Happy Book Birthday, Pretty Things!

-
The basics: "Two wildly different women—one a grifter, the other an heiress—are brought together by the scam of a lifetime in a page-turner from the New York Times bestselling author of Watch Me Disappear."--publisher

 My thoughts: Two (of many) things I enjoy more than the average person: heist novels and feminist novels. So a feminist heist novel is a delight. I had the pleasure of seeing Janelle Brown speak at ALA Midwinter in January (that feels like a lifetime ago), and I was thrilled to pick up an ARC at the event too. Since then, Nicole Kidman optioned the novel and will produce and star in it for Amazon (I am quite curious which part she will play, as she is older than both of the main characters). Often with novels like one (thrillers, buzzy, about to be adapted), I like to wait until just before the publication date to read it, so that I can share the excitement with more people. Sure, it's fun to read a novel months before everyone, but it's often more fun to read it just before.

This weekend, I finally curled up with Pretty Things, and plowed through its 476 pages in two days. It's a fun ride, and it is absolutely a great book to escape in. The plot kept me turning pages, and there were quite a few satisfying twists, but this novel is more than just a heist thriller. Brown is a gifted writer, and this novel will also appease fans of more literary novels. Pretty Things is also a compelling exploration of memory, privilege, friendship, family, and love. While I liked it, I do have a few quibbles with the novel: some of the twists were easily guessed (by me) and I think it could have been edited down. I am the rare reader who does like big books, and 476 pages is big. Still, I would recommend this novel to most readers, and I think it might find its way on my short list of adaptations that are better than the novel.

 Rating: 4 out of 5
Length: 476 pages
Publication date: April 21, 2020
Source: publisher

 Want to read for yourself? Buy Pretty Things from your favorite independent bookstore or from Amazon (Kindle edition.)

As an affiliate, I receive a small commission when you make a purchase through any of the above links. Thank you for helping to support my book habits that bring more content to this blog!

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to comment. Happy reading!

Popular posts from this blog

book review: A Dangerous Place by Jacqueline Winspear

-
Image
The backstory: A Dangerous Place  is the eleventh historical mystery featuring Maisie Dobbs. My reviews of the other eleven (plus Winspear's stand alone historical novel) are in my Book Review Database . The basics: Set four years after the last Maisie Dobbs novel, Leaving Everything Most Loved , in A Dangerous Place , we meet up with Maisie in Gibraltar in 1927 during the Spanish Civil War. She gets off her England-bound ship in Gibraltar because she's not quite ready to return. Note: this review contains spoilers about what happened in those four years of Maisie's life between books, all of which are revealed in this novel's first thirty pages.  My thoughts: Sunday I wrote about the Maisie Mail I received. These postcards appear in the book itself, along with many others. After setting the stage in Gibraltar in the opening pages (Maisie stumbles upon a dead body), Winspear recounts the last four years of Maisie's life in the form of postcards, letters, an...
Read more

book review: Run by Ann Patchett

-
Image
The backstory: After loving State of Wonder  ( my review ), I set out to read all of Ann Patchett's books. The basics: Run  is the story of the Doyle family: Bernard, an Irish Catholic ex-mayor of Boston, his deceased wife Bernadette, their adult son Sullivan, and their two adopted college ages sons, Tip and Teddy, who are biological brothers. My thoughts: I'm beginning to think Ann Patchett is my soul sister. Her writing reaches me deeply, and I've adored everything she's written. It was a special treat to read Run , the novel of hers I knew the least about going in. Although I had the framework of two of her novels and one memoir, I didn't know what to expect. Run  isn't as universally loved as some of her other works, so I was particularly curious to see how it measured up. Admittedly, Run  started off slowly for me. It took two chapters to really get into the heart of the story, but once it happened, I was hooked. One of the things I love most about ...
Read more

book review: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

-
Image
The backstory: Gilead  won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005, the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2004, and was longlisted for the Orange Prize in 2006. The basics: As Rev. Ames nears the end of his life in the 1950's, he begins a letter to his young son because Ames realizes his son is too young to really know him. Gilead  is that letter. My thoughts: Gilead  is a novel I'm been meaning to read for years. It's a character-driven, Midwestern narrative by one of our best contemporary writers. It should be a novel I love, yet I struggled to finish it and admit I was wowed by neither the story nor the writing. Gilead  seemed almost stream-of-consciousness at first. I appreciated that Robinson jumped right in: this novel is a letter from father to son; the reader's ignorance of these two characters is not the focus. As the novel progressed, more details began to be filled in, and the reader begins to understand the characters, setting and purpose. I enjoyed the ...
Read more