When I first heard that SHE'S TOO PRETTY TO BURN by Wendy Heard was a modern, re-imagining of THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, I knew I had to read it! Dark, and deliciously twisty, I loved this exploration re: the subjectivity behind beauty, art, and aesthetic. SHE'S TOO PRETTY TO BURN is sexy and psychological!

With She’s Too Pretty to Burn, Wendy Heard takes readers on a propulsive, dark ride. It’s a YA thriller that borrows thematically from The Picture of Dorian Gray, though lacking a background in that story is not required.

We have a passionate love triangle and thrilling twists. It’s not a book with incredibly likeable characters, so it won’t be for everyone. Instead, it’s a book about passion - for art, for lust, for adventure.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley. 3.5 stars
It's the end of Summer in California. San Diego to be exact. Veronica is feeling uninspired with her photography and life in general.
Her best friend Nico is the complete opposite. She's a performance artist. I pictured her as manic pixie dream girlish.
Then Nick comes along. Veronica is smitten. Their relationship burns red hot and soon burns out of control.
The characters were interesting and this was almost a mix of genre's. Part coming of age, part thriller, part YA love story.
The fact that LGTBQ characters are becoming more prominent in YA fiction is heartening.
I could see all of the characters being real. Maybe not all the situations. But the characters for sure. Maybe they weren't likable. But, they came to life on the pages.
The cover art is gorgeous.

This book blew my mind. Wendy Heard has written not only a complex exploration of intense teenage romance, not only is it a well plotted thriller with a lot of surprises, it is also all done within the context of reinterpreting Oscar Wilde's THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, a tale that is twisted and filled with queer themes. SHE'S TOO PRETTY TO BURN has two perspectives. The first is that of Mick, a shy and anxiety prone teenager who hates having attention on herself and has few friends. The other is Veronica, a budding photographer who has dreams of art school after high school, who is in constant competition with her best friend Nico, a self proclaimed activist performance artist. When Mick and Veronica meet, they're immediately drawn to each other, and when Veronica snaps Mick's picture without her permission, it starts them on a dangerous path of love, longing, obsession, and perhaps even murder. Heard gives both girls complexity and depth, and made it so that I loved both of them and also wanted them both to get it together when they would do really stupid things. Their relationship is intense, messy, easy to root for but also maybe destructive, and the component of Nico makes it all the more complicated as his own art and obsessions start to get between the two of them. The story builds up the tension and dread, and once it takes off you are all in and will be breathlessly wanting to see what happens next. I was taken for a serious ride. I haven't read DORIAN GRAY so I can't really tell you how closely it followed/reimagined the original themes, but it definitely took me in. I WILL say that it went on a little long and laid some groundwork really late that didn't really get explored well.... but that said, if there were to be a sequel, I'd absolutely read it to see where it all would go.

SHE'S TOO PRETTY TO BURN is a must read thriller for young adults and adults alike. I couldn't put it down and it's unnerved me so that I'm going to be thinking about it for awhile.

Ok.. this was such a fun YA mystery!!!

I am becoming such a big fan of Wendy's!! She definitely has dark, edgy, addicting, and chilling novels. She's Too Pretty to Burn is nothing short of her talent.

If you've read previous novels from Heard you know that she has plenty of dark addicting surprises up her sleeve! This was the perfect thrilling and addicting YA read.

I highly recommend checking this one. I have been getting more and more into YA reads and love it!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Macmillian Children's Publishing Group for the ac in exchange for an honest review.

Pub date: 3/30/21
Published to GR: 2/2/21

This dark, twisty tale was a wild ride. Teenage artists exploring art and themselves ,a little murder mystery and a romance. This has it all

A thrilling take on the picture of Dorian grey with a sapphic romance that is heart stuttering. A picture is worth a thousand words in this ya thriller.

There really is a lot to like in 'She's Too Pretty to Burn'. Great scenes, great lines, great characters. While this book ultimately frustrated me in some ways, I do want to highlight what's good about it and the audience that would probably like it more than I did!

As a thriller, I think this book succeeded in a lot of ways. The twists were solid and at the right level of predictable that I saw some coming, but not all, and felt engaged (and smart) while reading. Importantly, all of the set pieces are very cool, and the book escalates evenly but still surprisingly. I read this book through to the end because it was a good thriller, and nothing else I write in this review changes that. For thriller fans who need fresh material, this very well might be the book for you.

This book also seems to be great for fans of 'The Portrait of Dorian Gray', I gather from other reviews. I have never read it, and my review should be read as such. I don't think I'm the only reader without that particular background, though, so consider my review targeted at those who also haven't read it. It seems like many of those who have, though, find it to be a cool adaptation, and I think that's neat! I love a good adaptation.
Here's why I was ultimately frustrated by the book.

One, the relationships. With one exception, all of the characters in this book kind of suck as people. Shout out to Claudia, you're a real one. I don't *necessarily* mind books about people who suck-- but even people who suck make good decisions sometimes. Veronica and Mick, the main characters who allegedly fall in love, suffer from a really bad case of "always make the wrong choice"-itis.

Bad things happening can power a plot forward, but it's too often the characters' fault in this one. I found myself screaming at the page, bad horror movie style, multiple times (and more and more over the course of the book). In particular, Veronica repeatedly makes incredibly selfish decisions on behalf of the girl she's allegedly falling in love with, and despite admitting fault, not once does she learn from it.

On that note, the romance didn't read true to me, as a result of how awful the main characters generally are to each other. They say things to each other like "I could fall in love with you," but beyond the beginning they mostly aren't actually good for each other. Yes, this happens in real life, certainly-- but in YA, that I'm going to hand to teens, relationships like this need to be couched more complicatedly, not as heroines falling in love. Mick and Veronica's relationship made me really uncomfortable,

Finally, and this is more structural, the book either needed to be fifty pages shorter, a hundred fifty pages longer, or two books. There's a major structural change in the last fifty pages that runs out of track pretty quickly- while I didn't necessarily hate the direction it took the plot, I didn't like how rushed it felt. This was one of those where I was sure that the reader app had a wrong page count, because as I came to the end I was increasingly unsure how it would wrap up in time.

I honestly didn't like this book very much, but I'm giving it three stars because if a student came to me scratching their neck from thriller withdrawal, I would be somewhat likely to recommend this to them. As thrillers go, it has some really fresh takes and some great scenes-- but I would make them promise to come talk to me about it afterwards, because on some other fronts this book doesn't hold up.

This was a strange read and I'm still not entirely sure if it was really good, but I had a decent time reading it. It was a fast-paced story with an interesting hook, but I don't feel like it fully realised that in the end.

I read a NetGalley reviewer say, “I have nothing nice to say, and yet I still enjoyed it.” And this is exactly how I’m feeling about it right now.

I’m so used to a “kill your darlings” type of book, but this almost feels like “explain your darlings.” There were moments where the trauma and characters made sense; take Mick’s turn around to arson after the boy drowns. This action makes sense, as her setting a fire to be under control of something after she majorly lost control seems psychologically correct. But everything beyond that seemed to have little explanation, and when they did come, they were a sentence or two that just didn’t hold the suspension of disbelief that the issue was resolved/explained. The issue of disbelief comes into larger contexts. Take the pictures, for example. I just wasn’t entirely convinced of Mick’s complete phobia for images; Mick’s total captivation for a girl she had just met convincing her to take a photo just mere hours after the initial fight with her mom? It was my first red flag, and there were so many to come. Especially the ending--the ultimate slap in the face for all the things I had just endured.

The characters and the plot are interesting enough to keep you reading, but they are so drastically underdeveloped. There is so much background to Mick’s relationship with her family that we don’t get, meaning I don’t have much emotional attachment to how things work out with her mom. The love came so quickly, and while I loved the immediate spark between the two, it seemed too fast that they had begun dating. I’m not one for a slow book with a lot of buildup, but this book had nearly none.

And in the end, everything centered on this political plot that didn’t even make entire sense. Beyond that, the blatant irony and “trickster” of Nico’s name… that was too much.

After all of this rambling, you may think I didn’t like the book, but that’s not entirely true. I found it entertaining enough that I put aside my main read to finish it. This author has so much potential with her storytelling, this just needed maybe one more draft.

TL: DR- While the book has much potential, the overall execution falls flat. It’s entertaining enough, but don’t set your expectations too high. Do I regret putting this on my wish list? No. Is it a good time? Yes. Is it a memorable time? Not so much.

Have you ever read a book and thought “I have very few nice things to say about this…yet I still enjoyed it?”

Mick is a shy, lonely, high school senior with family problems who can’t wait to get away to college. Veronica is an artsy, passionate young photographer in search of inspiration for her final school project. When the two collide, they find everything they were looking for, and so much more. But, when an environmental art installation they are involved in turns destructive, the two must unravel the mystery and fight to stay together.

Clearly, I have very mixed feelings, so lets break it down.

The good: The writing was pretty fast-paced. I hate when things are too bogged down with detail, and this book really moved, while still putting readers in the scene. I was compelled to keep reading, and even though I had a lot of other problems with the story, I somehow liked the journey. For me, even if I don’t appreciate the finer parts of the book, if I’m entertained, I’m pretty happy.

The not so good: Let me start by saying the only likable character is Veronica’s mom, and she’s got a pretty small role. Veronica keeps pushing Mick to get what she wants, Mick inevitably gets mad, and then Veronica realizes what a bad girlfriend she’s being. Over. And over. And over. Mick doesn’t trust Veronica and continuously lies to her, as well as makes really dumb decisions repeatedly. And Nico is, well, Nico (I mean the man killed a chicken to encase it in silver, that set off some alarms). My big problem is that NONE OF THEM LEARN. You would think after the first 5 stupid decisions there would be some growth, but no.

Mick and Veronica were also very insta love-y, which I’m never a fan of. It didn’t seem like there was enough between them to start the romance, never mind keep it going after so many lies and deceits.

Finally, the murder mystery part itself just seemed really far-fetched. The culprit’s character went 0-100 real fast, and I didn’t quite buy their reasoning/backstory for all of it. On the one hand everything felt a bit juvenile, and on the other the characters should not have been able to pull of what they did.

Despite its flaws, it was very original and I was invested until the end. Also, those last few lines are a 10/10. If you want a kinda cute, if unrealistic sapphic romance-murder mystery, I’d say this is a good book for you. Just don’t think too hard on it.

3ish/5 stars
Pacing: medium-fast
Intended audience: YA
Content warnings: murder

This definitely was not the book that I expected and I was pleasantly surprised. The twists were actually twists, there was horror that seemed, while not overly gory, still horrifying.

She’s Too Pretty to Burn tackles art, obsession, family and the consequences of poor and irresponsible parenting, photography, environmental terrorism, friendship, and the tangled lines of fear, excitement, fun and danger. This turned out not exactly what I expected it to be. This was somehow underwhelming. It was conflicting. I overall still enjoyed it, but I also didn't like some things.

I love how the book explores art. I also like that the characters are complex. I like Heard’s writing. I was engrossed, I was kept interested about what was going to happen next from the beginning until the end. The book has a good amount of surprise and thrilling and creepy moments.

I found some things at the beginning unconvincing and uncomfortable. I was uncomfortable with how Veron talked about Mick’s body especially at the start and find many of the things that happened in the beginning of their relationship to be unjustifiable. Some plot points were also predictable and there were instances when I almost forgot that this is a thriller because I couldn’t really feel it. I was shocked by the ending but cannot say that I am fully satisfied either. I feel like there are many missing pieces that are not beneficial to the story—especially to a certain character’s narrative, but would have been beneficial if they were included instead. If there will be a sequel that would have made more sense to me and can probably make me enjoy this story more.

This book is an intense ride from the very beginning. The writing is clearly well thought out and purposeful which I always respect but especially in YA because it shows respect for the audience from the author as well as for their work. This one should be in all libraries that serve teens!

I loved the premise of it, but felt that the execution had a little more to be desired. I just really think that the Doian Grey inspiration shone through in the very best of ways.

Fast paced book and I really enjoyed it. Good story line and I think people are gonna love it. I would definitely read again and recommend

Weird story but a good story.

This is a slow burn in the beginning where you're really not sure what's going on as you get to know the characters and the things that they are most passionate about. I really enjoyed reading this book ones things picked up and the action starting happening. I did however hate both of the main characters...but I mean their personalities. They were written in a really good way where you know you've met people like this who you either want to get to know or want to stay far away from. The author was really able to invoke those feelings toward the characters in me.

Great story and loved the slight romance. Really enjoyed the characters and how the plot moved and how the characters changed throughout the book. I would read this author again.

This was a weird book. Not gonna lie, I had a hard time there at the beginning trying to differentiate between the two perspectives. It started off extremely slow without much development and then once the fire happened things started getting weird . . . dark.

But once the fire happened, *whoa*.

The only way I can describe this book is it felt like watching Pretty Little Liars where someone does something stupid, makes a bad decision, and the whole time I'm screaming at them to do the right, responsible thing and call the police or get their parents involved, but they just keep digging a deeper and deeper hole and they get caught up in their lies until someone or multiple someones ends up dead.

What psyched me out the most was the ending.

I feel very unsatisfied, but also haunted?

I will say Wendy Heard has set up a stellar sequel that I'm sure is gonna be pretty dark. IDK if I'll read it. This book was just a bit too dark and weird for my taste. However, the writing was atmospheric and compelling and for that it gets 3/5 stars.

While the pacing was initially awkward and the dialogue had issues throughout the text, She's Too Pretty to Burn turned out to be a solid YA thriller installment. The cover itself is gorgeous, and the last paragraph, especially the last sentence, was fantastic. I'd say this skews toward slightly younger teens, but still enjoyable for older audiences.