All the Pretty Things was YA small town mystery that revolved around Fabuland amusement park, Ethan’s death and reason behind Morgan’s silence. It was about workplace harassment, health risks at amusement park, motivated perception and ignorance.

Writing was easy, intriguing and good but not best. Setting of Fabuland- amusement park in small town, Danville was fabulous. Story was first person narrative from Ivy’s POV.

All the Pretty Things started with Ivy receiving news about her best friend- Morgan. She discovered dead body of coworker and classmate on her way to Fabuland. Soon they found Morgan but she wasn’t herself and was admitted in psych ward. She wouldn’t talk to anybody, not even to Ivy. She just vaguely pointed her questions about Ethan’s death. To find out what happened to Ethan and how it affected to Morgan, Ivy carried out her own investigation. And what she found out in process was disturbing that might change her life. The story was all about what was the mystery behind Ethan’s death and Morgan’s distressed state, Why she would shut out her best friend, and what Ivy discovered at the end.

Mystery behind Morgan’s state was clear. I could figure out what might have happened to her. Within few chapters I also could see who might have caused her distress. As for Ethan’s death that was tricky in first half but easy to figure in second half. First half was all about introduction of Fabuland, Ivy’s family, her friendship with Morgan, Fabuland employees who were mostly young high school students and Ivy’s class mates, her father’s nature and dreams, and mainly Ivy’s investigation. This part was a bit slow.

Characters were interesting but not in depth. We see the world and characters through Ivy’s eyes and we know them only with their connection to mysteries so it was really hard to know or connect with characters, even with Ivy.

Ivy was okay, she was mostly playing Nancy Drew and piping her thoughts on what she found out. I couldn’t exactly say if she liked working at Fabuland or not or if she was working their out of love for her father- It seemed like combination of all of these. I didn’t like her for judging her brother as he didn’t came back to work at Fabuland and for taking side with her father without knowing whole story. At one point she was developed for her age- responsible daughter and helping her father and other employees, while at some point she was naïve and saw the world and her family’s issue through what she perceived as child during her parents’ divorce. And I can’t imagine how she couldn’t see her father’s vulgar language and behavior. One thing I liked was her reaction to truths she discovered. It was realistic and her decision at the end was perfect.

Best part of the book was setting. Amusement park was described wonderfully. Roller coasters, carousel, spin rides, cotton candy, ice cream parlor, food zone, water rides, princess parade, and sparkly doughnuts- All The pretty Things were there at this park. And I loved new ideas in promoting the park, fun activities and giveaways. And beneath those pretty things there was darkness and shadiness that made the story atmospheric. I liked the way author represented workplace harassment and possible health risk and accidents at amusement park. Through Ethan’s story it was also shown importance of health assessment and parent permission for under age kid before giving them job.

In second half, Ivy not just solved mystery of Ethan and Morgan but also reason behind why her brother Jason wouldn’t join them this summer and never work for their father. Winnie’s story and revelation at climax was perfect. Loved Ivy’s development and the way she accepted her ignorance and took right step at the end. End was perfect. I loved that big revelation just before end, slight different from what I guessed but I enjoyed it.

Why 3 Stars-

It wasn’t exactly thriller. I would say it was more like cozy mystery with a bit darkness. Plus it was easy to predict who was culprit because there was only one person who behaved wrong and inappropriately.

Dialogues were not good. All conversations started with huh, uh-huh, umm…! I lost count how many times these words were used. It really made conversations dull.

As I said above in characters part, there was no feel or connection to characters. Book was first person narrative but I know and see everyone else except main character. Maybe because it was more plot driven but characters were important part so I was expecting to know them better, at least Ivy and Morgan.

Overall, All the Pretty Things was simple and quick read with had great setting and interesting plot but predictable and not exactly a thriller. If you want an easy mystery, love amusement park and mystery in it with a little creepy feel, go ahead.

I really liked the premise for All the Pretty Things, but in total it fell a bit short. I enjoyed Ivy and her quest to find out how Ethan died, but thought she took a lot on for a 17 year old. Morgan who found Ethan was understandably in a horrible state, but I felt like her character was used more to try and misdirect the reader. I didn't like her dad at all. He was very creepy and just put a damper on things when reading scenes involving him. The amusement park setting was unique and added a level of eeriness to the setting.

This book was WILD! So many twists and turns. I definitely wasn’t expecting it all to turn out the way it did. I had to turn my lamp on while reading this one. Spooky, raw, surprising, wonderful.

All the Pretty Things starts with the death of Ethan, a special needs teenager. His death has been ruled a suicide, but our narrator, Ivy Cork, isn't convinced. Her best friend, Morgan, was the one who found Ethan's body, and has essentially shut down afterwards. Ivy begins investigating what really happened, and finds out a lot more (especially about her dad) than she wanted.

A lot of subjects are implied rather than explicitly stated, which is fine, but you definitely have to read between the lines with this book. There is resolution, but at the same time, it seems like the book just kind of ends.

I received this ARC from netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

Ivy's dad owns an amusement park where she and her friends work. As Ivy is coming home from a trip to her mom, she figures out that an employee of the park, Ethan, who has Down syndrome, died and Ivy's best friend, Morgan was the first to find the body. Ivy starts to investigate what really happened to Ethan.

I loved the amusement park setting. There's an abandon amusement park near me and I could perfectly picture it as Fabuland. If I were in Ivy's shoes, I would have also been curious on what had happened to Ethan before he died. I was eager to finish this book and figure out what happened. I read it in one sitting. I also loved the cover.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get into this book. I do hate when that happens and feel bad about it. But this book is just not for me.

I thought it had an interesting plot and was fast paced. The ending felt a little rushed and not satisfying.

So...huh.

The "mystery" of this book was glaringly obvious from the get go for me. So really I was just reading it to prove myself right, and was disappointed when I was. It wasn't mysterious enough for me.

I also didn't connect to a single character, except maybe one. Who was dead for the whole book (and this isn't a spoiler, it states right at the beginning that they're dead). So, yeah.

I usually like the occasional thriller, but this one was both trying too hard and not hard enough at the same time. It's not full blown thriller, but also isn't really anything else?

I will say that I finished it quickly, so it did keep me reading. I just didn't enjoy the journey as much as I wish I had.

Modern day Nancy Drew!! I loved Nancy Drew as a kid, and as an adult I love the new CW show too. This has all the Nancy Drew feels. Kid trying to solve a weird mystery, heck yes sign me up.
So we start with a coworker of the carnival being found murdered. Dunn Dunn Dunn. Only it seems maybe another coworker witnessed it. Shes climbed to the top of a ride and won't come down. It's up to ole sleuth "nancy drew" to get her down and figure out what happened.
Twists and turns galore make this for a fun young teen book.
Again, predictable, but mostly because I am an adult and I see these things coming. Enjoyed.

Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read and review this title. I will review this title at a different date.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this early copy!

Did not finish - I did not connect with the plot and writing and decided to put it down.

Wow this was a ride.... I didn't much care about the amusement park setting, but the mystery kept me reading! I wasn't disappointed but I also wasn't blown away by the reveal.

Scheduled to post 6/2/20.

ALL THE PRETTY THINGS tries to be this intense mystery, like it shows in the blurb. But it really does fall flat. The build-up to the big reveal is rather lackluster. Instead of tension it provides uncomfortable awkwardness as Ivy tries to find answers in all the wrong, and obtuse, ways. And the secondary plotline isn't surprising, leaving me going 'duh' at the end of the book. And being generally skeeved out on behalf of Morgan.

Ivy comes across as rather wooden and lacking her own personality. Thing is, she doesn't much develop one by the end of the book. In fact, I don't see her having gone through much of a character arc at all. The big reveal for her came at the very end, not allowing her to really adjust to the information. While I don't begrudge her the time it took for her to come to a very hard conclusion (I'm trying not to spoil here, it's not easy), I feel like if she had to grapple with that over the course of the book it would have given her something to adjust to. As it was, the overall mystery definitely didn't provide that, so Ivy flatlined throughout the course of the book.

As for the main mystery, it wasn't much of a mystery. The big reveal on that was rather '. . . oh.' It's sad, but it's not much of a mystery. It's actually only a mystery because Ivy forced the issue and really hurt people in the process. And her only reprimand for doing that, over and over again, was her being cowed, hiding behind her hair, and teeing up to do it all over again. So she learned nothing and just kept intruding in peoples' lives to the point of it being difficult and awkward to read. It was uncomfortable, and not in a 'getting out of my own comfort zone' kind of way. Ivy was just an intrusive character who didn't know when to cut it tf out.

The only thing that kept me reading was wanting to find out why Morgan was pushing Ivy away. I had it guessed somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2-way into the book and I ended up being right there. Blech. Can't say I blame her. What I didn't like was the way she coddled Ivy at the end. Maybe it's just me. I've been in a very similar situation as Morgan and it brought up some uncomfortable feelings and while I'd like to think I could understand Ivy's reluctance to accept what was going on, I certainly wouldn't be like it's okay, let me make you breakfast. No. But coddling Ivy is a regular thing throughout this book, not just by Morgan. It's something Ivy recognizes and just kind of brushes off, as if the act of recognizing she gets special treatment is enough.

There's just way more not going for ALL THE PRETTY THINGS than there is going for it. Setting something at an amusement park or a carnival is a total shoo-in for me. I'm a sucker for it. But even that came off lackluster in this story. There was just no heart here. At all. I would have much rather been in Morgan's or Winnie's head than Ivy's. In the brief instances they were on the page they showed a ton more personality than Ivy did over the course of the entire book. And the thriller part wasn't all that thrilling. Or shocking. It was just meh.

2

Well written and surprising. Had me guessing and connected to all characters until the super crazy ending! Was a little disappointed the main character didn’t stand up for herself a little bit more and there was a little objectification of the woman characters. But can understand with the story line. Overall was well written. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

“You know, I was wondering…Did Morgan seem okay to you these last few days? I mean, after the initial shock of finding Ethan wore off?”…

“This is a complicated situation, Ivy. You have to remember that you can’t solve everybody’s problems.”

Ratings & Reviews

Book Grade: C+

Emily Arseanault has tried to tackle a lot with All the Pretty Things, and I don’t know that it worked for me. This book is part mystery, part exploration of female friendship, and attempts to address sexual assault. Unfortunately, the plodding dialogue and the slow plot movement made this difficult to wade through. Ivy is likeable, but fairly bland; the workers at the theme park are extremely polarized and there are a lot of questions that are left unanswered as the book rushes toward the end. I was saddened because I really wanted to like this book, but the one thing that initially hooked me – the mysterious death of Ethan – was put on the back burner while minor details about the theme park were emphasized. I really appreciate the foundation of the work, but the minor details detracted from the book overall.

Movie Rating: PG-13+

This book hovers on that fine line between a PG-13 movie and an R movie. There is swearing, drinking, mention of partying and weed, and the theme of sexual assault wafts through the entire story. All the Pretty Things is intended for a more mature reader – theme wise- and works under the assumption that most teenagers won’t mind repeated mentions of topics like these, but the book only serves to normalize many of the behaviors exhibited.

Would I Buy This for My Library: No

All the Pretty Things is not what I expected. When compared to other books that focus on sexual assault in a really thoughtful way, I felt a bit frustrated by this. The mystery element is used to entice readers, but really has little to do with the focus of the story. While this may appeal to a few readers, given the limited budgets many libraries work with, I would opt for another book instead.

Ethan is dead. The sweet teenage boy with Downs Syndrome was found by the bridge that he used to walk home. Ivy is out of town when her best friend, Morgan, finds Ethan’s body and returns to her dad’s theme park – where both Ethan and Morgan worked – to a mystery and silence. Morgan doesn’t want to talk about it (and in fact, is hospitalized for a while because of her reaction to everything), so Ivy decides to dig a bit by interviewing those who knew Ethan best – his Funland co-workers, including his two cousins.

In addition to trying to find out what really happened to Ethan, and helping Morgan recover, Ivy must help her dad coordinate a princess parade and the region’s largest donut unveiling for the Funland theme park. As she begins to dig for the truth, though, Ivy realizes that she might not know the truth about her own life and those she thought that she was closest to.

Book Talk Questions:

Describe Ivy’s dad. What is her relationship like with him.
What does Morgan give Ivy when Ivy visits the hospital? What does this lead Ivy to believe?
What does Ivy notice Winnie do during the princess parade? What does she assume from this?
Jason and Ivy talk about building forts as children. What does Jason tell Ivy about one of her favorite memories? What does she slowly start to realize about her mother?
What happens at the donut sprinkle party? How does Ivy react? Do you think that this had anything to do with what Ivy learned from Morgan the night before?

A Perfect Read for Fans Of…

Wrecked
Speak
One of Us Is Lying

i must admit I think i was drawn to this book because of the amazingly beautiful cover - yet now I realize I'm not the proper target audience for it.

I've been reading a lot of contemporary and romance novels nowadays, so I wanted a change in my reading genre. Thankfully, I had some mystery & thriller novels waiting for me on my ebook shelf. I picked up All The Pretty Things with a lot of expectations. Sadly, the book made me really disappointed.

The first half of the book was really good ~ I read it in one setting, because the storyline was really interesting. I liked the main character, Ivy a lot too. The book started losing it's momentum after the first 100 pages or so. Some unnecessary sub-plots got thrown into the story which kinda ruined the entire premise of the book for me. I was waiting for the BIG & MIND-BLOWING REVEAL, but it never came. The ending was quite unsatisfactory and didn't have the dramatic twist I expected.

The book is being marketed saying it's perfect for fans of Sadie, one of the most popular YA mstery and thriller novels of recent times. I disagree, because All The Pretty Things lacked the mysterious aspect which it promises. The focus of the book - which was Ethan's death, shifted into a completely different pathway. The book would have the chance of being a really good mystery novel otherwise. 

Now, there were a few things I liked about All The Pretty Things. I really appreciated that the author addressed a social issue in the book. The book centers around an amusement park too, which added an interesting side to the story. These aspects along with keeping me interested for the first half made me rate the book with 3/5 🌟

I really struggled with this one. I didn't find the mystery especially compelling. While we wonder exactly what happened to the young man, the general thrust of what's going on is immediately apparent, even the father's role in it. He is pretty obviously "bad",, manipulative, emotionally abusive, and unscrupulous. So the big reveal is no real surprise and brings with it no triumph. It's just step after step of human darkness.

Absolute page turner. I couldn’t put it down. If you don’t read this book you are missing out. Absolutely brilliant.

It took me a bit to get into this book but, once I did, I couldn't put it down. The curiosity got the better of me. The author did an excellent job of portraying the main character and her reactions to the many things she discovers in her quest for the truth about Ethan's death. For anyone looking for just a good book with a little bit of mystery and suspense, this is an excellent choice.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.