The Pretty One By Clare Boyd - Book Review

Books

*AD-gifted: I received a copy of The Pretty One in exchange for this post. Affiliate links are marked with a *

Today It’s my turn on *The Pretty One books on tour, to share my review. It’s a disturbing family drama novel highlighting sibling rivalry to the extreme.

Book Description

Nell is the perfect child; more beautiful and more likeable and more loveable than me. If my pretty little sister never came home again, I’d finally be free from the terrible secret we share…

Anna is a wonderful mother. She gave up a career she loved to stay home with her children and her kind, polite daughters, Nell and Ivy, are a credit to her. As is Bay, her stepdaughter, whom Anna adores as much as her own two girls. But everything changes the day Anna’s middle daughter’s beauty catches the eye of a stranger in a café…

Quiet, sensitive Nell doesn’t want to have her face on a billboard for all to see. But she knows her family desperately needs the money, and perhaps it would be nice to have her mother’s full attention for the first time since Bay arrived? Could this be the escape from her stepsister’s twisted games Nell has been longing for?

But the moment Nell steps in front of a camera, the devastating secret she and Bay have been keeping breaks the surface – and the bonds of this close-knit family forever. But with both Nell and Bay insisting they’re innocent, can either girl really be trusted?

As Anna’s perfect blended family unravels around her, she is forced to pick a side. To save one daughter, Anna must betray another. Choosing the wrong girl will be more dangerous than anyone could ever have imagined…

What I Thought

The Pretty One touches on a subject that you think isn’t well known, but sibling rivalry and abuse within is more common than you think. Which is quite sad. I haven’t read a book that features this topic before, so it was a whole new area for me.

Mum Anna tries to be a good mum. She took in her step daughter Bay and treated her just like her own two daughters Nell and Ivy. Bay could do no wrong in Anna’s eyes. Nell pays the price for this.

Anna gave up her career to bring up her three girls. I think deep down she was unhappy, being torn in many ways to keep the peace in the family. Her relationship with her husband, Bay’s dad is strained. He didn’t want emotionally damaged Bay to live with them.

One day while the girls and Anna are out shopping, 15 year old Nell catches the eye of a model scout. This is the start of lost innocence, disturbing scenes, jealousy, and a rollercoaster of emotions. As a reader, you are thrown into the murky world of teen modelling. It’s not as glamourous as you are led to believe. Keep your eyes peeled as secrets are exposed, which means life will never be the same for the family.

I really enjoyed The Pretty One by Clare Boyd. It was hard reading in places about a 15/16 year old girl being exploited in the dangerous world of modelling. The story was slow in a few places, but it made up for it in others. I was going to give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars but have decided to round it up to 5 out of 5, due to the unusual nature of the story pursuing sibling bullying and I know it’s a pretty harsh word, but torture as well.

Author Bio

Clare lives with her husband and their two daughters in Surrey, where her little green shed at the bottom of the garden provides a haven for her writing life. Before becoming a writer, she enjoyed a career in television, as a researcher in documentaries and then as a script editor in drama at the BBC and Channel Four, where her love of storytelling took hold.