Book Review: Pretty Things by Janelle Brown

There’s just something about con artists… I think a part of the fascination is how easy it is to imagine ourselves falling for someone who has so carefully crafted a story to deliver exactly what we need to hear when we need to hear it. It makes us realize how vulnerable we are to the people around us, and how the only way we could truly protect ourselves would be to cut ourselves off from everyone and everything.

Brown does a fantastic job with the set up here. Her characters are well-developed and each neurotic in their own way. It makes them relatable even when their lives are so very different from your own. She does a nice job pacing the revelations and red herrings early on, and a couple of times the flips and turnarounds caught me by surprise. There’s a tremendous slow build that goes on for the vast majority of this book, with secrets and lies building layer upon layer. The back and forth narration really helps build that tension and offered multiple first person perspectives in a way that I found engaging and entertaining.

That said, I thought the ending felt a little forced, and it lost me a little. I can’t exactly pinpoint how or why the shift happened, but at some point as the revelations began flowing fast and furious, I started to feel a disconnect from the characters. I don’t know what that was about exactly - I’ve tried to figure it out, but can’t put my finger on it. It was still a thoroughly enjoyable read, but my attention did start to wander a little at the end and I thought things fell into place a little too tightly. Still, this was a solid read and I will definitely look for more from Janelle Brown.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my review copy.