So I just finished this book and I honest to goodness still don't know how I feel about it. It is a mixture of bad and good, but in a way that was still entertaining to the point where I couldn't put the book down even though there were so many times where I was like wtf am I reading??? It's your typical high school bullshit murder mystery, but not at the same time because the characters in this book are weird af. And it's not that they particularly have multiple complex dimensions to them, they're just... different? Like I don't know how to explain it. Overall the book really intrigued me, despite it lacking depth (while having it too at the same time, idk man, hard to explain), and the ending being complete bullshit. It was a murder mystery with like typical YA romance that totally wasn't necessary, but was highly entertaining.

Mean Girls meets Pretty Little Liars in a well-executed young adult mystery about pretty, high school academics who are getting killed off one by one. The novel does a fantastic job of setting up tension and mystery as it begins the novel with two characters in a car, leading to an argument and then the death of one character leading to an upscale investigation in a wealthy suburban area where anyone can be a suspect or the next victim.

To make the novel work and build up the suspense the author carefully made sure that there were no details revealed by any of the characters before they meet their untimely demise. It is skillfully written, creating tension, mystery, and intrigue by delving into the mind of the killer. By splitting up the story between perspectives, from the main protagonist who has taken it upon herself to try to figure out who is killing her friends, keeps the pace of the novel moving like a bullet. The speed with which the events take place, moving effortlessly from scene to scene do not lose the reader. Details do not get lost in the novel that would possibly distract the reader, but the novel is wonderfully constructed that the reader cannot get lost. The plot and the mystery draw the reader into the story.

The story is well written, going between perspectives and building the story with intrigue, suspense, and tension, leading to a breathless and thrilling ending. However, probably the most compelling piece of the novel is not actually about the novel. Perse. In many cases, poorly written characters can deter the reader, even well-written characters with sour dispositions can deter a reader. However, that is not the case here. These are not the type of nasty characters that a reader would love or even that villain everyone loves to hate or loves more than the hero; these are obnoxious self-entitled pretty girls. Nevertheless, they are realistic. These are girls with insecurities, drug problems, and varying forms of mental illness, hidden behind good looks and good grades. They are not the most delightful characters, with Penelope being the exception, but they are well-rounded enough to keep the reader entertained. The qualities that define them exist in the smallest of ways, but in the way the killer reveals these tiniest details about his victims, the writer makes these characters human. These qualities also help to give the villain in the novel their motivation, giving the reader a clear understanding of what has made this character snap.

It is a fast-paced novel that is hard to put down. The sequence of events moves quickly, giving the plot a well-rounded air and also giving the characters time to shine. There isn’t much growth in the novel, but there’s enough personality in it to make the reader engrossed in the mystery. Engrossed in Penelope’s quest to find out who is killing her friends. All in all, an excellent read.

This coming of age story about friendship is relatable to any high school student who has needed help finding their true personality as they grow up. It’s easy to get caught up with what friends like or don’t like, but eventually we all have to find our true self and be brave enough to share it with others.
Received this arc for an honest review

Pretty Dead Girls wasn't as nail biting as I was hoping it would be, but it was still a good read.

Monica definitely stays true to her roots of YA with this thriller and keeps the characters very real. I would have to say this is like Mean Girls meets Pretty Little Liars, having more of PLL vibe to it with the dramatics and mysterious thriller antidotes. But well held it back for me, was being able to "connect" to any of the characters.

The overall plot is what kept me interested in this story. I didn't care for any of the characters, except Cass. He had me on my toes because he sort of comes out of nowhere and has connections to the girls who are slowly winding up dead. And now he's seemingly interested in Penelope but staying secretive about his closed off about his "friendships" with Pen's closest "Friends" who are being plucked off one by one.

I only deducted one star for the lack of character development because everything else was very enticing and made the book so intriguing that I wanted to figure out who the killer was. Monica gives us some bread crumbs to follow throughout the book and I surprisingly was right on my guess, but I have to admit they were not the only one on my radar of possible killers.

Overall, it's a great mystery to read and follow. Just don't expect to become too invested in the characters or really connecting to them. To be honest, I truly envisioned characters from the show, Pretty Little Liars, as the characters in this book just because I just couldn't envision the characters written. :/

Give it a go if you enjoy YA reads.

One of my favorite young adult books I’ve read this year! I love when Monica Murphy writes young adult, but I really hope she writes more young adult thrillers.

I saw someone compared Pretty Dead Girls to Pretty Little Liars and it’s exaclty that! It’s thrilling and has just a touch of romance… I LOVED IT. I know this book isn’t considered a romance, but Penelope and Cass were still adorable together.

All in all, Pretty Dead Girls was a fantastic read and I would highly recommend it to fans of YA and thrillers.

This is not the first time we've read tales of horrible things happening to teen characters, the main suspect being another teen. It's not the best offering in the genre. For one, the suspect is a bit inexplicable. There's a rumor that his mother killed his father. That's it. This is the whole of the initial basis for his potential guilt. No personal enmity. Even if he'd had more motivation, his presentation, as with all of the characters, was fairly simplistic. The book is meant to be a thriller. For that to work we need to care about the character, to be caught up in their stories and concerned for their safety. We should feel the tension in every moment but it's not there. I could accept these failings more easily if it were meant to be more of a commentary on culture and the genre. If done correctly, a plot can be taken to ridiculous extremes and still reach the audience with sincere messages. This book is a bit more mediocre.

A good read from one of my favorite authors! Can;t wait to see what comes next from Monica Murphy!

A fascinating and impressive thriller revolving around young teenagers in the seaside town of Cape Bonita. A well written novel that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. 3.5/5

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Mean girls meets Pretty Little Liars meets parts of Heathers in this one. The pacing was a tad off but I felt like it was worth my time. Murphy definitely knows/has down the teen speak and the mentality of the girls that seem completely vapid and shallow. However I love how vague some parts were while managing to pull together a solid ending. A light read, but fun.

I am afraid I just couldn't get into this book, so I feel like it wouldn't be fair to give it a rating. I just couldn't feel connected to any of the characters in this book. And I just couldn't finish past pg 50.
I would still like to think the author and publisher for giving me a chance to read this book.

This book had me from the title, I thought oh this is just like my fave show Pretty Little Liars. So for fans of the books and show this is one to check out. Also gives a little vibe of Scream Queens.

Penelope is one out of four other girls who are very popular seniors.
They basically run the school, they tell the other five juniors what to do in their club for the school.

But when one of the most popular man stealing seniors gets murdered at a church, things to from awesome for them to not.

Everyone thinks how can this happen in this small town? Why was she there?  Detectives start questioning everyone at school. Their popular club that helps out everyone. Detectives learn not everyone was the girl's friend.

When Penelope gets called into the office she thinks, what do I even know she was my best friend who could done this? But being the President of a club could make her a huge suspect.
But they aren't just looking at the inner circle.

Penelope see's the weird guy from her class in the office and wonders why is he here? How does he even know her friends well?
But Cass tells Penelope something that makes her think wait is he right?
Would one of our classmates do this?

When another murder happens and it happens to a be a senior from the club Penelope starts thinking is this person targeting the club? The seniors in the club? Am I next? Is it Cass? But Cass is so cute for being weird? Maybe he isn't so weird?
As Penelope gets closer to the truth, she learns so much more about her so called best friends. And herself that she realizes that just maybe she isn't such the nice person after all and her friends were no better.

I really enjoyed all these characters and this book kept me guessing. I would think I have it figured out and then realizes oh wait not that person.
Monica Murphy has another hit with this book. I do hope for another book.

WOWW! I love a good thriller mystery and this topped the cake for me and in the most thrilling way. I've read a good chunk of thrillers in my lifetime and there have been very few that the plot was weaved that I didn't guess who the killer was until the character did; this is one of them.

I loved how the author used different fonts to differentiate the killer's and Penny 's that I loved adding to the thrill of finding out who it was. The killer sections made it seem that I was reading a Gossip Girl blast, because of the snark. I REALLY, REALLY LOVED THIS BOOK. The growth of Penny really had to grow into me, because I was really concerned she wasn't going to change, but with Cass (who is a very fine specimen 😍) changed. Cass leveled Penny's uptight self out., but it was definitely for the better.

30% and DNF.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Oh boy, Oh boy. My second DNF for this year, and the year isn’t even a 2 weeks old. 🙁 And like the first DNF, this one was a book I really wanted to read. Like I was going grabby hands when I first heard about it. Sadly, it was just not meant to be.

What happens when the popular girls are getting killed off left and right? Well, not much, given that I reached 30% with very little death. Going by the pattern I am guessing not many more are going to die, or the author is suddenly boosting up the pace, I hope for those reading this one further than I do that she will do it, but I am not going to stick around waiting for it.

I hated Penelope, or Penny. She was a stuck-up, huge-ass ego girl who likes to slut shame people (she does it multiple times and not just girls), she is a bitch towards her friends. Acts like she is so much better. And I could go on, but I am sure you get the point. I am not sure if I should feel sorry for her for all that happens near her, but the fact remains, I couldn’t care what happens to her. At all.

And then there are the other characters (and what we learn of Gretchen) and I am sorry, but what a couple of terrible girls those are. Sure, no one deserves to be killed, but I can imagine that someone is pissed. Given how these girls treat others… 😐

The police officers and how they handled stuff? Eh, sorry, but that is not exactly how I expect police to act.

The only thing that held my attention was the killer’s (at least I am guessing they are the killer’s) POV. I am normally not a girl who likes those POV (too gruesome), but in this case? I was looking forward to seeing them because they had more excitement than the entire book had.

So, I am really disappointed, I do hope that this year will turn out to be better in regards of reading.

Pretty girls are turning up dead in a small little town on the California coast, Cape Bonita. All the girls go to the same high school Cape Bonita Prep. So far all the girls who have turned up dead belong to a very popular club at the school called the Larks. The members are five seniors and five juniors always. The Larks volunteer at events in the town and at the school and sometimes hold fund raisers.

Penelope Malone president of the Larks is afraid that she could be the next girl murdered. Penelope decides to do a little snooping on her own to see if she can find out who is murdering her friends before she turns up dead.

Cass Vincenti a guy from Penelope's physics class is also connected to all the girls who are turning up dead in some way or another. Cass has a past with a lot of secrets but so does most everyone else. Everybody has secret or two in their past including Penelope.

Cass and Penelope decide to join forces in looking for the killer. They start snooping around together and end up in one of their friend's bedroom closet when she almost walks in on them looking through her room for clues to who may be the killer. They hide in the closet while their friend hooks up with a guy Brogan who just happens to be with Penelope's best friend Dani at the moment. Yeah Brogan left Dani pasted out from parting a little too much so he could hook with Courtney.

Penelope doesn't know who to trust she thinks she can trust Cass but when some of his secrets starts to come out she is not so sure. He does have connection to all of the pretty dead girls. What is his connection? Did he hook up with all these girls? Is he the killer? Who is killing all the pretty dead girls? Why are they killing only the pretty girls?

Pretty Dead Girls was a well thought out and beautifully written novel. I couldn't stop reading it as I wanted to know who the killer was and why were they killing all these girls? It kept me on the edge of my seat wanting more. It kept me guessing as to who the killer was from beginning to end. I thought I had it all figured out right up until the very end and boy was I wrong. A book that can keep you guessing all the way through is a very great book indeed.

I would recommend Pretty Dead Girls to any who loves a good mystery and is up for a thrilling and emotional ride. Oh did I mention that you might want to grab a box of tissue because you are going to need them.

Well, well, well. I enjoyed reading this, but I'm not sure what to say about it, so this is going to be a short review!

I don't really like the cover. The "S" in "GIRLS" looks so weird. I think there's some meaning behind the word's special position on the cover but I'm not sure what it is. The colors are so pretty though!

I almost NEVER read thrillers - I get scared easily hahahaha. I've read another Monica Murphy book before, and it's a sweet, fluffy contemporary. I wasn't sure what this book was about before reading it, but I love Murphy's writing and I knew I would love Pretty Dead Girls.

THIS WAS PRETTY DARK. I kind of got scared when reading the first few chapters? For some reason I thought that the culprit was a boy who is obsessed with the girls, but I WAS SO WRONG HAHAHA. At some point I even blamed the murders on Cass...

CASS IS A SUPER DREAMY GUY OMG. Another character to add to my ever-growing book boyfriend list 😍 He is such a nice person and treats Penelope like a gentleman.

The Larks (the popular girls in Penelope's school) are so annoying. Among all of the girls, I only liked Penelope and Dani. They are described as the girls with the best grades, but that is so hard to believe because they act so stupid! + There's a lot of hate among them and they fight over boys all the time.

The end is also kind of rushed. We were given no clues, so it's hard for us to try to solve the crime by ourselves. The story would have been better if the author left more hints and elaborated more.

Overall rating
★★★★

Pretty Dead Girls is the first book I’ve read by Monica Murphy. It won’t be the last. I was a little nervous when I first cracked it open. The story seemed a bit juvenile for my taste and I was afraid I wouldn’t enjoy it. Not to fear. The tone quickly changed and I was pulled head first into the story. The book reminded me a lot of Pretty Little Liars, so if you are a fan of that story, you’ll enjoy this one as well.

This is a fast-paced murder mystery (which I’ve really gotten into lately) that will keep any fan of the genre hooked until the end. The story is told from two different points of view – our main character, Penelope, and the killer.

Penelope is the leader of The Larks, a group comprised of the popular girls at school. Unfortunately they are a group of dying popular girls. The Larks are being targeted and Penelope needs to figure out who is responsible for these deaths before she joins the ranks of the dead.

I loved the tension, the twists, and the turns in this book. I’m embarrassed to admit that my long nail streak has come to an end because of it. Eh, they’ll grow back. I was impressed that it was difficult to guess who the killer is, but the one thing I didn’t love was how quickly it was revealed. I would have liked the tension to last until the very end. Regardless, I will certainly recommend Pretty Dead Girls to all fans of mystery and suspense!

First off I need to say that I absolutely love this cover so much! I wanted to read this book because it was written by Monica Murphy, but even if it wasn't, I would read it for the cover alone. It's going to look super pretty on my bookshelf!


Now for the book...this one is kinda hard to review. I normally mention my favourite characters, but to be perfectly honest, I didn't really like any of them, which made it SO hard to figure out who the killer was. They all seemed to have motives and I was desperate to get to find out who it was.


The book skipped from the POV of our main character, to the POV of the killer who seemed to be keeping some kind of journal or blog about their plans and murders, which made for interesting reading.
In all honesty, I did skim read some parts of the book; the characters were too bitchy and there just wasn't really enough going on to keep me invested. Pretty Dead Girls definitely wasn't my favourite book by Monica Murphy, but it kept me reading until the killer was revealed at the very end. Was I right? Gah, I was so close but no!


Fans of Scream Queens and Riverdale should definitely give this one a go.

Murder has come to the peaceful prestigious coastal Cape Bonita, shattering the town's illusion of safety. Gretchen Nelson is found murdered early one morning, in the parking lot of the local Catholic church, her throat cut. No clues as to her killer can be found. It's not long before another girl succumbs to the killer. She is found on school grounds, same manner of death, and now they have a pattern. Narcissistic biatches seem to be the killer's target, all of them members of the all-girl high profile Larks Club. A third murder cements the pattern. The Larks are being targeted. But who? Will the killer be caught before any others die?

As a murder mystery, I enjoyed this story. I'm going to be honest. I didn't care much for the victims. They were asses. Despite the point of the Larks club being charitable acts, they were not charitable people. I got the feeling they did this not because they wanted to, but because it made them “look good”. Ugh. The concept of death was sad, but those particular victims didn't elicit specific sadness, except for the last one.

The primary narrator was Penelope Malone, president of the Larks. I enjoyed seeing how she grew and matured during this time, managing to evolve beyond the narcissism. My favourite character was Cass, whom they all treated as pariah at first, though Penelope finally took time to really get to know him. I just kinda feel none of them really deserved his friendship, and I don't understand why he liked Penelope.

I enjoyed the writing for the most part. I did feel there was an overuse of ellipses, and an overuse of italics to stress extra emphasis. I found it distracting, however I don't feel it was inattention or poor skills on the author's part. No, I think it was an accurate reflection of how these girls spoke, and since we tend to think as we speak, it was an accurate reflection of thought as well, and I probably wouldn't have found it as annoying as I did if I didn't already despise these characters.

There are two different viewpoints, told using different fonts. One is the unknown killer, the other is Penelope. Using different fonts really made the infrequent delvings into the killer's viewpoint stand out. We are given two herrings early on, but they both seemed so obvious I ignored them. I did have initial qualms with the killer's gender. The method of killing doesn't fit. Poison is the more likely choice unless these were not random but killings driven by passion/rage. When we finally learn the killer's past, those suspicions are borne out.

Perfect for any who love a good murder mystery.

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Entangled Publishing for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Pretty Dead Girls is a riveting thriller! Like a cross between Scream and Pretty Little Liars, this one is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. Be prepared for a fast paced ride back to high school where homework isn’t the only thing that will kill you.

What can I say about Pretty Dead Girls? I was entertained. I read it in one sitting. It was intriguing and gripping.

I had Scream playing in my head the whole time I read this one. It had suspense, betrayal, and murder. Where it lacked in character development, it made up for in humor and thrills. It was certainly worth a read.

When I say it lacked in character development, that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. I wanted to be pulled in to a creepy murder mystery without getting attached to the characters. These were shallow, annoying, high school girls. It was like watching a bad horror movie. It was more humorous than chilling, but too entertaining to quit.

The story was pretty well written. I could not figure out who the killer was until they were revealed. The points of view were well developed with differing writing styles too. The killer’s point of view was angry and intense in comparison to Penelope’s softer voice.

The characters felt like a mix between Scream Queens, Before I Fall and Cheryl from Riverdale. They were mean, superficial high school drama queens. They were the “over achievers” of the school, but were also the party girls. Though they were not my favorite ya girls, they were certainly too amusing to stop reading about.

I was looking for a good murder mystery, and despite the rushed ending, I definitely found it. It had a nice mix of humor, intrigue, romance, and killing. It was wickedly alluring. 3.5 stars.

Thank you to Chapter by Chapter for providing me with this free e-copy in exchange for my honest review, and as part of the blog tour.