Some of the things I will carry away from this book are the incredibly messy characters who have relationship issues, and the pure wtf value I was feeling every few chapters.
The main cast of characters definitely stand out and leave an impression on your brain because of how messy and flawed they are, some of their choices are definitely toxic, but since some of the are only teenagers, I'm gonna hold back from just calling them toxic.
Something I think is quite interesting in this book is this theme around a muse, from being a muse and what that means, to finding a muse and allowing their affect to consume someone, and how that can affect relationships and how someone interacts with the world. Mick is in this position of being forced into being a muse, and when she tries to take control of that fact and face the fear of being subjected to this infatuation, she loses control of everything around her.
Veronica lets her new passion for her art and her passion for Mick almost consume her in ways that are not always safe for her, and could be seen as unhealthy relationship wise, especially for a teenager.
I think this book has some strong points in the characters and the theme of the muse, but there were other aspects that felt like they could have been fleshed out more.
I think the book was very fast paced in a way that worked against the plot and the thriller aspect of the writing. The fast pace also felt like it took away from fully fleshing out the characters. There were some good moments talking about why the characters made the choices they made, but I this book felt less like a psychological thriller and more like an action book because of the pacing and how it seemed to drag the book along at a breakneck pace.
Overall, I think this book was enjoyable and I enjoyed the messiness of the characters and Veronica's mom has a special place in my heart, I just wish the thriller aspect had been stretched out a bit more and we had gotten to flesh all of the characters out more.

I really enjoyed this book! It was very different than what I expected and what I usually read, but I found myself instantly hooked.

Art can be beautiful and representative of changes or destruction happening in life. Yet, what happens when the obsession to create interactive art turns deadly. Mick wants to stay in the shadows while participating in the swim team but when she b begins a friendship with Veronica, her whole life will change. Heard weaves environmental art with the ordinary lives of teens, giving a glimpse into gorilla-style art. Yet, Heard takes this style of interactive art a step further, crossing a dangerous line. While the stunts the teens participate in are thrilling and illegal, there is not much suspense in the story. Only when they are actually knee-deep I'm trying to put an installment up does the suspense rise. Overall the plot was fairly slow for a thriller and often the reader is left with a sense of wanting more excitement. The audio to this book did add much-needed suspense with the great inflictions and tones.

This is another of those books that got lost on my review pile for a while. I think I tend to put off reviewing the books I didn't much love, it's much harder to express disappointment for a book than it is to heap praise. I think the big problem with this for me was that I never felt sufficiently invested in the outcome, even though the action/suspense elements were enough to keep me reading until the end. I didn't like Nico or Mick and they seemed to make ridiculous decision after ridiculous decision just to further a plot that, again, I didn't feel invested in. In the end, reading it felt like a slog.

LOVED THIS! Such a great YA thriller! So so much fun and kept me on my toes. Loved and will highly recommend!

I liked this book! At times I couldn’t quite figure out what direction it was going in and that kept me wanting to read more. This book has a great “aha” moment when you learn how the title came to be, and it is worth the wait (and worth the read).

I’m on the fence as to whether or not I enjoyed this one, it had a lot of aspects to it in figuring out the characters. I did enjoy the writing style though and found it to be a unique read!

I didn’t know this was YA going into it, and I have to say I was surprised but in a good way. Wendy Heard is one of my favorite new authors so I’ll read whatever she puts out.
This novel centers on the relationship between lonely, gorgeous Mick and charismatic Veronica, both in high school. V and her best friend Nico are artists who dabble in the dangerous underground performance art scene. Even as Mick is falling in love with V, she’s being pulled deeper and deeper into the art scene by Nico. When people start dying, the three have to figure out who is behind it or risk being next.
This fast paced, sapphic novel will grab your attention and not let you go till the thrilling end. 4.5 stars.

Many thoughts..but also not really.

This feels like a very campy psycho thriller that is EXTREMELY LOOSELY BASED OFF OF DORIAN GREY. Like do not go into this expecting the exact story or a retelling.

The characters were interesting but the story felt choppy. Like it felt rushed almost and considering it takes place over the course of 10 days it makes sense. I wish it wasn’t as rushed and we got to explore Nico and Veronica as characters more.

Also I thought the sapphic rep was great! They were just two stupid impulsive teens falling for each other and into themselves. There are some really good lines sprinkled into the writing. The writing overall was a bit cheesy and lackluster besides that.

Overall it was a fun summery sapphic thriller and I had a fun time with it!

She’s Too Pretty to Burn is an ode to art, love, friendship, and the impulsivity and recklessness that often comes with youth. It hit the Picture of Dorian Grey vibes right on the head. I dare you not to feel haunted when you finish.

Veronica is leading a perfectly normal life. Perfectly normal doesn’t exactly lead to inspiration in art, though. So why not liven it up with a sexy and dangerous relationship with a girl? Toss in a high-stakes catalyst like Nico and bam! Going down the morally grey tunnel never tasted so sweet.

And that ending? You won’t soon forget it. This book was fire!

She's Too Pretty to Burn is a book that I have completely mixed feelings on. While I thought the concept sounded

interesting, and I enjoyed one of the characters, I also had a list of dislikes. </p>
On the positive side, I really enjoyed Veronica and her mom. I thought their dynamic and relationship was so warm and loving. Vernonia was easily my favorite character and her interest in photography was fun to read. I was interested to see how the story was going to play out. I mean, you can't promise me fire and drowning without following through on something wild. right? While this story was eventful and dark, I also struggled with the writing style. It had a very specific atmosphere that felt oddly vintage and twisted. Aside from Veronica, I didn't care much for the characters. It was an interesting thriller that is unique from others I have read, but I struggled to connect to the characters and enjoy the twisted plot.

Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC via NetGalley! Opinions are all my own.

I finally got around to reading this and I’m so sorry I only just got to it because it was so good! She’s too pretty to Burn is a YA mystery thriller and a Picture of Dorian Gray retelling. For me this book is right up there with the Pretty Little Liars series because the drama was perfect, there was a romance that got off to a bad start and there was a manipulative and destructive friend who turned out to be very dangerous. I love the way this ended and really hope this turns into a series or at the very least a Netflix series because I can’t get over this book. If you love drama, murder and romance I suggest you read this now because this is the perfect summer read.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of She's Too Pretty to Burn by Wendy Heard.

Mick is a quiet and lonely athlete, constantly trying to escape the spotlight. Veronica is an artist, charismatic and wild, and completely drawn to Mick. And while Mick is also falling for Veronica, chaos and violence begins to happen all around them? Is this an example of bad luck? Or is there darkness lurking beneath Mick and Veronica's relationship?

I just couldn't get into this one. I didn't like any of the characters, the plot got a bit too messy sometimes, but too slow in others. And because of that, the whole thing just felt too long? I just don't think this is my particular genre.

[transcript of the video linked]

I read to explore. I don't read to explore, um, actual places. I don't read to. um, explore scenarios. I- I don't read to explore the actual world around me. I don't care about where a book is set. I really don't care about any of that. What I want to explore is characters and relationships and themes and sociological problems and how these are represented in books. That's what i care about. That is what I want to learn about.

Nothing disappoints me more than when a book tells me it's going to do that, when a book promises to do that in the blurb, and then it doesn't. I am promised an exploration of art and power and beauty and that's not what I am given.

SHE'S TOO PRETTY TO BURN by Wendy Heard is a 2021 release. I received an e-arc from the publisher via netgalley. It was published on March 30th, 2021 by Henry Holt and co., which is an imprint of Macmillan.

I first heard about this book I believe in the summer of 2020. It might have been the winter of 2019. I could not actually tell you when I heard about this book, but I knew that as soon as I heard about this book. as soon as I saw the cover, I was in love with it.

It is a psychological thriller that is about two of these two young women. they are 17 about to be seniors in high school, and they meet at the party. One of our main characters, Veronica, is a photographer, and she ends up trying to get a picture of our other main character, Mick, short for Michaela, and Mick is uncomfortable in the camera.

So she doesn't get the picture, but she ends up eventually getting one as they are hanging out by tricking her into allowing her to take a photo and this spirals uh the photo ends up posted on instagram and they get some modicum of like uh internet fame and one of Veronica's friends, her best friend, Nico, ends up a little obsessed with mick. And from there things get twisty and things get dark.

Now this isn't going to be a spoiler-free review because I don't do spoiler-free reviews I'm going to go over every twist and every turn that happens in this book and that's going to be woven in with my thoughts so if spoilers are something that you don't care for please click away now.

In order to better discuss the book, I will be giving a quick plot refresher to anyone that happens to have read the book and for those who have not but are still around.

We open with a flash-forward we open to Veronica lying in the desert, bloody and dying, while she watches the man that wants her dead, um, on the top of a cliff. We don't know what happened. We don't know what has led us here and that is all we get.

We then go quickly to the first chapter, in the present with Mick. We learned she's a swimmer, and we learned her mom is a model, and we learned of her fear of the camera. We also learned that her mother is holding her savings account over her head and coercing her into doing a mother-daughter photo shoot for her for a bikini line or a lifestyle line. They have to wear bikinis. That's what I know. That night Mick is going to a party with her friend Liz. then we cut to veronica who is already at the party she texts her friend Nico asks him when he's coming, and he says that he's gonna be late because he has to pick up some blood from the butcher for the art installation.

eventually mick arrived at the party, and the two hit it off. Veronica wants to take a picture with mick but when she goes to do it mick shies away from the camera like not violently but passionately and they have a conversation about Mick's phobia of the camera and they decide to leave the party together because they're not having fun and they spend the night in San Diego just exploring. veronica says- veronica. who's obsessed with getting a picture of mick, told her that she has no more film in her camera and that they should take a picture of, uh, mick so if he gets used to the camera and stuff without like any actual picture being taken. that is a lie. there is film in the camera, and veronica takes a picture of mick.

before they part ways, veronica invites mick to the art installation that Niko is hosting the following night. the next day we see veronica developing these pictures, they are black and white taking on an analog camera. so she's developing these pictures, and she gets really into it losing herself and developing more than she meant to, uh, doing 10 total, 10 total prints. and Nico sees these pictures, and as soon as he sees them, he becomes a bit obsessed with mick. this isn't something we learn at this point in the narrative but it is something that's hinted at and something that is revealed later on.


they go to the art installation which is a stolen forest. they took trees that had been cut down from a nature reservation and have moved them to this warehouse in order to protest the destruction of nature and to let the public know about the art installations that are coming in this series. there are four total I think that are revealed that night maybe five. I know there are five total but I think only the four are mentioned that night at this event. veronica tells Mick about the picture she took, and mick is betrayed but they end up talking it out and they decided to post the picture on instagram with the simple caption just kissed with no hashtags and nothing like that however veronica goes and adds some hashtags to the photo which leads to it going viral.

the next day, they go to the pool where nick works and Nico is playing with a bunch of the kids at the pool, and during mick's 10-minute break she goes over and talks to veronica about everything. so while they're talking while they're having a cute little moment, Mick sees that there is a child at the bottom of the pool and goes to save him the child is dead. uh, he's six years old, and we learned later that Nico lured that kid to the pool to the bottom of the pool and left him there in order to see mick rescue him.

after the day of the pool the picture ends up going viral, and mick is not comfortable with this. she is upset about the photo. she's upset about the captions that we're taking, and she feels like her autonomy has been stripped down. she gets into a fight with veronica about it and storms out.

now later that night there was the plan for, um, veronica to go and photograph while Nico did one of his installations. Nico tells veronica to stay home, and he goes and finds mick who he asked to take the photos instead. they end up going to a, uh, I don't quite know what the building was I can't remember, but they end up going somewhere where a political event hosted by, I think, the governor- he might be a senator- is being held that night. what happens is that Nico spills the blood. uh. he got from the butcher onto the guests as they are leaving the event and throws feathers on them mick ends up taking the photos.

after police see them on the top of the building, they run and hide in the pool. this is where mick gets a taste of what it's like to hang out with Nico and gets a little bit obsessed with it.

later that night when mick goes home she gets into an argument with her mother about the photo. her mother accuses her of being ungrateful because to her it seems like mick is modeling, finally, but she's not doing it for her mother's sake, to help them pay their bills. she also reveals that they lost the mother-daughter modeling gig that the mother had lined up, and she kicks mick out of the house because of this tells her to pack up anything she can't live without because it will be gone by the time the mom has to move out of the apartment. so she packs up her stuff, and she goes to stay with veronica for a few days= not telling her about the severity of the situation just saying her mom kicked her out for a few days and that she'll be able to go back soon.

a few nights after that there is another part of the in uh art series that Nico is doing there's one called ring of fire they end up going to a nature- uh, the nature preservation. veronica first thinks they're just watering the trees, but she sees they are dumping gasoline on them, and she gets into an argument about it with Nico, telling him not to set these trees on fire, not to risk a wildfire. during the argument between Nico and veronica, mick grabs the blowtorch and sets the trees on fire.

in order to get away from the police that show up, they end up- mick and veronica I mean, I don't know where the others are at this point- they jump into the ocean, and they get caught in riptide leading to Mik almost drowning and veronica rescuing her. they go back to veronica's house and that is all for that night.

it is also around this time that we learn that veronica has been offered a
spot at a gallery, um, well, a charity gallery that is being hosted by an art magazine, a photography magazine that she likes so she says yes. and um this leads to another fight with, um, with mick because they want more pictures of mick, and mick isn't really comfortable with the camera but she agrees to do it anyway, and it just kind of drives a wedge between them.

throughout this, mick is still dealing with the fact that she is now homeless. she needs to get a car so she can live in the car because she does not see staying with her, um, with veronica and her mother to be feasible in the long term but since she's 17 and won't be 18 for another 9 months, she has to enlist the help of Nico in order to get the car. Nico says if she helps him with, um, the rest of the series he is doing and if she gets him into the gallery where veronica is having her photography shown off that he will buy the car in her name for her.

the night of the gallery veronica and mick go and veronica is uncomfortable with all the attention and ends up leaving Veronica thinks she's gone home but what has actually happened is that she's gone to let Nico in.

while they are there the political figure, osgrove, that Nico is targeting with his like art installation series he goes on stage to speak but the ceiling collapses, and he is buried alive with dirt and grass and other plants. after that, um, veronica leaves the gallery in a panic like everyone else, and she sees people on the roof, and she sees someone one of Nico's art assistants, lily, fall off the roof, and she discovers her dead body.

the police show up. she's interviewed by the police, and she is sent home. at this point, she has no contact with Nico and no contact with mick. she goes to Nico's apartment to talk to him, and he manipulates her into thinking everything is okay, that he did nothing wrong, and that he's going to be taking a break from his art while everything dies down. veronica leaves and mick comes out of her closet, well not out of her closet, out of his closet.

for the next few days, veronica has no contact with mick. Mick doesn't have her phone and cannot contact her, and we also learned that mick is staying with Nico and helping him with his art. eventually, this escalates to the third installation which is putting a net in between some um the columns on a bridge they put a net between that to trap a fishing boat what happens is that the boat decides to go through different columns that day that night they don't get caught and in order to lure them to the right place Nico ends up pushing his other assistant, David, off the bridge. they pivot to try and go save David, and they end up going into the net which leads them to capsize and leads the entire crew of that fishing vessel to die.

after seeing this on the news veronica decides to tell the police what she knows and turn against Nico in order to keep mick safe she goes to the police, and she takes them to the warehouse where Nico lives to find that he changed the lock and after she gets in everything is moved there's nothing there and she also finds that- that there's nothing there.

she learns that there's nothing they know about him and they don't even have a picture of him and she doesn't either she does have um unbeknownst to her a canister of- well- roll of film from the night of the fire that show his face. But mick slipped those into her bag without her knowing um after mick's swim practice once when they were talking a few days before this all so

so veronica has no real idea where mick is. but she ends up texting her about the film about taking it to the police, and this is when we learn that Nico has Mick's phone, and he lures veronica into a trap and plans to kill her. they drive out to the desert, and veronica ends up attacking him and running out of the car. she can run to the highway or she can run into the desert. she runs into the tethered and off a cliff, this is where we get to when we first saw her at the beginning of the book.

before all of this, Nico had locked mick in a freezer van and planned for her to freeze to death. throughout the story, we see various um techniques that Nico is trying to perfect. we see that, um, in order to create a cast of a chicken, um, he butchered a chicken, and he created the plaster cast around the chicken, and then instead of removing the chicken from the cast he put holes in the bottom and the top in order to put the metal in which causes the chicken to liquefy and ooze out of the holes. he also did this with a flower. it is then that we learned he is planning to do this to mick.

mick escapes and ends up incapacitating Nico after what happens with veronica she's running through the desert and she sees veronica um who has fallen off the cliff but can still be seen and she calls 9-1-1 and then she goes down to she comes down the cliff in order to see if she's alive and help her if she can veronica's live and mick uh tends to her while they wait for first aid to arrive which takes about an hour we then go to the hospital where um we are I guess lured into a false sense of security I guess

Where things seem like they're beginning to wrap up, we learn that mick is now going to be staying with Veronica and her mom, like full time because her mom wants nothing to do with her and we learned that veronica is going to be fine after all. so everything's good. mick moved in with veronica.

however, Nico is still at large they are still looking for him. prior to her being kidnapped by Nico, veronica had developed the photos like that's what she planned to give the police, and she- when she was captured, um, well, when she fell off the cliff, she left the photos there. she told mick about them, but mick hid them there so that the police wouldn't get them because they did incriminate her and veronica in regards to the wildfire.

so mick goes a few days after to go and find them and destroy them. while she's there, Nico shows up, and she runs away and hides eventually. she goes back to her car, and she finds a steel flower, which is something that Nico had shown her, and she drives away. she gets back to the house, and she doesn't have the time to tell veronica about this before she goes back to her room and finds another rose there.

then we get a Nico chapter where Nico just goes into the chaos he plans to create and these five fires he's set and how he's put bombs and planted fireworks places with the homeless and with children.

so then we go back to mick, and they are watching the news as this all unfolds.

our final chapter is with Nico where he basically just talks about his obsession with mick and says she's too pretty to burn.

I didn't like this book. I don't know if that came across in my summary, but I did not really like this book. I think it started strong. it was intriguing, and it pulled me in, but when it comes to the exploration of art and beauty and power that I promised it is not what I was given.

the entire first half was set up. and there's some action sprinkled in, but it was just set up, and while it was a fast-paced setup and character-building setup, which I enjoyed, it was so just set up. there was no real thematic exploration at that point and the way the book was going I knew I wasn't going to be getting much thematic exploration.

so the fast pace of the book, for me, worked against it in that regard/ because there is no time to stop and to reflect and to actually delve into the themes of the book. it just goes from action to, uh, character moments to action to character moments, and there's no real time to breathe in between that.

another issue I had with the book is the characterization of Nico. so we get little hints that he is not a good person, that he's not who he says he is throughout. um, they are not subtle. they're little but they're not subtle. he starts the wildfire. he is willing to butcher a chicken for his art, um, and then, like, melt the chicken's body in order to create a statue of it, and he just has a rather shady presence overall.

I think this is another place where the fast pace and the brevity of the book doesn't really work. if the book were slower, if the book were longer it would have allowed for a more slow, subtle descend into villainy for Nico. it would have made him a more compelling character to me, and it also would have allowed more development of the relationships between these characters which would have given more emotional stakes to it.

and there's also no real exploration of art and beauty and power it is really just about Nico and his descent into madness. I have not read the picture of Dorian Gray maybe this book is very accurate to um that source of inspiration but I don't know.


The quick action nature of it um didn't work for me. It- it was pitched as a psychological thriller and I wanted more of the psychological and less of the thriller

It just felt a lot like a thriller action film and that's fine there's nothing wrong with that. But that is not the expectation I had going into this book.

And, overall, it left me more than a little disappointed because of that.

One of our main characters is Latina. This was not something I mentioned in my summary because it is not something that affects the plot whatsoever. She's mentioned to be Latina in her description. It's Veronica. Veronica's Latina. And she so she's mentioned to be Latina and that doesn't come up at all after that there's no integration of it into her character. She was just mentioned in a throwaway line to be a fair-skinned Latina.

I would not have critiqued this book for having a white cast, an all-white cast. Like, I would not have critiqued the book for it. Wendy Heard is not going to be the author I go to if I want, uh, representations of people of color, if I want representations of Black people, of Indigenous people, and of other people of color, I'm going to go to those sources for that and the throwaway line um the throwaway rep that doesn't really contribute to the story at all in the same way that the characters being sapphic contributes to the story just did not sit right with me especially when the rest of the book is centered around how people grow obsessed with the white blonde girl and how beautiful she is. I did like some parts of the book it wasn't all bad.

I enjoyed the relationship between mick and veronica I think it was well built I think it was cute and even if I do think it could have done with a bit more develop development it was passable it did work in the story and I added to it

I also like that veronica is shown to have a supportive mother, even if Mick's mother is shown to be, you know, pretty terrible.

Something I did like about the book is I pretty much knew from the moment that Nico started showing his obsession with Mick, um, added in with the, um, chicken stuff from the beginning, what he was planning to do. Like his plan was fairly obvious to me. I enjoy thrillers that are predictable, more I enjoy predicting thrillers and being right.

Um, I also really enjoyed the writing. I think, while at times, it was especially the beginning a bit cringy, it worked with the story and really made it feel incredibly fast and contributed to the pace of it. It worked well within the story. What I'm trying to say here is it was engaging.

I just- I did not get the thematic exploration that I wanted from this book and that's why it was so disappointing to me.

That is really all I have to say about SHE'S TOO PRETTY TO BURN by Wendy Heard. In the description down below you will find various links for important social justice causes. I don't know when this video is coming out, um, there will likely be resources to help stop Asian hate and to educate yourself about Palestine but there might be some different stuff down there depending on what is going on currently in the world at the time this video goes up. Also in this description down below, you will find links to my twitter, to my instagram, and to my storygraph. Also to my blog. You can check all of these out if you would like. And finally, if you like this video please like, comment, and subscribe. Especially if you've made it to this point, please leave this emoji in the comments down below

This was a win for me. I finished it one day. I loved the main characters were LGBTQ, I loved the art aspects. I struggled a bit with some of the character choices but not enough to turn me off the book. It has romance, Murder, and mayhem.

This book cover is too similar in style, art, and color to Burn our Bodies Down by Rory Powers. Both have burn, orange colors, and girl in cover. I couldn't get into this story or connect with the characters and couldn't finish it. Life is too short. Better to re-read Picture of Dorian Gray which I absolutely loved.
Thank you #NetGalley for the ARC. I can't give this any stars because I DNF this book.

DNF @ 44%

Not a fan of the prose or the protagonist's negativity and self-centeredness. Concerned that so far there are only two characters of color, both girls, one being a manipulator and the other mean as a main personality trait. Disturbed by the main cast's propensity for decisions that are not just ill-advised but extremely dangerous.

Which is to say, this is very much just not for me. Kind of a "can't look away" dumpster fire, though. Maybe the summary should've been fair warning, but I was absolutely not prepared for what I got.

✨A huge thank you to Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and NetGalley for giving me a free copy to review✨

She's too Pretty to Burn is a gripping page turner that I knew nothing about going in. I requested this book based on the cover and genre. Let's just say, I. COULDN'T. PUT. IT. DOWN! Bonus, the main characters are LGBTQ, the perfect read for Pride Month 🏳️‍🌈

Mick is a star swimmer, an athlete, not a model. She absolutely loathes being in front of a camera. Veronica is an aspiring photographer with an artist's eye. When the 2 meet at a party, Veronica knew that she was meant to capture Mick's beauty. While this relationship is blooming, Veronica's best friend Nico, also an artist, begins his series of dangerous installations. This is when the chaos begins.

I couldn't love this book more. Unputdownable is an understatement. This was full of romance, risk taking and danger, the perfect trifecta. 5⭐'s all the way. I really hope this book is not a stand alone, I want more.

She's Too Pretty to Burn is a YA retelling of The Picture of Dorian Gray set in the heat of San Diego with a queer romance at the center of the story. Think sexy psychological thriller with a dark edge meets The Picture of Dorian Gray. Filled with plenty of twists and turns keeping readers on their toes throughout, readers will feel the palpable tension laid out by author Wendy Heard. This is THE book to get your hands on this summer. Highly recommended!!

This novel was slow. I had a very difficult time getting into it and ended up not finishing it. I wanted to like it but alas.