I knew from the second I read the synopsis that I would love this novel and I was not disappointed! The mysterious death of the the town's homecoming queen (and not the first) drew me in from the start and I had to keep reading to find out what happened! The book lead you in twists and turns and kept your head spinning as much as the characters in this novel.

There are layers upon layers to the mysteries in this novel and nothing is ever as it seems. Just when you (and the characters) feel like you figure it out the plot twists and takes you on a different turn! It's a truly captivating read!

Pretty Dead Queens is an enthralling thriller mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat from the very first page to the last. I'd recommend it to anyone who loves this genre and its an especially good time to read it this spooky holiday season!

Pretty Dead Queens by Alexa Donne is a young adult mystery thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat and keep you turning the pages. I’m a big fan of YA thriller mysteries! And this book is definitely a good fix for my craving!

This book pulled me in from the very first page and kept me there. I extremely enjoyed it. Cecelia is forced to move in with her estranged grandmother after her mother dies. Her grandmother, Maura, is a famous crime writer. She began her career in a small town called Seaview after the homecoming queen was killed while they were in high school, her first novel was an adaptation of the murder. Cecelia is convinced that there is more to the murder after another young woman was murdered just after she arrived in town. Nothing will be as she expected.

When the newly orphaned Cecelia Ellis moves in with her estranged grandmother, she realizes that her new town is obsessed with the death of a homecoming queen in the 1970s. Her grandmother even started a successful career as an author by writing a mystery based on the girl's tragic murder. Now another homecoming queen is dead, and the murder is almost identical to the first, and Cecelia is determined to find out what happened. But the list of suspects is long, and she begins to worry that what she finds may not be the perfect fictional mystery reveal that her grandmother writes. I love YA Mysteries, and this one is incredible! I couldn't put it down and had no idea what would happen next. Some of my suspicions were correct, but I could have never guessed the ending. I loved that there was an extra bookish element to the story, with Cecelia's grandmother's stories having a significant role in the plot. I also loved the main cast of characters and the teens gathering together to solve their friend's murder. This is a new favorite read, and I can't wait to read more by Alexa Donne!

I'm a big fan of book-themed thrillers (in this case, a murder copycatting a bestselling novel that was itself based on past real events), and I had high hopes for Pretty Dead Queens, especially having enjoyed Alexa Donne's earlier book, The Ivies. So I was a bit disappointed with this Murder, She Wrote tribute, which ended up feeling sloppily plotted, lacking in character development, and somewhat bloated on suspects and red herrings.

I don't mind having to hand wave a bit in the way of plot holes, leapt-to-conclusions, and conveniently timed coincidences...but I had to do an awful lot of such hand waving and glossing over for Pretty Dead Queens. Protagonist Cecelia's entire reasoning for getting into the investigation is specious and shifting, which I'd be relatively okay with (I get how amateur detecting works in fiction, after all) if she herself didn't keep bringing it up and trying to justify it. The love triangle, such as it was, absolutely did not land for me, and the supporting characters all blended together in my mind. This book is relatively predictable, but somehow also an absolute mess...and whether it's a fun mess or too messy to even be enjoyable might differ from reader to reader, but it skewed a little too far on the just plain messy side for me.

First, thank you NetGalley for the eARC. I am giving my honest opinion.

This book was AMAZING! It starts off slow but that was about building the story. After that the story was so fast paced. I was literally writing notes as I was going trying to figure out why everyone was so cagey. And that plot twist along with the amazing bang of an end, I just couldn’t! I feel like I’ll be thinking of this mystery for a while! This book is the best that I’ve read so far this year as far as mysteries go, I actually loved the story of a small town with secrets, a newcomer, Cecelia, comes in and is like wait this is some wild stuff let’s look into this more! The adventure of a full investigation of not one but two murders, even though there was a lot of characters, it was still easy to follow. It was like as soon as you trust someone and think you’ve figured it out, you are proven wrong and have to start over with someone else or some new clue.

The only criticisms are the writing, I understand trying to find other words to describe things, but it comes off as, I used a thesaurus. Also after find a term, reusing a lot, like “pregnant pause”. It was notably used a lot, unnecessarily. However this was a great story and I have no other complaints!

I absolutely love a good YA Thriller, and the synopsis for this one sucked me right in!

Cecelia Ellis feels like death is following her. And after her mom dies suddenly, she is sent to live with her estranged grandmother, a famous murder mystery author, who lives in a creepy Victorian mansion in a small California coastal town. At first, things seem totally normal, but then the Homecoming queen is murdered, and Cecelia discovers there was another dead homecoming queen over 20 years ago. With a potential copycat killer, Cecilia begins investigating, hoping to be like one of the heroines her grandma writes about.

I really enjoyed this story! The characters had a lot of depth, and the setting was great! The author did a phenomenal job of describing everything in a way that made it so easy to visualize.

This gave such cozy mystery vibes. Cecelia and her new friends playing amateur detectives did have a lot of fun moments, but there were pretty high stakes throughout the whole story. I did predict the killer and the biggest twist, but I still enjoyed the lead up and watching all of the clues come together!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this ARC!

Pub date: October 4, 2022

This book felt long winded and I didn't care about anything that was happening. I didn't like any of the characters, most of them were just bullies and the main character was boring.

THE IVIES by Alexa Donne is one of my all-time fave YA thrillers. I was beyond thrilled to get my hands on her next one!


My thoughts⬇️

Alexa Donne is a YA thriller genius. She delivered another riveting story that packs a punch.

👑 Homecoming mystery, copycat killer
🔍 I love teenage detective stories — read if you like A GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER
❤️ Family dynamics
🏡 Small town setting. Everyone in Cecelia’s friend group has a family member connected to the town: a mayor, therapist, cop, etc
😯 Shocking twists
🩸 Many possible suspects

With all of the characters, it took me a little bit to get the hang of who everyone was and who they were related to. But I really loved the small town setting and I was constantly left guessing. Another YA thriller to add to my collection 💗

Did Alexa Donne just become my new favorite YA thriller author? Yes, yes I think she did!

After the recent death of her Mom, Cecelia moved to live with her estranged Grandma who is a famous thriller writer. In this new small town, she befriended the "it" group of Seaview High. A shocking thing happened when Cecelia found one of her new friends floating dead in the school pool. What was even more strange was the scene was just the same as what happened 52 years ago.

I like that the characters were portrayed as believable as YA thriller can get. It had teen drama (obviously), but the flow in my opinion was great! I like the dynamic between all of the characters, like yes they had problems with one another but not over the top. It was just like real high-school life.

I love Cecilia the main character. How she was determined to find out who the killer is with the help of her friends and her new boyfriend, Ben. There was also a little love triangle here. I am honestly not into a love triangle but this one I like! There was a reason for it though, so you have to read it to find out.

Alexa really did great building up the mystery! I was so into it and I made my own speculations and such. I love when authors leave some bread crumbs in subtle ways, so at the end when it is revealed who the culprit is you'd realize all the clues were there from the beginning but you just didn't pay really attention to it. I love that feeling! I did predict the first twist but did not expect the second one. Totally mindblowing!!!

the ending disappointed me a bit.

at least i was never 100% certain abt who the murderers were, but it's mainly because i was like 'it CANT be them... it'd be too obvious' and yet it was them!!!

but other than that and aside from the cringy moments, this was a good YA thriller in my opinion.

thank you to penguin random house for this physical copy!!!!

After reading THE IVIES, a previously published book by this author, I had high hopes about where Alexa Donne was going to take us thriller-wise. This book did not disappoint, the atmosphere was great and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one during the cooler weather. I'm also just such a big fan of teen sleuths who investigate murder(s) happening in their town. The setup was great and this is the perfect read to start the spooky season with! Definitely make sure to check it out!

As they say, we all deal with grief in our own way, and for our main character Cecelia her way is by investigating murders in her new hometown.

This book has two murders at the center of the plot. One that took place 50 years ago and one that happens in the present-day. I will say the present murder didn't intrigue me as much as the past one, but a big part of that could be because I had an idea from the beginning about whodunnit, so that took the fun out of figuring it out as the story progressed. That being said, the people of our little seaside town were not without their many secrets, and I enjoyed finding out what everybody was hiding.

One thing that was a tad difficult for me was that I wasn't such a huge fan of Cecelia; I just didn't vibe with her. It felt like her personality would change every other page, and I know she was going through a lot, but she just felt inconsistent, so it was hard for me to connect with her. I think what also didn't help was that the main story took place in a really short time frame, like three weeks to a month tops, and Cecelia had all these big feelings/opinions/expectations of these people she just met. The way she acted sometimes, you would think she’s known them and lived in this town for years. It got a tad annoying at times. I did, however, like quite a few of the supporting characters, so that helped.

Overall, I liked this book. The mysteries were enjoyable, if not kind of predictable. Like most murder mysteries I've read, the last 15% was when everything hit the fan, and it was wonderfully chaotic and really the highlight of the story for me.

3.5 stars

There have been several YA books in the mystery / thriller genre that I've read and throughly enjoyed; not having felt I was reading YA, unfortunately this one was not one of them. The plot felt slow for the majority of the book, there were times the actions of Cecilia felt juvenile and unrealistic in an out of touch (there was no way she would have been able to do half the stuff she did in real life) way. I'm not above a little imagination when reading but this was to much of a stretch for me. There was a lot going on, which kept you guessing how things were going to turn out and the last 50 pages of the book were fast paced, with lots of action and twists. Pretty Dead Queens was a quick and easy read that could be a good genre change or beach read, but not something I would rearrange your TBR for.

After the death of her mom, Cecelia moves in with her estranged grandmother, Maura Weston. Maura happens to be a local celebrity based on her long string of best selling mystery novels- the most famous of all being based on the true story murder of Maura's homecoming queen. Then, two weeks after Cecelia moves to town, the new homecoming queen ends up dead. Cecelia throws herself into the investigation as a distraction from her own grief over her mom, but soon learns everyone had a motive and the more she digs, the less safe she is.

This was one of the first YA mysteries I have read, but I liked it! It was a quick read. I thought Cecelia was a great character. I loved all the twists and how pretty much every character had a motive to kill Natalie which made the big reveal all the sweeter.

Thank you netgalley for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️(4/5)
Pretty Dead Queens by Alexa Donne

Thanks to @netgalley and @randomhousekids for the free eARC in exchange for my honest review! The pub date is October 4.

I had a great time with this book. I have some complaints in the first half, but by the time I got to the end I was satisfied.

Two things I loved about this book are how it balances a fun tone with the themes of grief, and the small-town politics. As the synopsis says, the MC’s mom just died from cancer before the book begins and it plays a big role in her motivations. Other characters have also had parental deaths, plus the victim’s friends and family are impacted by their death. Despite grief being weaved throughout the book, it’s really fun and made me laugh a lot. The tone was great.

As for the small-town politics, the MC being an outsider and the events of this book taking place in a very short span of time is what makes the story work. Of course the MC could suspect everyone when she barely knows any of them, even the people she likes. And the web of connections and side-mysteries created from everyone’s parent being someone important always meant there was something to puzzle over.

There were some awkward parts, mostly in the first half of the book, that lowered my enjoyment. There’s a semi-love triangle that didn’t end up being too big of a deal as the book went on and arguably works well, but I was definitely annoyed by it when it was first introduced. And, while most of the modern setting felt very natural, some executions felt extremely clumsy. Like thinking your boyfriend standing protectively next to you is regressive when you’re talking to a murder suspect, or the first sentence out of a hotel owner’s mouth containing the phrase “fuck the patriarchy.”

Ultimately though, this book stuck the landing. I read this author’s previous work The Ivies and felt kind of meh about the ending but this was great. I enjoyed the answers and twists thrown in, and those tense ending scenes were well-written.

Thoughts

This is a really fun autumn read! The small town murder mystery vibe is strong, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There are so many suspects, all with good motives, to keep you guessing through to the end.


Pros
Small Town Vibe: A coastal town, a murder mystery convention, an old Victorian mansion up in the hills: this book is everything a murder mystery should be. Everybody knows everybody, and nobody's business remains a secret for long. The whole atmosphere for this book is perfect for a spooky, autumn release date!

No Dancing Around: There's always a place for will-they-won't-they romance, but this book is not that place. The murder board and mystery are what's important, and so the romance here gets straight to the point. Boy likes girl. Girl likes boy. They ask each other out, hit it off, start dating. I like the simplicity here. A drawn-out sort of pining would get in the way of the murder itself. The fact that this romance jumps right into it is refreshing.

Authorly Intention: Books that include a predominant author figure have become somewhat notorious... for being notoriously bad self-inserts. Fortunately, that's not the case here. Famous mystery author Maura Weston is a character in her own right, strong and bold and a very intentional part of this story. This book, and Maura, channel Murder, She Wrote vibes in the best way possible--something that was entirely intentional, of course.


Cons
Too Quick: Everyone in the friend group seems to move on too quickly. It takes time to process death, especially the death of a close friend. Unexpected death takes more time, and murder... Well, murder should take quite a bit of time to process, even if the friend in question turns out to be rather terrible. The fact that this group of friends, a day later, is already holding an informal memorial together feels just a little too quick. They'd still be in shock at that point, I think--definitely not ready to organize just yet! It felt a little bit unrealistic.

Tedious Description: There's unfortunately no other way to describe my experience with the opening of this book. While I loved the small town setting here, the opening chapters dragged on. I found it hard to sink into the setting (that I ultimately loved) because I found myself having to go back and reread long descriptive passages. My mind got bored and wandered off, and I never like having to go back and repeat!

No Fear: Another thing that I took issue with: Cecilia seems to feel no fear. I can understand being bold, being focused, being obsessed and less-than-self-aware. But a girl has been murdered in the pool, and there's not an ounce of trepidation that Cecilia seems to feel throughout it. She's horrified by the body of course, but fear? Even the boldest of people would feel something when a cryptic text tries to lure them into the pool... where the murder happened. Alone. At night. Cecilia has no qualms, even when she should, and I found it hard to buy that.


Rating
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
8/10

Those who liked the spooky update to Pretty Little Liars that HBO gave in Original Sin should check out this new small town murder mystery. Those who appreciate It Will End Like This will enjoy the inevitability of this murderous new plot.

For lovers of Alexa Donne's thrillers, they just keep getting better and better. When a murder that Cecelia's grandmother based her debut novel on seems to inspire a copy cat, who can you trust and who might be the killer? Generally I'm not a huge fan of whodunits, but I always make an exception for Alexa's because I love her writing style and how she creates her characters. She does such a good job of creating a cast of characters that you may not trust, but you love.

Thank you Random House Children’s, Crown Books for Young Readers and Netgalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.


"Pretty Dead Queens" is the first book I've read by Alexa Donne, but it won't be the last. I was intrigued by the premise and it drew me in quickly. It was a slow paced start but once the murder happened that changed drastically.

I do agree with most other reviews that despite being a decent read it is more suited for teens. It’s a perfect mix of Mean Girls meets Pretty Little Liars.

You’ll be surprised over the “who dun it” and the motive leaves you reeling.

3.5⭐️ rounded to 4⭐️.

I have read a good amount of this author's backlog. Most recently, I found myself really loving The Ivies--I loved the narrative voice and plot of that book. This book, though, was just a bit lackluster for me. The first quarter of this book was pretty fast-paced and really sucked me in, but once the *murder* occurred, it just became really hard to be invested in the story and follow what was happening. Also the motivation for the murder was...weird to me. This was an OK read, to me, and I definitely think if you're a bit younger or newer to this genre you'll probably enjoy this a bit more than I did!