I really enjoyed “Pretty Dead Queens.” It was a good,fun, and solid mystery. It took place in a high school where now multiple queen bees have ended up murdered and Cecilia can’t just leave these mysteries alone. This book kept my interest and was a fun ride throughout. I did not guess the killer at the end and was pleasantly surprised by the unforeseeable nature of it. 4 stars ⭐️. Give me more Alexa Donne if all her books are like this one!

Absolutely yes! I really enjoyed reading this novel. The characters were fun, it held my interest, and provided an escape from reality. I would definitely recommend!

I enjoyed this book. A solid YA thriller that was a little slow to start for me. Mostly because I was like is this a thriller or about grief? And then the murder happened and things started to happen! The ending was great! I definitely recommend this book!

This was a great YA thriller, has lots of twists and turns to keep you intrigued. Was a little predictable in some parts, but still a great read.

A little slow at the beginning but it picked up once the murder happened. It was quiet in its drama and I wish it was a little more dramatic. I really liked the twist but I wish we spent more time on it. It felt like it ended too quickly.

This book really just took me for a ride. I loved the build up, the character development, and the writing. I would definitely read more from this author!

This was like a thriller version of Mean Girls! I had a few suspects but I was a little surprised how it all played out. I really enjoy a mystery in a high school setting so this was an entertaining one for me.

🥰really liked
🤟high school setting, murdered homecoming queens, Nancy Drew vibes
📚Karen McManus

I’ve been struggling to write my review for Pretty Dead Queens by Alexa Donne as, weeks after I’ve finished the book, I still struggle to pin down exactly why I ultimately did not like this book. In theory, it should be one of my favorite reads this year. There are so many (like, seriously, SO MANY which I’ll get into) parallels between this book and the CW’s Nancy Drew, which is one of my favorite shows. It has fun tropes I enjoy like the new girl blowing in and fucking shit up, messy friend groups, and spooks that you cannot be quite sure are paranormal or thriller until the big reveal. Despite this, I did not like this book.

Perhaps it’s because I found this book so similar to the CW’s Nancy Drew that I couldn’t help but judge it a little harsher. Like Nancy, Cecelia Ellis has just lost her mother to cancer, who she shared an incredibly close relationship with. They both live in a small coastal town that just gives you mysterious fog as a side character energy (Seaview, California for Cecelia, Horseshoe Bay, Maine for Nancy). Both have numerous love interests, including a main boyfriend and the boy they can’t quite kick to the side. Both have a friend group made up of varying identities. Oh- and both are going to be solve two murders split across several decades that are totally but not really connected. Where I found issue with the similarities is that what makes Nancy Drew a successful characterization and Cecelia not is that Nancy is realistic. She makes a lot of mistakes, some of which she can own up to and some that haunt her. Cecelia Ellis, however, is too perfectly imperfect. She’s well connected and hot enough to automatically be accepted into the popular crowd, she’s high functioning despite her grief (which we don’t really see her processing beyond two out of place scenes), moves on from traumatic events with little to no scarring (physical and emotional), and lastly, just feels so cliche I couldn’t see anything original to her.

Then there’s the twist to the book which I predicted early on. Unlike other books that successfully bait-and-switch your expectations, making you question the original guess, Pretty Dead Queens is easy to figure out if you’ve so much as read one similar thriller before. I was truly hoping somehow Alexa Donne would surprise me but not disappointed when she did not.

At the end of the day, all I can really tell other readers is that if you liked her other thriller, The Ivies, then you’ll like Pretty Dead Queens. If, like me, you didn’t care for the first book but wanted to give her another chance, don’t bother. The two are similar in terms of plot structure and characterization.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️.5/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 0.25/🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶 (single vague, PG-13 sex scene)

**I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

Well, I am a huuuge lover of Murder, She Wrote and just about any mystery set in a seaside town, so of course I loved Pretty Dead Queens, which is inspired by the Lansbury show but takes place in coastal CA. The town is almost as much a character as new girl Cecilia or her mystery writer grandma, Maura.

If you like YA thrillers, books with two parallel murders in different time periods, and surprising twists, this one is for you. You'll grow to love every character -- except when you suspect them of murder.

I really enjoyed my time reading this one. I’ve been a long time reader and watcher of all things mystery/thriller, and I found this one to be very well done.

The story itself was well plotted and the finale was extremely satisfying.

There’s just something about a teenager in a small town stepping in to solve a crime. I have found I’m very attracted to books like that after others like A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, so Pretty Dead Queens by Alexa Donne was right up my alley and I was excited.

Cecelia was a very interesting lead character with a backstory that made her emotionally intriguing and to kind of spawn her story on. I loved the introduction to this brand new group of friends, including many townspeople. It built a suspense that comes with a lot of suspects all at once and being unable to decipher who is guilty. Each time I thought I had an idea, something little happened or a clue came to light and I would second guess myself. I am happy that I was correct in my guess, but Donne definitely kept me guessing.

I really enjoyed the relationships that developed between Maura and Cecelia and Suzanna and Cecelia. They were the parental figures in her life and the dynamics were interesting compared to a regular parent/child relationship. Donne definitely made characters that were deep, but also a few that really left a lot of questions, like the friend group. I feel like so many dirty secrets were partially revealed and never really explored or seemed like a bit of a distraction instead. I wish those things had been explored more.

Otherwise this book was fantastic. It’s a great book for anyone who loves mystery/thrillers and should be added to your To Reads list before end of 2022. You won’t be disappointed.

This one is sadly a DNF for me. I couldn’t get into the writing style and all the references really just threw me. I’m sure this book has a good mystery going for it but I just couldn’t get into it

Pretty Dead Queens, the sophomore thriller from Alexa Donne, is a small town mystery full of intrigue with a disappointing ending.

The murder…

Still emotionally devastated after her mother’s death, Cecilia has to move from sunny Southern California to a tiny seaside town in Northern California to live with her estranged grandmother. In her hometown, her grandmother is a famous author. Her first claim to fame was a murder mystery novel based on a true story: a homecoming queen who was murdered and drowned in the school pool.

Cecilia tries to adjust to her strange new life, but living in a town that’s famous for murder doesn’t make it easy. Her grandmother has bookstores, a dedicated tour, and even a fan convention. Still, she manages to make a small group of friends. As soon as she’s started to settle in, though, she finds another murdered girl on the night before homecoming. Another homecoming queen facedown in the high school swimming pool.

Immediately, she throws herself into the investigation. Despite the police and her grandmother trying to keep her away, she needs answers. She can’t stay away. She feels pursued by death: first her mother, then her old friend. She finds herself questioning everyone in her new town. Everyone here has secrets—she just needs to find out who may be deadly before it’s too late.

An unlikable heroine

While I enjoyed this novel, what held me back from loving it was unfortunately the main character. I did not connect with her at all. For the beginning, her judgemental attitude rubbed me the wrong way. She stereotypes everyone she meets, yet somehow effortlessly makes friends with the cool clique on Day 1. I also never felt like I connected with her on a deeper level. Even though she was struggling with her mother’s death, I felt nothing. I didn’t feel the connection between her and her mother or the greater grieving process.

Small town secrets done well… almost

On the positive side, the small town setting felt authentic. I’m a Northern California native, and I’ve been to towns exactly like this. It made a perfect spot for a murder mystery—families that know all of each others’ intimate business, paired with craggy cliffs that threaten to crumble beneath your feet at any moment. Donne fleshes out the minor members of the town in a way that makes them all interesting—and all suspects. So many different characters had compelling motives for murdering Natalie, which made each scene tingling with tension.

…which made the twist ending that much more disappointing. The killer turned out to be none of the suspects who we’d been building up for 300 pages, but somebody else altogether. While there might be something to say for the shock value, I still thought that it fell flat.

If you devour murder mysteries, you will love this book. Fans of Donne’s last thriller, The Ivies, may be disappointed, but it still may be worth the read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Children’s Crown Books for Young Readers for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts.

This was a disappointing read for me. There are plenty of other better YA thrillers out there that I would recommend over this one. The book was really boring for me. After reading 50 percent, I really wanted to DNF it. The biggest problem here was the underdeveloped characters. As if there were a bunch of dummies in the book instead of real people. The whole story idea was promising, but it all came out flat for me.

The world of YA thrillers hasn’t been filled with the most ripe pickings this year, sadly. There have been some bright highlights here and there, but there have definitely been more disappointments than stars like this fun and fresh YA suspense-thriller-mystery, “Pretty Dead Queens”.

First of all, I enjoyed this book a lot because, ironically, at times it felt just dramatic and a touch over-the-top enough that it reminded me of all my favorite prime-time teen soaps like “Riverdale”, with a tiny bit of “The Vampire Diaries” (without the vamps, of course) and “Veronica Mars” mixed in. Anytime something just a little bit trashy or juicy was introduced I rubbed my hands together in glee because I just couldn’t resist. I mean, realism in our books is all well and good, but who doesn’t like a tiny bit of titillating escapism in their stories every once and awhile?

I enjoyed the underlying theme of compartmentalization and dissociation that swam throughout this book. Almost every character is hiding a huge part of themselves and just acting a part, taking their issues and stuffing them inside a metaphorical box so they don’t have to think about them, and/or distracting themselves with other issues–even bigger and potentially dangerous issues in order to keep their minds occupied. And some of that comes part and parcel with growing up in and living in a small town where everyone knows everyone else and is up in their business (believe me, I’ve been there): sometimes you keep some secrets just so something belongs solely to you and not to the entire town and everyone in it. But in this case some people are taking it to some dangerous extremes.

The plot is twisted and entertaining as heck, with some fantastically interesting characters and intriguing developments on both fronts. Watching our protagonist (Cecelia) latch onto solving one mystery, which then turns into being determined to trying to solve two in an effort to distract herself from her own mother’s death and the harsh realities of coming to live with her estranged grandmother in a new town and dealing with a new school makes her dogged efforts even more endearing as a way of working through her grief and anxiety.

Was the ending a surprise? Not to me, but it didn’t ruin the ending for me in any way. It was entertaining to see how Donne was going to go about it and how it would all come to a head and finally resolve itself. It’s one heck of a ride and a great book.

Thanks to NetGalley, Random House Children’s Books, and Crown Books for Young Readers for granting me access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.

File Under: YA Fiction/YA Suspense/YA Thriller/YA Mystery/Amateur Sleuths

This books was GRIPPING! I’m a big fan of young girl detective stories, and loved the personality of Cecelia. She made a really good main character, and acted in ways I would have acted if I were in the same situations she was in.
Even though I had strong suspicions on the person that ended up being the actual killer, the author made me doubt myself over and over again and suspect a little bit of every person. Plus, the twist at the end was something I loved!
I’m usually not a big fan of love triangles, but in this book I didn’t find it annoying at all. I think the author made a great job creating the characters, since they all seemed real to me and I developed some kind of affection for many of them. .
This was my first time reading the author, and it will definitely not be the last! I’m looking forward to reading more of her books soon.


Thank you so much Random House and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book!
4,5/5 ⭐

Pretty Dead Queens is follows a character named Cecelia who has just moved to a new town to live with her estranged grandmother following the death of her mom. The town has dark history surrounding a prom queen that was murdered decades ago, an event that Cecelia’s grandmother fictionalized and used to become a New York times best-selling author. When a copy-cat killer strikes during homecoming week, Cecelia takes it upon herself to try and solve the case, and during her investigation, she uncovers that the “solved” case from years ago may not have been so clear-cut after all.

I really enjoyed this mystery/thriller novel! If you’re familiar with YA thrillers and mysteries, they typically involve a teen or group of teens who try to solve a case independent of the local police. Sometimes this is because they feel they are in imminent danger, and other times—like in Cecelia’s case—it’s because they think the police are missing, or ignoring, crucial details.

Unlike other YA mysteries I’ve read, Cecelia openly admits that she is probably out of her depth in what she’s attempting to do. As an adult who often spends my time internally yelling at these types of teenagers to stop being so dangerously foolish, I appreciated these moments of self-awareness. In fact, I thought Cecelia was a well-rounded character who was able to conduct a fairly thorough investigation all while dealing with the crippling grief that has followed from her mother’s death. The only thing that bothered me about her was that she seemed, like, extremely horny? That’s probably not the right word but basically anytime Cecelia encounters a new person, she starts talking about how hot they are. There’s even a love triangle in this book because she can’t seem to figure out who she wants to be with and lord knows how much I hate those.

As expected, Pretty Dead Queens has many twists and turns as you progress through the storyline. While I felt some of these were very predictable, there were a few that really blew me away. I would recommend this to fans of Diana Urban, Karen M. McManus, and Holly Jackson.

This was a good thriller. I did find a few things out of whack. Like...Why did we have Celia sleep with Ben after knowing him for a week. I know that happens in the world today but I felt like it was unnecessary given the fast pace of the storyline. It felt a little gratuitous. And the constant references to liking Gabe but feeling the need to be loyal to Ben. Like girl. You've been here a week, maybe two. You're not chained to any boy.

Also, if Maura had been killing people to find out what happens when a certain method is used.....why couldn't the police connect at least the smallest dot? A person turns up dead in a certain way and then a book comes out with that circumstance used. Did they really just think Maura was so unoriginal that she could only write books when true murders had taken place?

And Joe. I don't understand why he didn't try harder to exonerate himself. What else did Maura have on him that keeps him in jail, happy with just a large commissary payment. That would not be enough for me to want to take life in prison for you.

Also not a fan of Morgan and Natalie's father as a storyline. This also seemed gratuitous, especially when it was revealed that none of that had to do with the crime. Do we need to promote these creepy predatorial relationships and do we need to promote girl on girl revenge by not going after the guy Natalie likes but by going after her dad?

Towards the end I figured out where they were going but this is a quick easy read.

I received this book from netgalley. I loved it so much! I was able to figure out some parts but y'all the ending... WTF!?! So good! I enjoyed this book from the very first page until the very last! If you love a good thriller/murder mystery, this is the book for you!

A YA Thriller. A great suspenseful mystery
I read this in one day and could not put it down. So many suspects. So many motives. Just when I think I got it all figured out, even more reasons to want her dead surface making me doubt myself repeatedly loved the red herrings and plot twists. The victim seemed like your typical mean girl. I pegged either her or her bestie as the victim. But the layers of the victim's character that we discover just pushes the suspect pool larger the more we learn the more I hate her. And then the ending Oh My God The Ending. Loved this book.