Pretty Little Devils, by Nancy Holder
Title: Pretty Little Devils
Author: Nancy Holder
Genre: Mystery
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 271
Copy Origin: Received for review from the author
Get Your Own Copy From: Amazon.com, The Book Depository
Hazel Stone wants nothing more than to be a part of the hottest clique in school, the Pretty Little Devils. She’s got the style, she’s cool enough, so how did she end up at a lunch table full of high school C-listers?
Hazel has resigned herself to life as a nobody, when suddenly everything changes. Sylvia, queen bee of the PLDs, invites Hazel to one of the group’s famous soirees-held at the site of their babysitting jobs.
Before Hazel knows it, she’s in with the in crowd-and she couldn’t be more thrilled!
But popularity comes with a price. Especially when one of Hazel’s classmates becomes jealous of her newfound status-deadly jealous.
And you know how school gossip can just rip a girl to shreds . . .
If Possessions was “Mean Girls goes paranormal”, then Pretty Little Devils was “Mean Girls gone psycho”.
Pretty Little Devils reminded me a lot of the horror movies of the nineties (Scream etc.) and the Point Horror books of the same time period (can you see I’m dating myself a little here?). The horror there is more psychological, with the mystery of who is doing this, what they are doing and why being used to disturb the audience rather than shot after shot of violence and gore that is much more popular at the current time.
That said, while we do not see directly the most violent and disturbing acts committed by the mysterious caller, we still hear about what happened and with all sorts of description. Through one character in particular, Holder uses our fascination with gossip (especially the more morbid kind - like how we are most interested in celebrities once they die, rather when they achieve anything) in a very effective manner. It’s very disconcerting to see that sort of behaviour in fiction, and know you can’t explain it away through it being fiction or just that character. Unfortunately it’s a reflection of real-life, and while some elements of stories like Pretty Little Devils is a little outlandish, at the root of many parts of it is still a lot of truth.
For me though the most disturbing aspect was not the psychotic killer with a vendetta against the PLDs, but the PLDs themselves. Or rather, the groups of girls that the PLDs represent, and a) how girls can treat each other this way and call it friendship and b) that girls are so desperate to be popular and have that status that they can put up with that treatment. None of the PLDs and company are likable characters - even the main character is deeply flawed when it comes to what she wants - but over the course of the story layers start to be stripped away to reveal at least a little something to be sympathetic to.
The message in Pretty Little Devils - be yourself, and be happy for it - is fairly obvious and most heavy-handed in the name (HAPPY2BME) the killer posts to their personal blog, but it still a very good one that needs to be listened to. Pretty Little Devil’s wraps up this message in a story with plenty of twists and turns (I thought I had the killer picked out, but I started to waver about half-way through and by the end of it I had pretty much given up), and I think teen girls would like a twist in the popular clique books that are so popular at the moment.
Four stars.
Mirrored from On The Nightstand.