Pretty Is

Title: Pretty Is
Author: Maggie Mitchell
Type: Paperback
Read: 22nd October - 27th October 2016
Rating: 3/5
Published: 21st April 2016 by Orion

Everyone thought we were dead. What else could they think?

One summer, nearly twenty years ago, two twelve year olds
were abducted and kept captive in the forest.
There they formed a bond that could never be broken.
What really happened in the woods that summer?

I liked the basis of this book and for some reason the title. Pretty Is. It's so simple.

I enjoyed the mystery part around the kidnapping of the two girls, who were only 12 and very pretty. The book is split over three sections, with the stories going from one girl to the other. The second part is a take on the book wrote by one of the characters, Lois. Which worked and didn't.

The girls, whilst fair enough were only 12, seemed at times not to worry about being taken. They never asked questions, they never wanted to run, they just accepted. They were both eager to please the kidnapper, who in return, didn't really want alot from them. Just company and for them to stop with the things that they knew best, pagents and spelling bees. But there was nothing else beyond that. I think that was the hard part of the story. The not understanding their desire to stay. Anyone who was taken, weather they got into a car willingly at first, would / should still question why they are not going home.

The story went on to how it changed the two girls, how their lives turned out because of this. After being released, neither girl seen the other. They went off on two different paths in life. One becoming an actress, and changing her name. The other a lecturer and a writer - both still caught up with the kidnapper they named Zed.

Part of me wanted the girls to just grow up (and they were adults!). But even meeting up due to Lois book being turned into a film and that the other girl was going to be acting in the film, they both seemd to want to be the better. They both kinda vived for attention about who was Zed's favourite. I think they were still crazy and no-one around them could ever understand the other. It was just them two against the world.