This book was WILD! So many twists and turns. I definitely wasn’t expecting it all to turn out the way it did. I had to turn my lamp on while reading this one. Spooky, raw, surprising, wonderful.

All the Pretty Things starts with the death of Ethan, a special needs teenager. His death has been ruled a suicide, but our narrator, Ivy Cork, isn't convinced. Her best friend, Morgan, was the one who found Ethan's body, and has essentially shut down afterwards. Ivy begins investigating what really happened, and finds out a lot more (especially about her dad) than she wanted.

A lot of subjects are implied rather than explicitly stated, which is fine, but you definitely have to read between the lines with this book. There is resolution, but at the same time, it seems like the book just kind of ends.

I received this ARC from netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

Ivy's dad owns an amusement park where she and her friends work. As Ivy is coming home from a trip to her mom, she figures out that an employee of the park, Ethan, who has Down syndrome, died and Ivy's best friend, Morgan was the first to find the body. Ivy starts to investigate what really happened to Ethan.

I loved the amusement park setting. There's an abandon amusement park near me and I could perfectly picture it as Fabuland. If I were in Ivy's shoes, I would have also been curious on what had happened to Ethan before he died. I was eager to finish this book and figure out what happened. I read it in one sitting. I also loved the cover.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get into this book. I do hate when that happens and feel bad about it. But this book is just not for me.

I thought it had an interesting plot and was fast paced. The ending felt a little rushed and not satisfying.

So...huh.

The "mystery" of this book was glaringly obvious from the get go for me. So really I was just reading it to prove myself right, and was disappointed when I was. It wasn't mysterious enough for me.

I also didn't connect to a single character, except maybe one. Who was dead for the whole book (and this isn't a spoiler, it states right at the beginning that they're dead). So, yeah.

I usually like the occasional thriller, but this one was both trying too hard and not hard enough at the same time. It's not full blown thriller, but also isn't really anything else?

I will say that I finished it quickly, so it did keep me reading. I just didn't enjoy the journey as much as I wish I had.

Modern day Nancy Drew!! I loved Nancy Drew as a kid, and as an adult I love the new CW show too. This has all the Nancy Drew feels. Kid trying to solve a weird mystery, heck yes sign me up.
So we start with a coworker of the carnival being found murdered. Dunn Dunn Dunn. Only it seems maybe another coworker witnessed it. Shes climbed to the top of a ride and won't come down. It's up to ole sleuth "nancy drew" to get her down and figure out what happened.
Twists and turns galore make this for a fun young teen book.
Again, predictable, but mostly because I am an adult and I see these things coming. Enjoyed.

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read and review this title. I will review this title at a different date.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this early copy!

Did not finish - I did not connect with the plot and writing and decided to put it down.

Wow this was a ride.... I didn't much care about the amusement park setting, but the mystery kept me reading! I wasn't disappointed but I also wasn't blown away by the reveal.

Scheduled to post 6/2/20.

ALL THE PRETTY THINGS tries to be this intense mystery, like it shows in the blurb. But it really does fall flat. The build-up to the big reveal is rather lackluster. Instead of tension it provides uncomfortable awkwardness as Ivy tries to find answers in all the wrong, and obtuse, ways. And the secondary plotline isn't surprising, leaving me going 'duh' at the end of the book. And being generally skeeved out on behalf of Morgan.

Ivy comes across as rather wooden and lacking her own personality. Thing is, she doesn't much develop one by the end of the book. In fact, I don't see her having gone through much of a character arc at all. The big reveal for her came at the very end, not allowing her to really adjust to the information. While I don't begrudge her the time it took for her to come to a very hard conclusion (I'm trying not to spoil here, it's not easy), I feel like if she had to grapple with that over the course of the book it would have given her something to adjust to. As it was, the overall mystery definitely didn't provide that, so Ivy flatlined throughout the course of the book.

As for the main mystery, it wasn't much of a mystery. The big reveal on that was rather '. . . oh.' It's sad, but it's not much of a mystery. It's actually only a mystery because Ivy forced the issue and really hurt people in the process. And her only reprimand for doing that, over and over again, was her being cowed, hiding behind her hair, and teeing up to do it all over again. So she learned nothing and just kept intruding in peoples' lives to the point of it being difficult and awkward to read. It was uncomfortable, and not in a 'getting out of my own comfort zone' kind of way. Ivy was just an intrusive character who didn't know when to cut it tf out.

The only thing that kept me reading was wanting to find out why Morgan was pushing Ivy away. I had it guessed somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2-way into the book and I ended up being right there. Blech. Can't say I blame her. What I didn't like was the way she coddled Ivy at the end. Maybe it's just me. I've been in a very similar situation as Morgan and it brought up some uncomfortable feelings and while I'd like to think I could understand Ivy's reluctance to accept what was going on, I certainly wouldn't be like it's okay, let me make you breakfast. No. But coddling Ivy is a regular thing throughout this book, not just by Morgan. It's something Ivy recognizes and just kind of brushes off, as if the act of recognizing she gets special treatment is enough.

There's just way more not going for ALL THE PRETTY THINGS than there is going for it. Setting something at an amusement park or a carnival is a total shoo-in for me. I'm a sucker for it. But even that came off lackluster in this story. There was just no heart here. At all. I would have much rather been in Morgan's or Winnie's head than Ivy's. In the brief instances they were on the page they showed a ton more personality than Ivy did over the course of the entire book. And the thriller part wasn't all that thrilling. Or shocking. It was just meh.

2

Well written and surprising. Had me guessing and connected to all characters until the super crazy ending! Was a little disappointed the main character didn’t stand up for herself a little bit more and there was a little objectification of the woman characters. But can understand with the story line. Overall was well written. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

“You know, I was wondering…Did Morgan seem okay to you these last few days? I mean, after the initial shock of finding Ethan wore off?”…

“This is a complicated situation, Ivy. You have to remember that you can’t solve everybody’s problems.”

Ratings & Reviews

Book Grade: C+

Emily Arseanault has tried to tackle a lot with All the Pretty Things, and I don’t know that it worked for me. This book is part mystery, part exploration of female friendship, and attempts to address sexual assault. Unfortunately, the plodding dialogue and the slow plot movement made this difficult to wade through. Ivy is likeable, but fairly bland; the workers at the theme park are extremely polarized and there are a lot of questions that are left unanswered as the book rushes toward the end. I was saddened because I really wanted to like this book, but the one thing that initially hooked me – the mysterious death of Ethan – was put on the back burner while minor details about the theme park were emphasized. I really appreciate the foundation of the work, but the minor details detracted from the book overall.

Movie Rating: PG-13+

This book hovers on that fine line between a PG-13 movie and an R movie. There is swearing, drinking, mention of partying and weed, and the theme of sexual assault wafts through the entire story. All the Pretty Things is intended for a more mature reader – theme wise- and works under the assumption that most teenagers won’t mind repeated mentions of topics like these, but the book only serves to normalize many of the behaviors exhibited.

Would I Buy This for My Library: No

All the Pretty Things is not what I expected. When compared to other books that focus on sexual assault in a really thoughtful way, I felt a bit frustrated by this. The mystery element is used to entice readers, but really has little to do with the focus of the story. While this may appeal to a few readers, given the limited budgets many libraries work with, I would opt for another book instead.

Ethan is dead. The sweet teenage boy with Downs Syndrome was found by the bridge that he used to walk home. Ivy is out of town when her best friend, Morgan, finds Ethan’s body and returns to her dad’s theme park – where both Ethan and Morgan worked – to a mystery and silence. Morgan doesn’t want to talk about it (and in fact, is hospitalized for a while because of her reaction to everything), so Ivy decides to dig a bit by interviewing those who knew Ethan best – his Funland co-workers, including his two cousins.

In addition to trying to find out what really happened to Ethan, and helping Morgan recover, Ivy must help her dad coordinate a princess parade and the region’s largest donut unveiling for the Funland theme park. As she begins to dig for the truth, though, Ivy realizes that she might not know the truth about her own life and those she thought that she was closest to.

Book Talk Questions:

Describe Ivy’s dad. What is her relationship like with him.
What does Morgan give Ivy when Ivy visits the hospital? What does this lead Ivy to believe?
What does Ivy notice Winnie do during the princess parade? What does she assume from this?
Jason and Ivy talk about building forts as children. What does Jason tell Ivy about one of her favorite memories? What does she slowly start to realize about her mother?
What happens at the donut sprinkle party? How does Ivy react? Do you think that this had anything to do with what Ivy learned from Morgan the night before?

A Perfect Read for Fans Of…

Wrecked
Speak
One of Us Is Lying

i must admit I think i was drawn to this book because of the amazingly beautiful cover - yet now I realize I'm not the proper target audience for it.

I've been reading a lot of contemporary and romance novels nowadays, so I wanted a change in my reading genre. Thankfully, I had some mystery & thriller novels waiting for me on my ebook shelf. I picked up All The Pretty Things with a lot of expectations. Sadly, the book made me really disappointed.

The first half of the book was really good ~ I read it in one setting, because the storyline was really interesting. I liked the main character, Ivy a lot too. The book started losing it's momentum after the first 100 pages or so. Some unnecessary sub-plots got thrown into the story which kinda ruined the entire premise of the book for me. I was waiting for the BIG & MIND-BLOWING REVEAL, but it never came. The ending was quite unsatisfactory and didn't have the dramatic twist I expected.

The book is being marketed saying it's perfect for fans of Sadie, one of the most popular YA mstery and thriller novels of recent times. I disagree, because All The Pretty Things lacked the mysterious aspect which it promises. The focus of the book - which was Ethan's death, shifted into a completely different pathway. The book would have the chance of being a really good mystery novel otherwise. 

Now, there were a few things I liked about All The Pretty Things. I really appreciated that the author addressed a social issue in the book. The book centers around an amusement park too, which added an interesting side to the story. These aspects along with keeping me interested for the first half made me rate the book with 3/5 🌟

I really struggled with this one. I didn't find the mystery especially compelling. While we wonder exactly what happened to the young man, the general thrust of what's going on is immediately apparent, even the father's role in it. He is pretty obviously "bad",, manipulative, emotionally abusive, and unscrupulous. So the big reveal is no real surprise and brings with it no triumph. It's just step after step of human darkness.

It took me a bit to get into this book but, once I did, I couldn't put it down. The curiosity got the better of me. The author did an excellent job of portraying the main character and her reactions to the many things she discovers in her quest for the truth about Ethan's death. For anyone looking for just a good book with a little bit of mystery and suspense, this is an excellent choice.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Hello!


It's a new week! I am losing track of my days a little bit but it is a new week and I am hoping for some exciting things this week. I am reading a lot of books right now and playing a lot of video games (mostly animal crossing but my husband and I just finished playing Horizon Zero Dawn the other night). I have also been watching a lot of television and movies (I watched Onward the weekend it hit Disney Plus with my husband, and I loved it, I also just finished watching Cheer on Netflix and I have no idea why I was sleeping on that one because I loved it). In the midst of intaking all of this stuff, I also picked up All the Pretty Things, I was really wanting a good mystery, thriller story and I felt unfulfilled after my last mystery/thriller read, so I was hoping this one would be what I was looking for.


SPOILERS AHEAD


Fabuland is a smalltown amusement park, where Ivy works in the summer to help her dad out (the owner of the park). Being the daughter of the owner can be a bit tough sometimes (like no one at the park really trusts you with secrets) but it's still a good life. Every summer Ivy spends one week with her mother at her grandparents house out of state (Ivy's parents are divorced however, they still live in the same town). While Ivy was away at her grandparent's house this summer some big stuff happened, first of all, her best friend Morgan (who also works at the park during the summer) found the dead body of Ethan (another park worker with special needs) on her walk to walk one morning. Then when Ivy is on her way home, she learns that her best friend Morgan is now missing. By the time Ivy arrives back in town, they have found Morgan but she is at the top of the Ferris wheel and refusing to come down. Once Morgan is down she is in the hospital, from there Ivy learns that there is so much more to Ethan's death than she heard while she way away. Ivy wants to help Morgan so she decides she is going to figure out what happened to Ethan on his last night at the park and on that walk home.


I loved this story! At first a was a little unsure, I had been burned so recently by another book that was supposed to be a mystery/thriller but definitely turned out not to be. It took me a minute to get into the plot, I honestly expected the plot to be Morgan missing but when it turned out to be Ethan's last night at the park and his walk home in combination with what happened while Ivy was away, I got very interested. I loved the twists and turns this story took and definitely did not foresee the ending coming at all. I highly recommend this book and I am giving this five stars on Goodreads.


**Thank you so much to the publisher for the E-ARC

2.5 stars

Ivy has dealt with a lifetime of her father's big dreams, but when he purchases the local amusement park she worries that he's gotten in over his head. He's immature, disgustingly unprofessional, and to be honest, a downright creep. Ivy has a lot of responsibilities at Fabuland, and one of them is cleaning up her father's messes. But at least she gets to work with her best friend, Morgan. After Morgan discovers the body of another Fabuland employee on her way to work, she begins behaving erratically and confides in Ivy that Ethan's death may not have been an accident. Ivy launches her own investigation into what happened that night, one that forces her to finally open her eyes to what is going on around her.

This is a difficult book to review, because it isn't bad, but it just feels like something is lacking. I think it was poorly marketed, as I would consider this a contemporary mystery. There isn't anything thrilling about it. So if you like a slow burn contemporary story where the main character discovers shocking truths about her family members and close friends with a mystery subplot, this is your book. Like a YA version of Big Little Lies, but not nearly as interesting. I think one of the issues readers had is that it felt like two separate stories combined into one book, which would work if they came together at the end, but unfortunately they didn't.

While the story kept me turning the pages, and I really wanted to know what the outcome was, it was still a boring and unenjoyable read. For me, a lot of that had to do with the main character. Ivy was sort of robotic. She had no personality to speak of, and hardly reacted to situations or showed emotion. She had no qualms about asking people obnoxious questions for her investigation, but when she'd find out terrible things that affected her personally, she'd just push them aside to deal with later. The other characters weren't much better, as they would flip flop between helpful and secretive, and them not coming forward with what they knew did nothing but drag out the story. Really, this could have been a 200 page book, and all of the plot progression relied on someone admitting what they had already known from the start.

In the end, you will get to find out what happened to Ethan the night he died. But at that point in the story, it's overshadowed by every other revelation that isn't really related to it. Then the book just ends. We never see a hint of what will happen to the characters after, and Ivy's thoughts are basically equivalent to oh well, that's over.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Delacorte Press for the opportunity to review this ARC*

I enjoyed this book. It was very simple, quick, and well done. I really enjoyed the description of the park and it really felt like it could be a real park somewhere. It was vivid with ride descriptions and food descriptions. The story itself was kind of basic and I wished for more depth, but overall, it was a very enjoyable summer read. The other reason I would rate this 3 stars was just because I felt like the characters gave away some details too willingly and I wish it had been a little bit harder for the main character to investigate.