Pretty Girl-13 by Liz Coley

Pretty Girl-13 by Liz Coley
Release Date: March 19, 2013
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 352


Summary: 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: This one sounded really interesting, it did. I thought it would be quite the mystery novel. But it just wasn't really for me.

Pretty Girl-13 starts off with Angie wandering off into the woods to go pee and she ends up getting kidnapped, for three whole years. She ends up making her way back home after three years, back to her family who has been searching for her since.

She can’t remember much of her time away. It’s like a blank slate. She remembers wandering away from camp and that's about it.

Her parents end up taking her to see a counselor and the mystery unfolds. Come to find out, she has DDD ( dissociative identity disorder) and has many different people inside her.

I just couldn't grasp this. I understood it, and understood how it worked, but I just didn't want to know.

I was happy to see Angie uncover the truth but this story just didn't keep me interested or make me want to know what was going to happen next. It was traumatic in some ways but also not the right story for me.  It sucks what she had to go through.

This one is about healing and the effect things can have on the human body.

I liked Angie enough as a character but I just didn't fall in love with the story line (duh I don’t think we’re supposed too) but I also didn't want to finish reading it, even though I did.

All in all, this just wasn't the right novel for me. If you like mystery novels or novels about things that can happen in real life, you’ll probably enjoy this one.

Overall: It was just okay. Not really the novel for me but that is ok. I can’t fall in love with everything I read.  This one has gotten some great reviews so I know people do really enjoy it! It’s also part of the 2013 debut challenge!

Cover: Its spooky and will catch your eye in a bookstore.

What I'd Give It: