not recommend this either. I hate to say it but I was really disappointed.

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall, I think the plot was a great concept, however, it was one of those things where it could either be awful or amazing. It was simply "eh." The imagery was extremely excessive, making it hard to follow and slow to read, and it was simply awkward. The prologue did make me think about today's society in terms of religion, and I always appreciate thought-provoking books. The rest lacked this, however, and the large amount of cursing and stereotypes made me cringe ocaisionally. The plot was good, but there were various holes. Where'd Marc go towards the end? And there were a few contradictory concepts, such as Tomika being offended by the term 'river girl,' after stating how proud she was of where she came from. With a few edits and revisions, this could be turned into something great!

[Kristal · Rating 1 out of 5]

The good news is, I finally stumbled my way through and finished this book…the bad news is, I really did not enjoy it at all. (I hate saying that but it’s true!) I struggled with the language in the book because there was so much of it. Like other reviewers have mentioned, the concept was good, I just feel that the execution was lacking in some areas of story development. I didn’t really connect to the characters and I’ve found that if I can’t invest myself in them, then I can’t get into their story.

Overall this didn’t really scream YA to me, so I wouldn’t recommend to that genre of readers.

[Melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty Killers was an okay book, but there were many defects. I started the book thinking that it would live up to its title, but it didn't. The title and the cover art made the book look interesting and I was excited to start reading it, but I was soon to notice the cons. There was a lot of swearing, and I'm okay with a little bit of profanity in the books I read but there was a lot of swearing in this one. The book also started out really slow, I was dozing off at some points. Overall, this book was an okay read and I wish the author luck to whatever book he will be writing next. :)

[Marissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this book was okay. I wasn't a big fan of the over the top action. It seemed to drag on at parts. I also didn't like all of the profanity/racial comments. I don't mind some swearing, but it was too vulgar for me. I liked the idea of the book. I thought the characters were interesting. I felt that some parts of the book didn't come together very well. There were separate points of view that didn't seem necessary in my opinion. Overall this book wasn't generally the type I like to read, but it wasn't terrible. It could use some improvements.

[Feepit · Rating 2 out of 5]

I agree with the other reviewers that this book had too much swearing/stereotyping/racism and a lot of spelling/grammar mistakes.
I also didn't care much for all the over-the-top action.

I also agree that this isn't really a YA Novel as well... Way too much swearing and the such for me to consider it YA.