Such a Pretty Girl [Paperback]

Laura Wiess (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 2, 2007

They promised Meredith nine years of safety, but only gave her three.

Her father was supposed to be locked up until Meredith turned eighteen. She thought she had time to grow up, get out, and start a new life. But Meredith is only fifteen, and today her father is coming home from prison.

Today her time has run out.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

With her father imprisoned, 15-year-old Meredith thinks she could live out her high-school days safely, but when he is released early for good behavior, her security is shattered. A popular youth baseball coach, her father has abused Mer as well as other boys and girls. With strict orders that he not be left alone with his daughter, he is returned to the condo complex where she and her mother live. In contrast to Mer's terror, her mother is giddy with delight at his return, and together the reunited couple plans to conceive another child. Yet in the shadows and stillness, Mer's nightmare begins anew. This is a gritty, terrifying novel about a father's abuse of power and trust, and the way two different teens, Meredith and her paraplegic friend, Andy, deal with that reality. Although not explicit, the novel is honest in its telling. Admittedly sensational, Wiess' story is a page-turner that ultimately sends a startling message of empowerment that, while improbable, is extremely satisfying. Frances Bradburn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Such a Pretty Girl is deep and ravishing, dark and true. In the character of Meredith, Laura Wiess has created a girl to walk alongside Harper Lee's Scout and J. D. Salinger's Phoebe. Read this novel, and you will be changed forever."

-- Luanne Rice, New York Times bestselling author

"Such a Pretty Girl hooked me on page one and Laura Wiess's masterful prose kept me turning the pages. This is the first book in a very long time that made me say, 'Wish I'd written this.'"

-- Ellen Hopkins, bestselling author of Crank

"Beautifully written and painfully real. Laura Wiess has crafted a gripping story that is heart-rending -- and important, with a capital 'I'."

-- Barbara Delinsky, New York Times bestselling author of Flirting with Pete

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 212 pages
• Publisher: MTV Books; Original edition (January 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416521836
• ISBN-13: 978-1416521839
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 6.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #62,156 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Author, reader, feeder of strays.

Laura Wiess is the author of the critically acclaimed Simon & Schuster YA novels Such a Pretty Girl, Leftovers, How It Ends, Ordinary Beauty and in September 2013, Me Since You.

Exploring issues such as sexual abuse, suicide, addiction, abandonment and betrayal, she writes about young adults caught in desperate conditions, armed with little more than hope and fighting to survive.

Originally from central New Jersey, Laura followed her passion for land to the woods of Pennsylvania's Endless Mountains region. A lifelong animal lover, she is a spay/neuter advocate, maintains a small TNR semi-feral cat community, and enjoys a respectful if occasionally hair-raising co-existence with the deer, porcupines, coyotes, rattlesnakes and bears living around her.

Visit Laura's website http://www.laurawiess.com or find her on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Horrible topic beautifully and realistically handled January 4, 2007

By DF VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

I almost passed this book by. The topic was an awful one, and I have had to witness the effects of abuse on children. I didn't think such a topic could be pulled off at all well. But something on the back matter made me pick Pretty Girl up, made me read the first couple of pages and then buy it.

I'm glad I did. Not only did the author convey the reality of the child's suffering, she gave us the effects on the community, the relatives and others. She has portrayed a very bad situation and shown us characters who are damaged and isolated by their experience, and shown us how some of them make it through the damage and out the other side. She shows us how some do not, or can only heal part way. It's about coping. And it was done beautifully.

This is one of those books that can effect a profound change on the reader.

24 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too December 30, 2006

By TeensReadToo

Format:Paperback

In SUCH A PRETTY GIRL, Laura Wiess grabbed and held my attention from the first page to the last. New Jersey teenager Meredith was supposed to have nine years of safety from her father, so she'd be eighteen and out of the house when he was released from prison. But three years later, when Meredith is fifteen, her father gets out for good behavior. No matter what he did to Meredith and to other children before her, Meredith's mother is more than ready to take him back.

Meredith isn't alone, though. She has her grandmother, the mayor of the town, who wants Meredith to move in with her to escape her father. She has Andy, her best friend, the guy she is in love with, who was also scarred by Meredith's father as a child. She has Andy's mother, who moved across the street from Meredith's family just to keep other children from the horror from which she couldn't protect Andy. She has Nigel, a retired policemen who has a plan to get Meredith's father back in jail and away from children. Even though Meredith is far from alone, she still feels that way when she can't even count on the people every kid is supposed to be able to count on: her parents.

Meredith wants to get her father back in prison. She wants her mother to go back to visiting him instead of having him in their house. She wants to be able to go into her own home without fear. She wants other kids to be safe, too. She doesn't know what that's going to take, and she's certainly not unafraid, but she isn't going to let him hurt her, or any other kids, again.

This moving, powerful novel is one that should not be missed. Once you start reading it, you won't be able to put this book down. I wasn't!... It's an emotional book that is beautifully, powerfully written and unique, and it'll stay with you long past the last word.

Laura Wiess's characters are as well-written as the rest of the book, very realistic (in some cases, scarily so). They're three-dimensional characters in an equally (and, again, scarily) believable story that will certainly be a favorite of anyone who reads it. I know it's one of mine now! Don't miss this book.

Reviewed by: Jocelyn Pearce Read more ›

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars DADDY'S LITTLE GIRL... August 23, 2008

By Lawyeraau HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

This book deals with a young prepubescent girl's ordeal. Raped by her father, who has also diddled with other children in his care and custody, Meredith speaks out about her family's little dirty secret, against her mother's wishes. Consequently, her father is arrested, tried, convicted, and sent to prison. After only three years in prison, rather than the nine Meredith had been led to believe he would get, he is released.

The mother, besotted with her husband, and blind to her child's pain and the enormity of the crime that daddy dearest has committed against his flesh and blood, does nothing to help Meredith. Instead, she speaks inanely about their being a family again, disregarding her daughter's pain and suffering over such a concept. Meredith, now an older and wiser fifteen year old, has her own coping mechanisms that help her deal with both her mother and father's complete betrayal.

Moreover, since the mother is a total enabler, she gets him an apartment in the complex in which she and Meredith live and proceeds to invite him into their home in complete disregard of a court's directive. She does this despite the fact that one of the original arresting officers just happens to live in the complex, as well, and is well-aware of what is going on. This is where the story begins to fall apart, as the author's understanding of law enforcement and the criminal justice system with regards to pedophiles seems off the mark.

While this is an intriguing book with its up close and personal look at incest and pedophilia, it is flawed. Some of the book rings true, while some of it rings quite hollow. Consequently, there were parts that I liked and parts that I did not at all like.... Overall, however, I found the writing style to be less than satisfactory, with characters that are too one dimensional and dialogue that seems forced and stilted. Still, the author is able to convey a sense of the damage that incest and sexual abuse does to a young person's psyche. For this alone, the author deserves some kudos. Unfortunately, it is not sufficient to overcome the problems that plague this book. Read more ›

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Sloppily written and disrespectful to actual abuse victims March 9, 2011

By Mrsirthomas

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I usually don't review items on amazon.com, but I feel compelled to now (and I am putting off work, as well, to be honest). I ordered this book as my teen daughter will be out of the country this Summer and can use entertaiment. This book received positive reviews from most customers, so I went ahead and added it to my order.

I decided to kill some a couple of hours reading it, as these teen "problem" books are fast and tempting, and I was flabbergasted that anyone actually published this thing! To say that it is badly written is a massive understatement: much of it was unintentionally hilarious. I mean, the mother is absurd! If only life were so simple and one dimensional: every line from this caricature's mouth echoes the last in silliness. OK, she is trying to hang onto her youth, we get that, but how could the protagonist have lived with her bizarre shenanigans even BEFORE the "dad" returned? At the point where mom plans to have a new child for him to "take care of" I was doubled over. But the rest of the writing is flat and predictable as well. Please, I DARE anyone to read the last line without either snickering or tossing the book in disgust.

But more seriously, this text is a sad wish-fulfillment fantasy that does a disservice to not only teen readers, but to anyone who is forced to relive molestation. I'm not a victim myself, but I can imagine that the elements of this novel would cheapen and make a mockery of that kind of experience and its aftermath. The father here is not only allowed to move back home with his victim (who turned him in to the law), but he lives next door to another victim, too! Not home for even one day, the buffoonish "dad" is cheezily coming on to the daughter like a drunken conventioneer at an open-bar fiesta.... Then he turns into a menacing frat boy who doesn't accept that "no means no." Finally, the girl must resort to a bait and switch execution plan accomplished with...oh, enough!

If only. Isn't abuse more subtly accomplished? Isn't recovery painstaking and difficult? Making a burlesque of the anger that victims must feel just seems like the strangest tactic for a teen novelist to stoop to. And the spongy plot line and descriptions don't help along the way: there is no "spoiling" this book! Read more ›