Customer Reviews

Pretty Little Devils

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Hazel Stone, who is just starting her junior year in high school, is desperate to make new friends. Tired of the default group she's a part of, Hazel wants to be a member of the Pretty Little Devils, which consists of perfect popular girls. To her surprise, Sylvia Orly, the leader of the PLDs, agrees, and soon Hazel is inducted into the group, which subsists on secret parties during babysitting jobs, horror movies, and practical jokes.

Meanwhile, Hazel has eyes on Matty Vardeman --- but so does Breona Wu, the head cheerleader and Sylvia's mortal enemy. Lucky for Hazel, he chooses the newly "damned" PLD instead of the cheerleader. Unfortunately this makes Breona extremely angry, and she and Hazel begin getting into fights in class.

Sounds like typical high school drama. Well, it is --- until things turn sinister. All of the PLDs, including low-key Carolyn, shy Ellen and giggly Megan, start receiving strange phone calls and text messages referring to them as "bad babysitter[s]" and threatening to kill them. None of the girls know who's responsible. Before long, students are being killed and suspicions are falling on the PLDs. The end result of this tumultuous year for Hazel and her friends is somewhat unexpected.

PRETTY LITTLE DEVILS is told through secret PLD chat room transcripts, a personal blog from the anonymous killer, and standard chapters. The novel is clever, full of personality and deliciously spooky. This wholly enjoyable book will be easy to devour in one sitting because you won't want to put it down!

--- Reviewed by Hannah Gomez

It's junior year for Hazel and she wishes more than anything to be in a popular clique - more specifically, the Pretty Little Devils (PLD's). They're the queen bees of the school, whom everyone adores. So after Sylvia, their "leader" invites Hazel to one of their parties, she quickly agrees. Soon, Hazel is one of them and feels on top of the world. But trouble is brewing for this group of babysitters...they begin getting creepy phone calls, anonymous text messages, and emails from someone out to get them. As people around them start turning up dead, Hazel's not sure she wants to be a PLD anymore. Is her life worth the popularity?

This book immediately made me think of the "Pretty Little Liars" series by Sara Shepard; with an anonymous person sending threatening texts to the most popular girls in school. Not to mention the title of the book...heh. I was pretty disappointed with the book. After reading the summary that immediately got me hooked, and all of the 5 star reviews about it online, I was surprised that I didn't really like the book. I think that the writing was weak and not very descriptive. Most of the time, the character's dialogue seemed artificial - either forced, or not how teenagers their age would normally talk. Also, the texting lingo was annoying; not all teenagers type like "C U L8R" like the author made it seem. In fact, I don't know anyone who types like that - it just takes longer to decipher the message. The book was written through normal chapters, the PLD's chat room - when they would type very annoyingly - and through short blog posts written by the killer.

I'll admit though that the author did a great job keeping up suspense throughout the book! I was never quite certain who the killer could be, and it kept me on the edge of my toes - not knowing what would happen next. The ending was...interesting. Very unexpected. It's not until the last page that you find out who the real murderer was throughout the whole book; and even though it was a twist, it didn't make any sense. The author didn't include a motive for the character or anything so I'm still left pretty confused.

Unfortunately, none of the characters in the book were likable. It was sad seeing how the PLD's defined friendship, because it wasn't accurate. Throughout the whole book, all Hazel was concerned with was fitting in, being liked, and what others thought about her. She had no problem turning her back on her old friends to join the PLD's instead. That shows a lot about her character, and she didn't change, either but instead just got worse as the book continued. The PLD's did a whole lot of underage drinking, not just at their parties, and the author didn't make it seem like a bad thing. Usually authors are trying to persuade their teen readers to not fall into peer pressure and drink, by having some type of bad consequence follow up. Nope, not here. Instead, it just made the PLD's look even more "cool". From the way the PLD's were portrayed - as unreachable and perfect from the eyes of the other highschool students - I found it strange how they randomly asked Hazel to join their group. She was a nobody beforehand, sort of like in the movie Mean Girls. What made them choose her to join the group that all of the other girls at school were dying to join? No pun intended.

I really tried my best to enjoy this book and get into it, but I simply couldn't. Maybe it just wasn't for me. Give it a shot if you want; it's a good suspense novel but nothing more.

I just finsihed it and whoa, it's amazing. I bought it thinking it would be like the clique or gossip girls but it's more of a murder mystery/ thriller / definately suspenseful. I started it yesterday and finished it this morning. I stayed up till midnight reading it and then I had to sleep with a night light! lol
I definately recommend this book. It starts off weird but once you get to know the characters you won't be able to put it down.

I think this book was an excellent one. At times, it was filled with many different emotions and it got me on the edge of my seat. I would recommend this book to anyone who was looking for a great all-around book. Many people could relate to the events that occur to them and apply then to their own individual life. The four Pretty Little Devils were the most popular girls in school. Little do they know someone is out to get them; but who? This book was definitely a cliff-hanger. In conclusion, this book was suspenseful, dramatic and nevertheless, entertaining.

I picked this book up because of it appealing cover and interesting plot synapsis on the back! Also I had read several good reviews on amazon, yet the more I trudged on into it's pages the less I found myself enjoying it!

From the very first pages I was slightly annoyed by the chat room conversation and Internet blog entries that seemed to fill the book with confusing abbreviations and slangy dialogue which were difficult to understand at times, but as the novel progressed they became more and more prevalent... more blogs, more instant messages, and more empty threats from an unknown stalker that went absolutely no where, taking me bit by bit out of the story.

Not only did the choppy Internet slang bother me but Nancy Holder dragged out the plot almost paper thin! Over 2/3 way in I almost gave up reading it wondering when the killer was going to strike at all! The threatening emails and text messages in almost every chapter never blossomed into anything tangible until it was too late to hold my interest any longer. Then the last 60 pages feel so rushed with half page scenes and lighting fast death after death!

Also I feel Holder skipped over detailing what could have made this book worth while! The deaths were only briefly spoken about and there was virtually no final confrontation between the heroine and the villain!

I give PLD 2 stars because even though I wasn't impressed with the plot itself, most of the characters were somewhat likable and the killer did catch me completely by surprise... Even though there was no motive for why they did it and the end revelation seemed to pop out of no where, making little sense!

I recommend reading this only if you like light teenage romance mixed with mediocre thrills!

The Pretty Little Devils are the four most stylish elite girls at their high school. Hazel thinks that she's gotten lucky by being inducted as their 5th member. The girls seem fairly harmless at first, just simply in love with horror films and full of fun, scary pranks. Only the pranks turn into actual murder.. the only question is, who is murderer?

I was completely sucked into this book. It's not my usual type of read by any standard, but I must say that it was intriguing and definitely kept you on your toes. The twists in the book really brought the plot along and you weren't really that overwhelmed with much high school drama. Just goes to show you that high school girls really can be vicious...

I tried really, really hard to read this over a 2 year period. I put it down, tried reading chapters inbetween other books... just about everything. I just couldn't get interested in this book.

I'm not sure why this didn't catch on with me because it's not like I dislike Holder's work or that it's poorly written. I'm reading another one of her books (Possession) which is decent enough. It's also not like I can't get into YA fiction- it's actually one of my most favorite things to read. For whatever reason, this just didn't trip my trigger.

I think what really did this in was that it was pretty obviously inspired by the Pretty Little Liars series. There's nothing wrong with writing a similarly themed book but Holden borrowed pretty liberally from the series to the point where the books share most of a title. (Pretty Little ____) With these many similarities I can't help but compare the two, which let's be honest here: PLL is the far stronger book. I know I'm not the only person who had a problem with this.

You should still check this out and decide for yourself but I recommend that you get this from the library rather than buy it outright. I might try again to finish this book, but not anytime soon.

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.

Nancy Holder, you are the queen of mystery & suspense.

I'll admit it, I thought I had the killer pegged after only 100 pages in, and I wasn't swaying. Usually I rock at guessing the killers but, needless to say, I was so far off. So bravo, Nancy, you fooled me!

This novel kept me on my toes, wondering who would be next, who would be the next suspect. The crank calls were definitely eerie (I know I would flip out if some weirdo was crank calling me like that). Sylvia definitely has the group wrapped around her finger, even sweet little Hazel, who can't believe she's one of the PLD's. With every page, I was sucked in even more, bent on trying to figure out this mystery.

The PLD's look at one another differently, each wondering just who is the killer that has it in for them....and how far will they go?

Highlights: Oh, definitely the end. I still can't believe I didn't figure it out. Pure brilliance. I also liked how even though Hazel was dying to be a part of the group, she still did her own thing and wasn't completely wrapped around Sylvia's finger.

Lowlights: Hmm.......I've got no idea. This novel had fantastic suspense, mystery, intrigue, a little romance, it was amazing.

In all, this is a definite must-read, especially if you're looking for a spooky read for October!

Wow! This book was so good! I didn't expect this book to be so wonderful. I went to the book store looking to buy a book, and this book caught my eye so I decided to read this one first, and boy am glad I did. I totally recommend this book to all readers old and young (not too young though, it may come off a little spooky), it is exciting and terrifying at the same time. I love ittt~! =)