There have been several YA books in the mystery / thriller genre that I've read and throughly enjoyed; not having felt I was reading YA, unfortunately this one was not one of them. The plot felt slow for the majority of the book, there were times the actions of Cecilia felt juvenile and unrealistic in an out of touch (there was no way she would have been able to do half the stuff she did in real life) way. I'm not above a little imagination when reading but this was to much of a stretch for me. There was a lot going on, which kept you guessing how things were going to turn out and the last 50 pages of the book were fast paced, with lots of action and twists. Pretty Dead Queens was a quick and easy read that could be a good genre change or beach read, but not something I would rearrange your TBR for.

After the death of her mom, Cecelia moves in with her estranged grandmother, Maura Weston. Maura happens to be a local celebrity based on her long string of best selling mystery novels- the most famous of all being based on the true story murder of Maura's homecoming queen. Then, two weeks after Cecelia moves to town, the new homecoming queen ends up dead. Cecelia throws herself into the investigation as a distraction from her own grief over her mom, but soon learns everyone had a motive and the more she digs, the less safe she is.

This was one of the first YA mysteries I have read, but I liked it! It was a quick read. I thought Cecelia was a great character. I loved all the twists and how pretty much every character had a motive to kill Natalie which made the big reveal all the sweeter.

Thank you netgalley for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️(4/5)
Pretty Dead Queens by Alexa Donne

Thanks to @netgalley and @randomhousekids for the free eARC in exchange for my honest review! The pub date is October 4.

I had a great time with this book. I have some complaints in the first half, but by the time I got to the end I was satisfied.

Two things I loved about this book are how it balances a fun tone with the themes of grief, and the small-town politics. As the synopsis says, the MC’s mom just died from cancer before the book begins and it plays a big role in her motivations. Other characters have also had parental deaths, plus the victim’s friends and family are impacted by their death. Despite grief being weaved throughout the book, it’s really fun and made me laugh a lot. The tone was great.

As for the small-town politics, the MC being an outsider and the events of this book taking place in a very short span of time is what makes the story work. Of course the MC could suspect everyone when she barely knows any of them, even the people she likes. And the web of connections and side-mysteries created from everyone’s parent being someone important always meant there was something to puzzle over.

There were some awkward parts, mostly in the first half of the book, that lowered my enjoyment. There’s a semi-love triangle that didn’t end up being too big of a deal as the book went on and arguably works well, but I was definitely annoyed by it when it was first introduced. And, while most of the modern setting felt very natural, some executions felt extremely clumsy. Like thinking your boyfriend standing protectively next to you is regressive when you’re talking to a murder suspect, or the first sentence out of a hotel owner’s mouth containing the phrase “fuck the patriarchy.”

Ultimately though, this book stuck the landing. I read this author’s previous work The Ivies and felt kind of meh about the ending but this was great. I enjoyed the answers and twists thrown in, and those tense ending scenes were well-written.

Thoughts

This is a really fun autumn read! The small town murder mystery vibe is strong, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There are so many suspects, all with good motives, to keep you guessing through to the end.


Pros
Small Town Vibe: A coastal town, a murder mystery convention, an old Victorian mansion up in the hills: this book is everything a murder mystery should be. Everybody knows everybody, and nobody's business remains a secret for long. The whole atmosphere for this book is perfect for a spooky, autumn release date!

No Dancing Around: There's always a place for will-they-won't-they romance, but this book is not that place. The murder board and mystery are what's important, and so the romance here gets straight to the point. Boy likes girl. Girl likes boy. They ask each other out, hit it off, start dating. I like the simplicity here. A drawn-out sort of pining would get in the way of the murder itself. The fact that this romance jumps right into it is refreshing.

Authorly Intention: Books that include a predominant author figure have become somewhat notorious... for being notoriously bad self-inserts. Fortunately, that's not the case here. Famous mystery author Maura Weston is a character in her own right, strong and bold and a very intentional part of this story. This book, and Maura, channel Murder, She Wrote vibes in the best way possible--something that was entirely intentional, of course.


Cons
Too Quick: Everyone in the friend group seems to move on too quickly. It takes time to process death, especially the death of a close friend. Unexpected death takes more time, and murder... Well, murder should take quite a bit of time to process, even if the friend in question turns out to be rather terrible. The fact that this group of friends, a day later, is already holding an informal memorial together feels just a little too quick. They'd still be in shock at that point, I think--definitely not ready to organize just yet! It felt a little bit unrealistic.

Tedious Description: There's unfortunately no other way to describe my experience with the opening of this book. While I loved the small town setting here, the opening chapters dragged on. I found it hard to sink into the setting (that I ultimately loved) because I found myself having to go back and reread long descriptive passages. My mind got bored and wandered off, and I never like having to go back and repeat!

No Fear: Another thing that I took issue with: Cecilia seems to feel no fear. I can understand being bold, being focused, being obsessed and less-than-self-aware. But a girl has been murdered in the pool, and there's not an ounce of trepidation that Cecilia seems to feel throughout it. She's horrified by the body of course, but fear? Even the boldest of people would feel something when a cryptic text tries to lure them into the pool... where the murder happened. Alone. At night. Cecilia has no qualms, even when she should, and I found it hard to buy that.


Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
8/10

Those who liked the spooky update to Pretty Little Liars that HBO gave in Original Sin should check out this new small town murder mystery. Those who appreciate It Will End Like This will enjoy the inevitability of this murderous new plot.

For lovers of Alexa Donne's thrillers, they just keep getting better and better. When a murder that Cecelia's grandmother based her debut novel on seems to inspire a copy cat, who can you trust and who might be the killer? Generally I'm not a huge fan of whodunits, but I always make an exception for Alexa's because I love her writing style and how she creates her characters. She does such a good job of creating a cast of characters that you may not trust, but you love.

Thank you Random House Children’s, Crown Books for Young Readers and Netgalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.


"Pretty Dead Queens" is the first book I've read by Alexa Donne, but it won't be the last. I was intrigued by the premise and it drew me in quickly. It was a slow paced start but once the murder happened that changed drastically.

I do agree with most other reviews that despite being a decent read it is more suited for teens. It’s a perfect mix of Mean Girls meets Pretty Little Liars.

You’ll be surprised over the “who dun it” and the motive leaves you reeling.

3.5⭐️ rounded to 4⭐️.

I have read a good amount of this author's backlog. Most recently, I found myself really loving The Ivies--I loved the narrative voice and plot of that book. This book, though, was just a bit lackluster for me. The first quarter of this book was pretty fast-paced and really sucked me in, but once the *murder* occurred, it just became really hard to be invested in the story and follow what was happening. Also the motivation for the murder was...weird to me. This was an OK read, to me, and I definitely think if you're a bit younger or newer to this genre you'll probably enjoy this a bit more than I did!

Cecelia Ellis knows exactly what death is as she has been surrounded by it her entire life. Her mother passes away from cancer and she ends up going to live with her estranged grandmother and esteemed mystery writer, Maura. This small coastal California town seems normal until the homecoming queen is murdered, and this is not the first time this has happened in this town. Cecelia throws herself into the investigation as she believes that there is a serial killer on the loose. Will she be able to figure it out before time runs out?

Sooo...I really wanted to love this book but I just did not. First off, we have a HUGE cast of characters that we don't really get enough time with to flesh out. They all just seem the same and it was hard to tell the difference between them all throughout the book. We get the high school teenagers that Cecelia is friends with along with the people that were around when the first murder happened years ago as well as families that live in this town. It was very hard to keep track of and frankly I didn't find myself enjoying any of the characters because we didn't have the growth. Second, I figured out the end of this book about 20% of the way in and it seemed to drag out because of that. The ending did not shock me in anyway and I just was hoping for more from this book as I enjoyed Alexa Donne's first novel.

**Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.**

I really enjoyed this ARC. It really game me a slasher who did it to the prom queen vibes. I was entertained the whole time and I really thought I had the book figured out . I was completely taken back . I definitely recommend to anyone who loves the old school 90s thrillers.

Thank you Netgalley for this review copy

I've been forcing myself to read it for a while but no, it's not working. Then I decided to DNF but I didn't want to waste my timr for nothing so I skimmed it and it was a right decision.

Well...

This really hurts my soul, but for the first time since I started reading Alexa's books, this one was hard to finish.

I want to preface this by saying that I've read all of this authors books, and The Ivies was such a fantastic debut into this genre. When I heard she was doing an homage to Murder, She Wrote and dead prom queens and all the kitschy loviliness of old school mysteries, I was so excited to get this.

But...this was a departure from her previous work in so many ways.

Cecelia Ellis lost her mother to tragedy and has to move in with her estranged, ultra rich grandmother in a small town called Seaside. Maura initially made her fortune by writing about the mysterious murder of her schools prom queen. When history repeats itself, Cecilia finds just how twisted small town secrets can be.

We got about five seconds of the narrative insisting upon itself that we won't be encountering stereotypes, only for the stereotypes to be systematically enforced ten fold. The characters were, well, caricatures. Unrelatable and unrealistic and so so very obvious in their motivations.

If you follow Alexa you know she's a fan of mystery and thriller. I've seen her talk about these very tropes more than once, and also talk about the importance of subverting them while keeping true to the heart. Unfortunately, this followed the easiest path it could find with very little twists that didn't present themselves like a glaring red flag.

IEven the prose was just. Not something I'd normally expect. This one bummed me out a bit.

I'm not going to spoil, so I won't go into specifics. I'm sure others will enjoy this and I truly hope they do. This was just a miss for me, but I'm excited to see what she does next.

My thanks to the Publisher and Netgalley for gifting me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This cover and title gave me pretty little liar vibes but unfortunately I was just bored the whole time and ended up not finishing at the 50% mark

WOW! This was amazing. I didn’t see that ending coming! I want to read more from this author! Despite what happens to Cecelia she still manages to pull through everything! Love it!

Thank you to Random House and TBR and Beyond for the #gifted copy of the book.

This is the first book I have read by Alexa Donne. I definitely think it read more like a mystery than thriller and it is definitely suited for teens. I thought it was a little slow paced for me and I figured out #whodunit right away, but still a solid read.

Cecelia Ellis is moving in with her famous writer Grandmother after her mother passes away. She isn't all that happy about moving since she is almost done with high school. She dislikes the thought of having to make new friends and live with someone whom she really does not know. The homecoming queen turns up dead yet again and Cecelia is determined to find the murderer.

This book is like Mean Girls but with murder mysteries mixed in! I enjoyed the story and appreciated the fact that I didn’t see the ending coming. There was a lot of characters and intermixed plots which kept me guessing throughout.

Cecelia moves in with her grandmother, Maura, after the death of her mom. Maura is a famous author whose first book was loosely based on the death of the homecoming queen at her school 50 years ago. And when history repeats itself, Cecelia decides to investigate.

Thank you to @tbrbeyondtours and @amychristinepar for the ARC copy and tour spot!

"Pretty Dead Queens" is the first book I've read by Alexa Donne, but it definitely won't be the last. I was intrigued by the premise of the book, and it didn't disappoint. As a fan of Twilight, I appreciated and laughed at the references to Bella Swan.

There are multiple suspects with motives, and it was interesting to try to figure out who the killer was as more clues were revealed. I also enjoyed the "amateur sleuth/high school detective" aspect of the book.

Although I guessed one of the plot twists part of the way through the book, I didn't guess the final twist. I was so shocked by the ending. If you enjoy reading young adult thriller books, don't miss out on this one.

*I received a free eBook ARC, but this is my honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and Alexa Donne!

This was a reasonably fun read. As an adult who's catnip is YA mystery I was excited to get an ARC of this book. The upsides were that it's fun, easy to read, and has a certain soapy-ness to it. The downsides, for me, was that the pacing was super wonky and the aforementioned soapy-ness. The first 25% of the book flew by. I liked the characters, the setting, the set up with the history of the town and the budding romance. But, once the murder happened it went from 0-1000 really fast. There wasn't any build up to the sleuthing it was just sort of plopped in the readers lap like 'this is what we're doing now as a perfectly reasonable trauma response to my mother's cancer death' ....it was jarring and I had a hard time staying invested after that. Once we get towards the reveal of the whodunnit it was somewhat surprising, at least part of it, but the motivation for the murderer was a bit on the WTF side. All in all I think teens more than adults will enjoy this, which is, of course the audience it's aimed towards.

Alexa Donne became one of my favorite authors with the release of The Ivies in 2021. Pretty Dead Queens is another home run.

In this young adult thriller, we follow Cecelia Ellis as she returns to the town of Seaview after her mother's death. Not only is Cecelia back in coastal Seaview, but she is staying with her estranged grandmother, who also happens to be a thriller writer. It is always fun for me to have a thriller writer written into a thriller. Talk about inception!
When Seaview's homecoming queen turns up dead (again), Cecelia launches her own investigation to catch a copycat killer, just like the heroines in her grandmother's novels.

I love Alexa Donne's writing style. I also enjoy her characters and how relatable they are. I have to pause here to praise Alexa Donne for using this thriller as a cathartic outlet for dealing with the very real grief of losing her own mother. Not only is her writing style and characters wonderful, she also has a way of creating an atmosphere that makes you forget you are reading a book.

I would recommend this book to fans of Murder, She Wrote and those that are fans of books within books.

I loved this book. Point blank.
Pretty Dead Queens follows Cecelia Ellis following the wake of her mother's death, as she moves to northern California to live with her prolific writer of a grandmother. Her grandmother's success? Writing mysteries, the first of which was based on the true story of a homecoming queen in the town some fifty years earlier. When a second homecoming queen turns up dead, Cecelia throws herself into the mystery--both present and past, for answers. But in this small town, secrets are aplenty, and no one is completely innocent.

Alexa Donne knows how to write teenagers. All of the teens in this book act like their age. Does that mean at times my decrepit 22 year old self was internally screaming at some of the actions? Yes. But what is being a teenager if not being reckless and involving yourself in a murder investigation? Okay, maybe not the latter, but you get my point.

There are essentially two mysteries going on, while Cecelia is dealing with (read: avoiding) the grief of losing her mother. The two mysteries are eerily similar: homecoming queen found dead in the school's pool. But fifty years earlier, the supposed culprit was caught. Or was he? The twists! The turns! I loved it. I could have done without the Luke and Caleb being in a secret relationship--the whole secret gay relationship trope feels a bit problematic? Especially since there was a lesbian couple in the book and there wasn't homophobia outside of an incident in middle school that's briefly mentioned? But I am also not a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, so I may be out of my depth here. I did call it towards the beginning, but I was definitely questioning myself throughout which is always a good thing! I am also never going to be upset by guessing an ending--I feel vindicated when I get it right.

Cecelia's group of friends are great, diverse, and very supportive. They also have distinct personalities and do push back against her at times--oftentimes I think new friend groups in YA tend to just fully accept the new girl right off the bat, but not so here.

There's a small love triangle, but nothing like cheating or a lot of conflicted pining, which is always appreciated.

Cecelia is a smart girl, if a bit hasty in actions--she's a complex person and I loved her as a character. And she likes K-pop so we're basically besties. I haven't lost a parent, so I can't understand that aspect, but my mom did have breast cancer, and I know the stresses and fears that come with that. Cecelia deals with her grief by hyper-focusing on something else--the murders.

This book isn't just about solving a murder, it's also about the complexities of mourning and how there are different ways of grieving. Alexa Donne effortlessly weaves deeper issues into her work without overwhelming the reader and keeping the entertainment factor high.

I would highly recommend this to anyone who loved The Ivies, loves an overlapping in old cases and new cases, and loves small town murder mysteries. Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for sending me an e-arc in exchange for my honest review!:)

TW: Blood, murder, death of a parent, grief, drugging, strangulation, kidnapping, attempted murder, knives, adult-minor relationship, homophobia, blackmail

I absolutely loved this book! There were so many twists and turns. I highly recommend reading this amazing YA thriller.