Thriller

Her Pretty Face
4 Stars

Stay-at-home mother, Frances Metcalfe, struggles to fit into the small and petty world of her son's elite school, Forrester Academy. Overweight, insecure, and self-conscious, Frances is ostracized by most of the other mothers until she is befriended by Kate Randolph. The antithesis to Frances, Kate is beautiful, bold, and confident enough to confront the other women. As the friendship between the two develops, Frances finds her inner strength, but a terrible secret lies just beneath the surface as one of them is not who she appears to be ...

An engrossing read although the twists are rather obvious from the start.

The narrative is presented from three different perspectives - Frances, Daisy (Kate Randolph's teenage daughter), and D.J., a young boy whose sister was murdered and who seems to be unrelated to the events. However, the connection soon becomes clear as the plot progresses and more details are revealed about Frances and Kate.

Harding's characterization is excellent. Frances and Daisy are not easy characters to identify with or feel sympathy for; however, their strengths and weaknesses, actions and motivations slowly emerge over the course of the book and it becomes impossible not to care about their individual fates.

The mystery itself also develops at a slow yet steady pace until there is a sudden Aha! moment and it all coalesces. For me, this happened approximately 1/3 of the way into the book, and from then it was a simple matter of following along to see whether my conclusions were correct.

In sum, Her Pretty Face, is an intriguing look into the diverse facets of human nature and an individual's capacity for both good and evil. Highly recommended for readers who enjoy a good domestic thriller akin to Big Little Lies. ( )

I don't dislike fiction based on real life crime, I just feel that if you're going to evoke notorious crimes, you have to do something with it. I personally hold [b:My Summer of Love|324841|My Summer of Love|Helen Cross|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328821671l/324841._SY75_.jpg|315527] as a great example of fiction inspired by true crime.

This novel barely barely fictionalizes the Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo murders. Right down to the video tapes and the deal with the devil. If you're going to take on something that is still emotionally loaded for an entire country nearly 30 years later, it has to be done with sensitivity and creativity. Was this? It's too milquetoast to be offensive but also doesn't put forward anything interesting for the reader to mull over.

Frances Metcalfe is an awkward, overprotective mother suffering from a lot of guilt and trauma, who doesn't fit in among the Stepford moms at her son's expensive private school. She is befriended by a woman named Kate, who is beautiful, charming and glamorous. They form a close friendship. Well, the book continuously tells us that but there's really no evidence that Frances has anything but surface-level interactions with anyone, including her husband. She's a weak-willed character as much as she is a weakly-written character. I think she's supposed to be your Average Person Avatar, but what a waste.

The two other perspectives in the book are flashbacks to the teenage brother of the murder victim during the murder trial in the mid-90s, and Kate's 14 year old daughter in the present. Both are far, far more interesting characters with far more interesting perspectives, yet they are deeply neglected. DJ's whole backstory is quickly rolled out in a single chapter towards the end and there was a quick wrap up for Daisy, even though both of them were absolutely the characters who should have been the focus.

A good portion of the book seems to have characters fixate on who struck the killing blow on the murder victim as if it makes either of the perpetrators less heinous. Who actually killed her? Who cares? They both raped and tortured a child for hours for their own edification and taped it. It's a pointless distinction to focus on.

If you are going to take on the most notorious murderers in Canada, then you have to do it well. Her Pretty Face is just below average in every way. For a book described as being a thriller, with suspense and mystery, there truly is very, very little of any of them.
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This was a nice way to kill time on a train. ( )

Frances Metcalfe is basically friendless and ostracized by the snooty moms
in her son's school until one day she meets the new arrival to the neighborhood Kate. The two quickly become the best of friends although something always seems just a bit off. While Kate dotes on her son and on Frances she seems to have no interest or time for her daughter Daisy. Both of these women have secrets in their past but is one of them a sociopath? A murderer? Even if you figure out who is who before the end, and you probably will, this story is still juicier than a soap opera and moves a lot faster. I loved it. 5 stars. A perfect guilty pleasure.

I received an advance copy for review.
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