Review: Pretty Girl-13 by Liz Coley

Pretty Girl -13 by Liz Coley
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: March 18, 2013
Purchase: Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Reminiscent of the Elizabeth Smart case, Pretty Girl-13 is a disturbing and powerful psychological mystery about a girl who must piece together the story of her kidnapping and captivity.

Angie Chapman was thirteen years old when she ventured into the woods alone on a Girl Scouts camping trip. Now she's returned home…only to find that it's three years later and she's sixteen-or at least that's what everyone tells her.

What happened to the past three years of her life?

Angie doesn't know.

But there are people who do — people who could tell Angie every detail of her forgotten time, if only they weren't locked inside her mind. With a tremendous amount of courage, Angie embarks on a journey to discover the fragments of her personality, otherwise known as her "alters." As she unearths more and more about her past, she discovers a terrifying secret and must decide: When you remember things you wish you could forget, do you destroy the parts of yourself that are responsible?

Liz Coley's alarming and fascinating psychological mystery is a disturbing - and ultimately empowering page-turner about accepting our whole selves, and the healing power of courage, hope, and love.

My Thoughts:
I'm really struggling with my rating for this one.  On one hand I was totally enthralled with the story and the authors writing.  Angie was such a strong character that I immediately felt compassion for and the whole alters storyline that Liz Coley just totally captured me.  It was beyond heartbreaking to see what Angie's mind had to do to cope with the abuse she was subjected to.

Then on the other hand I'm left fuming for justice.  When I read stories that center around abuse as a reader I expect revenge and basically the abusers head on a platter.  This story was very anti climatic on both abuser accounts and in one instance all we are giving is a restraining order.  That's it!  To say I was angry was an understatement.  The reasoning for this is that the horrible person who abused Angie was young and didn't know any better... um excuse me??!  That should never EVER be used as an excuse for somebody over the age of five.  Not to mention the fact that this particular person abused Angie again after she returned home.  He wasn't too young then so I am still baffled why charges were not pressed.  

This situation was actually a small part in the whole overall storyline that I honestly didn't feel was needed.  Angie went through so much during those three years that she was gone that adding in another abusive storyline just felt like overkill.  Now if this certain person would have been the kidnapper then I could have seen the connection and I actually thought that was where the story was going to go.  Unfortunately we aren't given that direction and are left with a random villain who deserved a lot more than was given.  I still want revenge and I had hoped I would have gotten that scene before one of Angie's alters was erased, but sadly it was never revealed.

I also expected more from the scene where Angie finally spills what has been going on.  I guess to sum it up everything was just ho hum.  I kept waiting for the big scene where justice would be served and while we do get Angie fighting back it still wasn't enough for me.

Also I have to say that I was disappointed that the author wove in the Greg line.  He didn't add anything to the story other than to introduce Little Wife and I just felt sorry for Angie.  I kept thinking hasn't this girl been through enough?  I much preferred Abraim and Angie's slow building romance and I really wish that Greg wasn't even in the picture.

So yes I am struggling with this rating. I really enjoyed the authors writing and that last minute twist I never saw coming.  I kinda knew part of it, but not the whole thing and it broke my heart when all was revealed.  Liz Coley is a very talented writer and even though I don't agree with every direction she went in I still have a lot of respect for her writing and the world she created for Angie.

I am going to go with 3 snowflakes as my final rating.  I just can't give this anything less, the writing was too amazing.

3 snowflakes