REVIEW: Pretty Girls Dancing by Kylie Brant

Pretty Girls Dancing by Kylie Brant
Audiobook Narrated by Luke Daniels. Emily Sutton-Smith. Lauren Ezzo. Em Eldridge. and Dan John Miller
My rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

Synopsis

Years ago, in the town of Saxon Falls, young Kelsey Willard disappeared and was presumed dead. The tragedy left her family with a fractured life—a mother out to numb the pain, a father losing a battle with his own private demons, and a sister desperate for closure. But now another teenage girl has gone missing. It’s ripping open old wounds for the Willards, dragging them back into a painful past, and leaving them unprepared for where it will take them next.

Bureau of Criminal Investigation agent Mark Foster has stumbled on uncanny parallels in the lives of the two missing girls that could unlock clues to a serial killer’s identity. That means breaking down the walls of the Willards’ long-guarded secrets and getting to a truth that is darker than he bargained for. Now, to rescue one missing girl, he must first solve the riddles that disappeared with another: Kelsey Willard herself. Dead or alive, she is his last hope. (Via Goodreads)

Review

This is my third time listening to this book and while it is definitely not a perfect book it is certainly an enjoyable one. Before I go any further I should note, if you are apprehensive about reading descriptions of violence against women or young girls this would be a book to avoid. It is not on the same level as a Karin Slaughter or Gillian Flynn but I do believe it would cross the line for those who avoid graphic descriptions of violence. The area this book succeeds the most is in the draw of the plot, it kept me engaged and my interest peaked in the crime right up to the end. The overall arch is strong and the specifics of both the crime and its perpetrator the 'TMK' (Ten-Mile Killer) are fascinating. The areas where the book falters are the combination of narrators and its climax/ending.

The five narrators, Whitney DeVries, Janie Willard, Claire Willard, David Willard and Mark Foster, all get roughly the same amount of pages from their perspective and follow the same pattern throughout. We always hear from Claire after Janie and don’t come back around to Whitney until we have heard from Mark. Sine we were juggling a larger number of narrators I could see how this method might have provided a certain level of comfort and consistency while reading/listening, unfortunately it got pretty annoying early on due to the disparity in the strengths of each narrator's perspective.

Both Claire and David Willard's narration felt superfluous to the story overall with neither providing meaningful insight to the larger plot. All of the important plot points that arose during their narration could easily have been transplanted to either Janie or Mark. The purpose of their inclusion was, I assume, to add depth to the feeling of being a family affected by the actions of TMK. This depth was certainly vital to the book however that depth was far more effectively communicated by Janie. Claire and David's inclusion also made the book feel off-balance with the majority of our time being spent away from the crime (Whitney's narration) and the investigation (Mark's narration). Rather than have those two repetitive perspectives it would have been preferable to have one of Whitney's parents or even the TMK have a perspective opportunity instead.

The ending and climax was not necessarily bad, the issue was that it seemed to come completely out of the blue with little to no build up. Up until the climax we had followed the path of the investigation to the point of multiple arrests, strong suspicions as well as a thick a web of evidence. Following a very surprising turn of events when we had apparently reached the '11th hour' Mark changes course completely, he abandons all the established evidence and suspects to confront a previous non-suspect. Then after one very short confrontation TMK is subdued and Whitney is rescued leaving all our other previous questions to go unanswered. The whole switch is extremely sudden and makes the resolution feel unsatisfying and mundane. TMK's identity is not completely out of left field as there were a couple of hints to it early on. The issue is that those hints were never developed or ruminated on, there was simply no real build-up of suspense or curiosity towards this individual. Mark was just driving along a completely unrelated course when the correct identity popped into his head entirely unprompted.

Given the unfinished feeling ending and the superfluous narrators it is really impressive the book is as successful as it is. While annoying these issues do not greatly affect my enjoyment of the book overall, leaving the experience I still thought, "I want to listen again!" Which, of course, I have three times now. In the end Pretty Girls Dancing is an entertaining read that you would likely look back on fondly.

Want to know the ending? CLICK HERE to read the full summary with spoilers!


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