SUCH A PRETTY GIRL has only been out for three and a half years now, but I kind of get the impression that--similar to Julia Hoban's Willow--it hasn't reached the wider audience it deserves as a result of its somewhat disturbing subject matter. I know I held off picking it up for awhile. Well, make that several days. I would have gone longer, I'm sure, but I read two absolutely stellar reviews of it and wanted to try it so bad. However, I have a very hard time reading stories about child abuse. I haven't the stomach for it and I tend to emerge so much the worse for wear that I can't make a habit of them. However. Something about the tone of these reviews (I wish I could remember whose they were) encouraged me. So I made a silent agreement with myself that if my library had it, I would go ahead and read it. And wouldn't you know it, it did have it. And this ended up being another case of me running out to buy the book before I'd even finished my library copy. It was that good. And this all happened within the space of one 24-hour period, as this slender volume clocks in at a scant 224 pages. But I'm telling you, Laura Wiess knows how to make every word count. It instantly snagged a spot on my Beloved Bookshelf and I think about it and Meredith often. Meredith Shale thought she'd have longer to prepare. She thought her father would be locked away for nine years. That's what his sentence read. But after serving three years in prison for child abuse, he's released on good behavior. And he's coming home. Her mother, who never got over her father being gone, is ready to welcome him home with open arms. Meredith's reaction is just a little bit different. At fifteen, she thought she'd be able to reach her eighteenth birthday and leave home, thus avoiding ever having to see him again. But now he's back living in the same apartment complex. And Meredith has no one but her best friend Andy and retired cop Nigel to turn to when her anger and fear threaten to overwhelm her. But Nigel can't always be right there when she needs him. And Andy, who is confined to his wheelchair and not so incidentally had his own brush with Mer's father, really does have his own set of messy issues to deal with as much as he loves and wants to protect Meredith. When the unthinkable first happened, no one believed her. And the horror spread to other kids as a result. In the years since her father was incarcerated, Meredith has acquired several coping mechanisms for dealing with what happened to her. From her strict vitamin-taking regimen to her obsession with prime numbers, everything in her life has its place. Now that he's out, even on parole, she abhors the idea of seeing him, doesn't believe for a second his claims of reformation, and is determined no one else will ever suffer at his hands the way she did again.I was shocked at how much I loved SUCH A PRETTY GIRL. It's an incredibly fast-paced story, with a very present narrative style so that it feels like you're standing at the sink with Meredith in the morning, sitting on the curb with her under the glaring sun of the afternoon and staring up at Andy's door, walking home with her at night--a ball of dread tearing a hole in the pit of her stomach. And here and there the story is shot through with brief flashbacks to the time in her life when she was most powerless. But it never overwhelms completely. It never made me want to shut the book and leave. Rather, I could not put it down. I loved this girl from page one and I was going to see her through to the end. Which is perfect, by the way. Wiess strikes a touching and precarious balance between moments when Meredith is supported by a desperately needed group of truly good, if slightly unusual people--a cop, a cripple, a zealot--and moments when she is left utterly alone to stand up to her demons. Because she's the definition of a survivor. Meredith lives through nightmares unimaginable, more than any 15-year-old should ever have to live through. And when the law lets the nightmare right back into her house, she doesn't crumble and succumb. She fights. That's why she won a spot on the Top Ten Kick-A** Heroines of YA list I put together awhile back. I took a risk on this book, but it was just extremely well done. The relationship between Meredith and Andy provides an important current of sweetness and light to counter the darkness of their combined pasts as well as the imminent danger of their entwined presents. And to top it off it has one of my favorite last lines ever. An amazing debut novel for Ms. Wiess. Recommended for fans of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, Julia Hoban's Willow, and Donna Freitas' This Gorgeous Game.
I loved Such a Pretty Girl with the same deeply personal portion of me that felt M. Night Shyamalan's Signs was an awesome movie. My favorite passage is as follows:"...I know how bad the odds are for girls like me. We wait to be rescued, but for whatever reason, no one comes. We figure that if no one protects us then we must not be worth protecting so we become prey and are easily picked off. Our wounded, kicked-puppy gazes attract sly predators and we sell ourselves for clearance sale prices, mistaking screwing for caring.We binge, purge, sleep around. We drink too much and get too high, anything to blot out the past. We accept and endure beatings and humiliations because our fathers, our uncles, and our mothers' twisted boyfriends said they loved us, too, before they broke our bones and tore our tissue, right before they made us receive them.We have babies because we want them to love us, to make us important, but they only make us tired and fat and stinking of spit up because they're babies, not saviors. Their fathers leave us, sick of crap and sour milk, sweatpants and tears. But the babies still need all of us, only there isn't anything left to give because we based our worth on the lowlifes who knocked us up and around.So our babies end up screwed up and screwed with because no we're single again, too, so we're bringing home guys who secretly like pink satin baby skin more than our silvery stretch marks. We don't see what we should see because having anyone is still supposedly better than being alone.I know the grim probability of my own future.The odds are high that the best of me has already been ripped away and that if I don't keep hold of myself I will lose what's left. Without the structure of my rules and rituals, I'm a free-for-all open to any guy who wants to hurt me. And I don't want to hurt anymore. I want to be someone who makes it through" (Wiess 119-120).
Do You like book Such A Pretty Girl (2007)?
After having this book on my tbr pile for a whole year I finally got a chance to read it and I'm really glad I did. This book can be a difficult read because it deals with a difficult subject. Meredith, the heroine of the novel is faced with the horrors of having her sexually abusive father back in the picture 3 years after he was sent to prison. The legal system failed Meredith once and now she, not the people who are supposed to protect the victims must face her new reality with more courage than you can imagine.I absolutely loved Such a Pretty Girl. It's a great book about an ugly subject but the author handled the subject matter with a lot of grace. Not many authors will touch this subject and even fewer who do it properly but Laura Wiess is one of those who was able to tell her story remarkably well.While Such a Pretty Girl is a very short read at only 212 pages it certainly packs an emotional punch. I found myself cheering Meredith on through out the whole novel and was happy with the outcome at the end but I also found myself in somewhat of a murderous rage when it came to her parents. It's not every day that I actually find a character let alone two that I would mind putting in a tiger's pen and hoping for the worst. Harsh? Maybe. But completely deserved. Meredith's idiot of a mother failed her even more than her abusive father did. She turned a blind eye to Meredith's horrors for years and she should be in jail just as much as her husband.However, Meredith does have a small cluster of people around her that do love, support, cherish and are willing to protect her but they all have their own lives as well so I could understand much of Meredith's frustrations in the book of feeling alone.I thought that the story line of Such a Pretty Girl was perfectly paced and I'm glad it wasn't overly long. 212 pages was the perfect length for this story and I'm afraid that if it were longer it wouldn't have packed as much punch as it did. The characters were though provoking albeit sometimes I had violent thoughts towards some but other I loved. I would recommend this to people who enjoy contemporary young adult fiction especially novels that deal with the darker subjects. It's one that will make you feel a bevy of different emotions and send you on a roller coaster ride you won't forget. Laura Wiess should be applauded for handling this subject the way she did and I can't wait to read more of her novels.
—Kimberly
This book was really good. Just like the book I finished before this, it was sort of dark. "Such a Pretty Girl" is about a girl named Meredith. Her father molested her and other children when she was younger and he was put into prison for only 3 of the 9 years he was supposed to do time for. When he is released, Meredith's mother blames her for him being in prison and says it is her fault. This book made me aggravated because of the ignorance of the character's mother, and how no one would understand that situation unless they were put into it themselves. I would only recommend this book to anyone age 16 and up because of the tough situation that is the plot of the book.
—Kalee
What a stupid story! Yes, the author is trying to deal with a heavy issue like child incest and pedophiles but the world she's created here is just too unbelievable. The main character, Meredith, age 15, just can't seem to focus on anything except getting away from her sadistic parents and their bad sex to be with her crippled boyfriend, Andy, so they can have the good sex and drink the good booze. Hanging out of a car window while drunk was what led to Andy's paralysis yet he's constantly swigging from a bottle of whiskey and engaging in underage sexual activity. Sex with daddy is bad while sex with Andy is perfectly acceptable. No moral scruples here. Meredith has no close girlfriends her own age and the only responsible female adult in her life is her grandma because her Mom is just plain crazy. Once again, the harmful message that a woman is nothing without a man in her life trumps the more serious issues the author fails to get across. The big, bad, boogie-man who wants to get in everyone's pants is Meredith's father who just got out of prison. Apparently everyone in town, except Meredith's crazy mother, hates his guts and are ready to run him out on a rail. (view spoiler)[He's slept with everyone, including Andy, Andy's mother and every kid he ever taught in gym class before he was hauled off to prison thanks to his own daughter's confession. Now he's back and this time it's personal. Every look he gives Meredith is filled with lust sending her running to Andy, her grandma's house, or her bedroom to bolt her door and set up hidden cameras. After several pages of hide and seek, the climax finally arrives in one ultimate Hollywood-style confrontation leaving Dad unconscious on the floor with Meredith triumphant holding a statue of the Virgin Mary, a gift from Andy and declares her freedom by...breaking up with Andy. Why? Because he's no longer wheelchair bound and is now free to date other girls in their full upright position. (hide spoiler)]
—Michelle Llewellyn
