Book Review: So Pretty, Ronnie Turner
Thriller: So Pretty, Ronnie Turner
Blog Tour January 30, 2023
I don’t normally do trigger alerts in reviews, but I feel an exception should be made with this one. It almost doesn’t matter what might trigger you. It’s in this book. That is not to say it is a bad book. It is not. It is quite well written, it sucks you in then twists and before you know it you are compulsively reading while making sure your doors and windows are locked. Checking to see if the baseball bat underneath your bed is in easy reach. Looking in on your sleeping children, then doubling back to look again.
Ronnie Turner’s So Pretty is one of the most chilling books I have read in a very long time. J.D. Barker would be proud of it. This book, though, is not for the faint of heart. If you like your terror cooked by slowly smoking it until it catches fire, this is your book. Which, of course, means it is not the perfect book for every reader. (What is?)
Ada and her young son, Albie, have moved to the small town of Rye to get away from the city and especially from her family. Her relationship with her mother has never been good, but when Albie was born with his father gone and nearly forgotten, that relationship completely shattered.
Teddy has also moved to Rye to get away from his past. His history is even darker. His father was a serial killer, a predator of little girls. Teddy has his father’s face and has long been judged by the comparisons. He, too, is hoping for a fresh start.
Teddy begins working at a local store, Berry & Vincent. The owner is despised by the community, the shop has few customers, and the locals warn Teddy that he should quit and stay away from the store. But Teddy’s curiosity is aroused. What is this strange and secretive man hiding? Why did his partner disappear decades earlier? What are the oddments Mr. Vincent keeps on his shelves? Teddy also stays for a much more understandable reason: Mr. Vincent never asks him about his father.
Teddy and Ada become friends, two newcomers and two lonely people drawn together. Sometimes that can be the beginning of a healing relationship, one that helps fill the missing pieces of each partner. Sometimes, it’s something very, very different.
The fundamental problem with running from your past is that the person who lived it has come along with you.
If you like psychological thrillers, if you believe that the scariest monsters wear smiles, if you like books that turn the heat up chapter after chapter until it reaches the boiling point – then boils all the water away and causes the pan to melt – the So Pretty is an amazing book. The characters are vividly painted, the tension is all too realistic, and the warmth and pettiness of human behavior is sometimes the scariest part of it all. If, however, you like to sleep at night, choose this book with caution.
The scariest monsters usually hide in the light.
Our thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things for our copy of So Pretty, given for us to take part in this blog tour. The opinions here are solely those of Scintilla. For other perspectives on this novel, check out the other bloggers on this tour.
Book Review: So Pretty, Ronnie Turner
Thanks for the blog tour support x