Pretty Wicked by Kelly Charron

Pretty Wicked by Kelly Charron

Expected Publication: September 30th 2016 by Dark Arts Publishing

The daughter of a local police detective, fifteen-year-old Ryann has spent most of her life studying how to pull off the most gruesome murders her small Colorado town has ever seen.

But killing is only part of it. Ryann enjoys being the reason the cops are frenzied. The one who makes the neighbors lock their doors and windows on a hot summer’s day. The one everyone fears but no one suspects. 

Carving out her own murderous legacy proves harder than she predicted. Mistakes start adding up. And with the police getting closer, and her own father becoming suspicious, Ryann has to prove once and for all that she’s smarter than anyone else—or she’ll pay the ultimate price. 

Written in a mature YA voice. Some graphic content.

Note: I received an ARC of this through Netgalley. This in no way influences my opinion.

When I saw this on Netgalley, I just had to request it! We often see books like this, but they are written from the perspectives of people who are being hunted, people who are on the outside etc. But never actually the killers themselves! It was interesting to see what the author did with this and which mentality she took for our favourite serial Killer here!

I think the most enjoyable thing about this book was the fact that it raised the question of Nature vs Nurture. Are we born evil or are we made evil? Our MC had a pretty good upbringing and home life, so our author took away the normal stereotypes we have for people who commit crimes such as these. We, as a society, are always looking to place the blame onto something – video games, violent films, terrible upbringing etc. But what about the people who don’t play video games, who don’t watch films like this… who have had a pretty normal and good upbringing? The author questioned this through the style of the book and the mentality of the MC and it was a great thing to watch!! The question really is, can we be born with the DNA of a killer?

What I also loved about this book was the fact that this wasn’t a mystery!! We knew all along who it was, but the others didn’t! It was like being in on a secret! For me, Ryann began to show the many traits of a serial killer – at least what we know about them!! She started off really well, and then became sloppy. She wanted the kill, and began to leave marks behind! She became jumpy etc – which, if you look at any other serial killer, is exactly what happens! I read once somewhere that serial killers want to be caught because they want the recognition of what they have done…

It was a really weird feeling, as a reader, to be inside the head of a character like this. It feels wrong. Which was another thing I really enjoyed about this book. As someone who doesn’t go around killing, I enjoyed reading and looking inside the psychology behind what it takes to be a serial killer, but at the same time, my mind was telling me to abort because the thought process behind it is abhorrent! I think any book that can create those kinds of feelings is just fantastic!

I think this book is definitely for the higher end of YA, with the kind of content that it has within it. While this kind of thing doesn’t actually disturb me, it may disturb others, especially younger readers – so its a good thing that this book comes with a warning!

I really enjoyed this book and apparently there is going to be a sequel, which should be interesting! I can’t imagine how the author is going to top that, so I guess we shall find out! I am definitely going to be buying a physical copy of this book to put on my shelf because I loved it! I can’t wait to read more from this author 🙂 I gave this book 5/5 stars!

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