I've been a big fan of Arsenault's writing for years now and I greatly enjoyed this one - her second foray into the young adult world. It's an engaging read with characters that all come vividly to life. Ivy, the seventeen-year-old narrator, returns home from an early summer trip to visit relatives and has to quickly catch up on all that she missed - including the death of a coworker at Fabuland, the amusement park that her divorced father purchased only a few years ago. While juggling the tasks that her boss/father sets for her, Ivy also begins asking questions about Ethan, the boy with Down's syndrome that died. Tensions mount and it seems that Ivy's questions lead only to more questions - and to more drama.

This book quickly becomes hard to put down. And while Ivy is a likable and sympathetic character, like in many YA books, the adults don't get the same treatment here. Some of the plot's twists are easier to see coming than others - and I think that this will especially be a discussion starter amongst its female readers of all ages. Be warned - this is a dark novel, despite the contrasting lightheartedness of the carnivalesque setting. Ethan's death is at he heart of this story, and I can see it being too much for some more sensitive readers. And though this is marketed to young adults, I really can see this being a YA novel that easily appeals and crosses over to adult readers as well. I really had a hard time doing anything other than reading this one - I like Arsenault's writing style a lot and I am looking forward to seeing what comes next from her!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this in advance.

TW: sexual harassment, domestic violence, self harm, substance abuse, death (obviously) Let me know if I missed some.

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So I did enjoy the the setting a lot. I've never read a book with an amusement part setting. It was fresh and different and it made me want to pick up any other book with a similar setting. Added with the small town "everyone gossips" setting. It fueled my mystery thriller loving soul.

I did read the entirety of this in a single day. It was really easy for me to read large chunks of this book in a setting. The story was quite addicting. The book did start a little abruptly for me. I would have liked to get the know the characters more.

Speaking of characters, none really stood out to me. I did actually get confused with all the basic white boy names (Ben, Tim, I think there was an Ethan?) The main character's father obviously was a pretty predominant figure. I absolutely hated him, but he wasn't supposed to be likable so kudos to the other for enticing this reaction. There was also one boy that I wanted to see more of, I think it was Ben. He was interesting to me but I'm not so sure where his story ended up.

I liked Ivy's investigative vibes but I don't think she stood out more so than any other character in the book. I actually found her a little insensitive to Morgan's traumas. Especially the reveal towards the end.

I do think the ending was a little underwhelming. I saw one of the twists coming from a mile away and the other twist was more of a "huh? ok I guess that makes sense". I usually don't care if the reader can guess the twist early on but the story itself was a little too obvious for me.

It was entertaining for sure but it was a very standard YA mystery thriller.

You might like this book if you enjoy:

- small town secrets
- Nancy Drew type protag
- a little slice of life
- family drama

* I posted an edited version of this to Goodreads

An awesome roller coaster of a ride. Buckle in and enjoy the ride. Engrossing from the very first page. Happy reading!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children’s Books for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. These opinions are exclusively my own.

I feel so conflicted about this book.

While I think it delivered on the mystery aspect, I was not a fan of the characters at all.

MC, Ivy, was so damn insensitive to those she questioned. She was playing Nancy Drew but completely bumbling the investigation. I also felt some characters gave very vague answers for the sake of keeping the mystery rolling.

You slowly start to piece together how everything happened, and I for one did not see the ending coming. I had suspicions about certain things, but it was more twisted than I imagined. Although I will say, that character was written to be extremely UNLIKEABLE.

Like I said there characters just didn’t grow on me. I had trouble keeping all the names straight, to be honest. The main character made me want to just shake her. I get she’s not a detective but there were different ways she could have approached her questioning.

Overall, it was a decent read and I do recommend you at least give it a try.

All the Pretty Things
4 Stars
I was so excited to read this one and it didn’t disappoint! It is a great mystery/thriller and well written. It wasn’t what I was expecting but that’s okay! It was still such a good book! I was expecting a crazy murder mystery in a small town but instead it uncovers secrets and mysteries in a family. I loved the setting of the book being in an amusement park. The novel was paced perfectly and everything comes together at the end. I loved it and highly recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book.
This book turned out to be different than what I thought it was. It took the reader in a direction that wasn’t expected. I expected to get an answer to the mysterious death, but I ended up getting something other than that.

Actual Rate: 2.5 Stars

Opinion:

Wow.

I mean…

…

…what the actual f**k?

There were about a dozen different ways I saw this story going, but the way it DID go?

Wow.

This lovely little tale is told by Ivy, the daughter of the owner of the Fabuland amusement park. After her grandparents had successfully opened multiple chains of their popular doughnut shop, her father decided to think bigger and purchased Fabuland. Now Ivy works every summer at the park in the cotton candy booth, surrounded by smells of fried food and the screams of terrified and joyous park-goers zipping by on roller coasters. It is usually always a summer to remember, and this summer is no different. While out of town with her mother, Ivy gets a call that a well-known young man and Fabuland employee, Ethan, had been found dead. The police suspect that he had fallen off the train trestle in a nearby park on his walk home, but when Ivy’s best friend Morgan alludes that something more shocking may have happened, Ivy begins digging for answers.

Who doesn’t love an amusement park and a little murder, right? The smell of freshly popped kettle corn, fried dough, and colorful cotton candy mixed with elated screaming from a roller-coaster drowning out the real screams of someone being killed?!

*Drip. Drip. Drip.*

Is that rain I feel coming down?!

Nope! It’s the blood draining from a body!

(Really?)

No.

…

That’s not how this story goes at all.

“Sometimes I wonder if you’re scared of the wrong things.”

All the Pretty Things was NOTHING like I expected. Even more than halfway through the book I was assuming it was going to turn out one way, and then it veered off the tracks and plummeted into a crowd of chaos and epicly wretched confessions. I wasn’t blindsided per se, I was just…left completely speechless. But even after I sat there in my super uncomfortable chair with my mouth a little agape from shock, and slightly hinged to the side from disgust, I knew I was going to have trouble expressing my feelings on this one.

*Sigh*

Here goes.

Ivy is seventeen. She seems chill, seems responsible, and seems patient as hell with a dad like that. But that’s pretty much all I know about her. Yeah, no s**t. That’s about it. Sure, I knew her parents were divorced, and that her brother didn’t come back from college that summer to work at Fabuland, like he normally did. And okay yes, I also knew her best friend Morgan was the one who found Ethan’s body in the park (YUH–IKES). But apart from that, the girl really doesn’t have much of a personality or any scheme of emotions other than blasé and MORE BLASÉ.

I’m almost offended on Kristen Stewart’s behalf for me even putting this Kristen Stewart gif in here, as if I’m assuming Kristen Stewart has no personality.

…

(Kristen Stewart gif)

Which I’m not…

I just really needed a gif of a girl in a carnival.

But the point is this: Ivy is a little bit dull, and honestly, it’s okay that she is for most of the book. But by the time that shocking ending came around, I NEEDED the girl to give me SOMETHING! But instead, she had BARELY. ANY. REACTION. to what had just happened. All I got was a little bit of shocked realization, her going to get closure from a friend, and a confirmation of some past childhood memories from her even more under-developed mother. Suffice it to say, the characters in this book are about as interesting as cardboard. They are developed just enough to be passable in a story, but you never make a connection to anyone or end up caring about their well-being. There’s no substance, no feeling and no emotion.

But what I really need to talk about, is Ivy’s father.

“I always knew you wanted to stay small.

Just a small person, I guess.”

The guy is a jackass and had me cringing five pages in. He is written in such an awkward way that doesn’t seem at all intentional, and every time he had a “scene” my face smooshed itself up into this formation of disgust, annoyance and perma-confusion. It was like the author was trying to make him cool and witty, but was failing miserably at it. He’s just that type of person that has so many personalities but can’t seem to pick one to run with. And I kid you not, the entire page of notes I have written for this book is all about her dad and my feelings on him from beginning till end, and that’s all!

Here, let me show you:

Ivy’s dad is legit f***ing creepy and disgusting.

He just drooled over a twenty-year-olds ass…nice.

He is super annoying and all over the place.

He legit just called his employee a dumbass. Twice.

So. Much. Crude. S**t.

Okay this guys is seriously so f***ing creepy, I can’t stand him.

What an asshat.

His offhand comments are so random and weird, it makes me super uncomfortable.

IS THIS GUY EVEN A PERSON?!?





Oh.

Look. I know this review probably doesn’t make a lick of sense to you, but don’t worry. I don’t even know what I just read. Which is upsetting, because it’s not like this is a horrible book by any means. It was just…strange. The characters felt thrown together, the premise was not even the actual premise because it was just a cloak and dagger show for what the real premise was, and the ending didn’t give me enough clarity or leave me feeling like it was securely tied up. I think the only thing that saved this book for me was that it was set in an amusement park, and I was so curious to figure out how Ethan died.

But at least there were some good quotes.

“It had been here from this perspective the whole time – creaking away in the background, behind all the good-natured screaming. I’d always heard it, humming along in the distance, day in and day out.

I was just afraid to open my eyes and look.”

this honestly wasn’t the book i thought it was going to be. there could have been a lot that wasn’t in the book and it could have been a lot more suspenseful. i think i actually enjoyed about half of this book. half of it was boring and a lot of the protagonist just doing stuff. it also took me almost a week to read, so that could also affect my feelings for it. the beginning and the end were the best parts, in my opinion. there was too much with the amusement park, i think.

with that said, the writing was very good and i would definitely read the author again. it was easy to read and flowed very well. it was just not as much of a mystery as i’d been expecting.

I had really high hopes for this because I’ve read books by Emily Arsenault in the past and really enjoyed them. Unfortunately, I found myself really let down by this one. From the beginning, a body is discovered and the person who could aid in solving his murder is found hiding and basically blubbering nonsense. We are led down many paths trying to figure out who or what did it, but it doesn’t matter because pretty early on it’s really obvious who the culprit is. Once you figure it out, it kind of takes away the enjoyment and mystery of it all.

When I decided I wanted to read this book, I thought it was a YA thriller. While it does fit into that genre, I would say to fully enjoy this book, you have to be willing to go along with the ride. (Theme park joke? Yes.)

What worked for me:
-Once we hit the climax, I was interested and invested in the book.
-MC is fairly competent.

What didn’t:
-This book has a pretty big cast of characters, and they’re easy to mix up.
-I’m still on the fence on whether I enjoyed this ending or not. No spoilers from me here, though. I will say, I wasn’t shocked by any means at the reveal.
-I do think it’s important to mention that this book includes mention of a sexual assault of a minor. I didn’t know that going into it, and that’s sometimes a difficult topic.

This is an incredibly well-written mystery/thriller/ya. It's a little hard to read in terms of the character being forced to see the real world with all its scars, but I highly recommend it. The twists work well, they're foreshadowed but not obvious and the characters are all full and dynamic. There is no cute ya romance subplot, which is refreshing in this genre even if I personally would've liked a light note.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. I will be posting my review on Amazon, Goodreads, Instagram, and B&N.

4.5 stars.
This book was not what I was expecting, but in the best possible way. There is a mystery, and yet it isn't the focal point of the novel despite the main character thinking it is for most of the book. In the end, though, Ivy comes to terms with something she has turned a blind eye on for far too long. The book also did not end like I was expecting, however the ambiguity of what happens after the book's pages end is more realistic than the way a lot of mystery novels play out. I really liked this. The setting, the characters, and most of all Ivy searching for truth without realizing what she will dig up. All the Pretty Things is realistic and haunting because of that.

I really, really wanted to like this one. It had a promising start, with a well-liked teen with Down Syndrome being found dead at the bottom of a ravine that he frequently passed on his way to and from work. The police suspect that he fell, but when the park owner's daughter, Ivy, learns that her best friend Morgan was the one who found him, she and Morgan both begin to question what really happened. Morgan has a mental breakdown, so Ivy is left to pick up the pieces and try to put them together.

My biggest issue with this book is that there is this big buildup, and it just seems to fall flat. There was no big reveal, no jaw dropping ending. I'd be surprised if most people didn't guess the "bad guy" within the first few chapters. There were a lot of unnecessary side plots that didn't contribute to the story. I think they were meant to try to throw you off, but all they really succeeded in doing was drawing it out and making it harder to stay interested.

I didn't hate it, but I didn't particularly like it, either. The characters were hard to relate to, and every time suspense was built, there was no payoff. It was just kind of bland. I'm giving it a 2.5/5, rounding up to 3.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing my review copy via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

1.5 STARS


When a book is advertised as a thriller, you would hope it would actually be thrilling.


This is the biggest problem I had while reading All the Pretty Things. Goodreads and NetGalley flaunted it as a thriller, a mystery, but from start to finish, there was little mystery at hand, and few thrills. It's my biggest reading disappointment so far this year in large part because of this. I guessed the culprit far too early on to get any satisfaction from it, and spent the rest of the book wondering why the main character couldn't seem to add things up until the last minute. 


I'm also not thrilled with the way All the Pretty Things approached disability and sexual assault.


I've yet to see any reviews from disabled reviewers (if you hear of one, please let me know), but I personally found the portrayal of Ethan to be a little rocky. On the one hand, what we see of him shows that he has Down Syndrome and his own agency and his particular habits and interests. On the other hand, he's dead from page one, and his death often feels like a plot lever, moving things along as a means to an end. It struck me as callous in some ways, especially when the main character pried into his medical history and kept asking his family for details about the night of his death. 

In a similar vein, I disliked how the book handled sexual assault. It comes to have a large role as the book goes on...or maybe I should say it tried to. While it's a pretty major thing (putting it maybe a little too lightly, a little too crudely), it was used more like a plot device. It keeps two characters apart when communicating just once would have solved almost everything, and it figures little into the ending. Even though sexual assault spurred efforts to bring the antagonist to justice, it drops off the map completely at the end. It's not even a footnote in the conclusion. I know matters of sexual assault don't always see justice. I know that rapists often get off lightly where justice is concerned. But I think All the Pretty Things forgot to handle the consequences altogether.


Really, only a couple things seemed to be done well.


Despite my irritation with the book overall, I think Ivy's reluctance to see the full scope of the matter was realistic. When someone you know may have done a terrible thing, you don't want to believe it. Even with evidence, you want to believe it's not true. But you should also want to hold them accountable, and Ivy toes that line closer and closer over time. 

I also found it entirely reasonable that the characters who were assaulted wanted multiple things. For one, seeing the character responsible actually held responsible mattered quite a bit. But they also wanted to keep their experience private, rather than put their trauma on display. I found that entirely reasonable.


Overall, it's not a book I would recommend.


Disappointing on almost all counts, All the Pretty Things will not find itself on my shelves any time soon. It failed to meet the expectations I place on mysteries and thrillers, and it often felt clumsy or contrived. I wish it hadn't been, because an amusement park mystery has such potential, but here we are all the same.

If you find yourself planning to read it nonetheless, it releases next week, on March 17th. I can't say I recommend it very much at all, but ultimately, it's up to you.

I was so excited for this one after reading the synopsis, but unfortunately it's a pass for me. I agree with other reviewers who mentioned that the summary is misleading. Ivy was hard to connect with and the whole time I just wanted to shake her and say "open your eyes!" So much of the "mystery" was just so obvious.

The cover is gorgeous, though!

Thanks to NetGalley for my advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.

It’s summer which means roller coasters and cotton candy, especially at Fabuland. That is until Ethan, an amusement park employee with Down Syndrome is found dead.

Ivy is the boss’s daughter. Morgan, her best friend, who is found Ethan's body. Morgan puts her trust in Ivy to find out the truth about what happened during Ethan's last night at Fabuland.

The summary of All The Pretty Things had me intrigued initially but it ended up falling short. Amusement parks are one of my favorite YA settings, so I did really enjoyed that aspect! Though, this book wasn’t much of a thriller. It was relatively slow-moving and I felt like Ivy was just wandering around asking questions.

I knew there was going to be a twist at the end but I wasn’t quite sure what it was going to be. I felt like the twist involving Ivy’s dad, Morgan and Winnie was obvious but I didn’t catch on to the truth about Ethan.

Ivy’s character development was nice to see but a little lacking. She was a very juvenile character at the beginning but began to really change when she found out the truth about her father. I would’ve expected a way bigger change given the circumstances, though.

I would recommend this book for someone looking for a quick, easy read.

"Surrounded by people seeing it from every which way all the time--people willing to go upside down and sideways. And yet I'd kept my eyes shut, and looked at it only one way."

I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Random House/Delacorte Press. Ivy has always been the boss's daughter, first at her father's doughnut chain, and now at Fabuland, an amusement park full of roller coasters, cotton candy, and princess parades. Everything changes one summer when her best friend, Morgan, discovers a body and ends up in the psych ward the next day. Everyone is convinced that Ethan fell from the bridge on his way home from Fabuland, but Morgan and Ivy aren't so sure. Ivy is convinced that finding answers will help her friend, but the more she learns about Ethan's last night at Fabuland, the more she realizes that everyone has secrets, and most things are secret for a reason. Trigger warnings: death, suicide attempt, severe illness, sexual assault, physical/emotional abuse, slut-shaming, mental illness, trauma, grief.

I don't like to give low ratings to books, but this doesn't have a lot going for it. I'm not even sure All The Pretty Things should be marketed as a YA thriller, since it lacks anything in the way of thrills, and there's very little mystery to be had. Most of the plot consists of Ivy walking around and talking to people, and the progress of her amateur investigation is glacial. (Never once does she think, "Maybe I should go to the police with this information.") It's also obvious pretty early on that there's only one person with the motivation to commit a murder or cover one up, which takes all the punch out of the ending. What the book really does, rather than create a compelling murder mystery (if there's even been a murder, which isn't clear), is strip away the sugar-coating of Ivy's life and force her to see the more gritty, adult world in which she actually lives. Sadly, that life is not particularly noteworthy. Everyone has secrets, and none of them are interesting.

Ivy's character development is fair. Over the course of the novel, she realizes that, like a child, she's been willfully ignorant of some pretty important things, and she takes steps to change that. As a character, we don't know her that well outside her role as "the boss's daughter". (Though she despairs that people think of her that way, there just isn't much else.) She's her dad's Girl Friday, and she overlooks most of his bad behavior. I'm trying to think of a word for Mr. Cork that's less strong than "abhorrent", but nothing comes to mind. In short, he's a creep, and it's clear from the beginning that you wouldn't want to be alone in a room with him if you were a girl. Though Ivy insists that he makes things fun and larger than life, I was never able to see it. He's an abuser with no sense of boundaries. And that's pretty much it for main characters. I’m a sucker for carnival/amusement park settings, but even that couldn't save it.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

2.5 Stars.
The premise of this book was super intriguing, but it fell short for me. The setting was a creepy amusement park, which sets up the story to be an exciting mystery. The person responsible was so obvious from the beginning that it took me out of the mystery completely. By the time Ivy figured it out, I was screaming "DUH" at the book. I also just didn't connect well with Ivy. She felt like a very emotionless character throughout the story so it was hard to read from her perspective. This book wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great.

I really enjoyed this story. It had the perfect level of eerie and mystery. Though you can kind of foresee the twist, it still came as a surprise.