Pretty Girl-13 by Liz Coley

Pretty Girl-13 by Liz Coley
"When thirteen-year-old Angela Gracie Chapman looks in the mirror, someone else looks back–a thin, pale stranger, a sixteen-year-old with haunted eyes. Angie has no memory of the past three years, years in which she was lost to the authorities, lost to her family and friends, lost even to herself. Where has she been, who has been living her life, and what is hiding behind the terrible blankness? There are secrets you can’t even tell yourself."- summary from Liz Coley's website

Go get this book and read it now. That's really all you need to get from this review.

Wait, you want more? Actual reasons? You aren't just blind followers? Alright, fine.

I TORE through this book, you guys. I have not done that with a book in a long time. I finished it in like 36 hours, reading 100 page chunks in each sitting. I could not put it down. Coley does an amazing job of getting into Angie's head and showing the reader what the human mind is capable of. I don't really want to say too much because it could be considered a spoiler (didn't really think it was til I read some reviews on Goodreads, lol).

There's also a lot of interesting relationship aspects to this- Angie has to go back into her life 3 years later and renew these relationships with her parents, extended family, friends, etc. I thought Coley did a wonderful job at making these reformed connections realistic; Angie has to come to terms with a lot of things, making it difficult to dive back in.

There was a little subplot of the book that I was a bit disappointed. It's brought up, there's a big reveal, and then I felt like nothing really came of it. At least, not as much as I expected or would have liked. I thought there could have been more done with it.

Overall, just read this book. It's simply compelling and just mind-blowing. An amazing debut!

FTC: Received ARC from publisher. Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.