“There are some things you can’t unsee.”

Welp. That was fuckin’ rough.

The copy I read was signed, sold to us at work (thanks, “Virginia”) but before any verified K. Slaughter fans could nab it from us, a customer re-shelved it incorrectly and the book suffered a fall…so I suffered this book. It’s fitting: a warm message from the author to a fan, the book’s spine being violently snapped in two, and the tangible emotions Slaughter yanked from my body and soul with “Pretty Girls.” This was well-written and engaging despair, hope, grief, and, simply, torture. TW for, like, everything.

There’s a lot of dark shit in here. I understand why she wrote it, and wrote it the way she did: there’s a certain poignant, brutality in stark realism. But the uber-violent, bleak and gruesome depravity had maybe 50% of this story dipping extreme horror-adjacent. Like, stomach churning, sweaty palms type of things. This is not for the casual crime thriller reader, but, if you want to take a walk on the wild side…I guess read this?

3.5-4/5 I cannot recommend this to anyone in good faith but I will keep you posted on how long this will haunt me!