So Much Pretty
Written by Cara Hoffman
Narrated by Aimee Bruneau
3.5/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
Cara Hoffman
Cara Hoffman is the author of three New York Times Editors’ Choice novels; the most recent, Running, was named a Best Book of the Year by Esquire Magazine. She first received national attention in 2011 with the publication of So Much Pretty which sparked a national dialogue on violence and retribution, and was named a Best Novel of the Year by the New York Times Book Review. Her second novel, Be Safe I Love You was nominated for a Folio Prize, named one of the Five Best Modern War Novels, and awarded a Sundance Global Filmmaking Award. A MacDowell Fellow and an Edward Albee Fellow, she has lectured at Oxford University’s Rhodes Global Scholars Symposium and at the Renewing the Anarchist Tradition Conference. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Paris Review, BOMB, Bookforum, Rolling Stone, Daily Beast, and on NPR. A founding editor of the Anarchist Review of Books, and part of the Athens Workshop collective, she lives in Athens, Greece with her partner.
More audiobooks from Cara Hoffman
Bernard Pepperlin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ballad of Tubs Marshfield Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Be Safe I Love You: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for So Much Pretty
20 ratings16 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5considering all the positive hype and glowing reviews, i was disappointed. for me, the book didn't flow smoothly, kind of jumped around. one thing that did bother me was this: i'm no slouch at using the F word when the situation warrants it, but in this book, its usage seemed to exceed even the word 'the.' almost everybody in haeden used it, except maybe the Haytes. after a while, it became worse than tedious. i live in a small village in central new york, in a small villageoutside a small city. my native-to-the-area neighbors might be conservative and provincial, but nobody i know resembles anybody in haeden, for which i am grateful.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Devastating.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Overall fascinating story, but sooooo confusing in audiobook format. Especially in the beginning the point of view/narrator/time period changed frequently and it was a challenge to follow the leaps. I may have to go back and read it someday because I really think I would like this book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Really an amazing story---as others have said--it just kept building. I listened to the audio and was so impressed with Aimee Bruneau---hearing a different voice for each of several characters, all by the same reader, is always very impressive and this audio pulled you right in and did not let go. And then there was Alice--providing a completely different presentation of a seemingly all too common part of the news.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Book Description 'A man can only take so much pretty walking back and forth in front of him.' When nineteen-year-old Wendy White disappears, the small town of Haeden, New York, is shaken to its core. The police are unable to trace the missing waitress; everyone assumes that she has run away. But, six months later, Wendy's tortured body is found in the nearby woods. She has only been dead for a matter of days. With no one willing to talk, the investigation slows to a halt. But local reporter Stacy Flynn and high school student Alice Piper have their own reasons for finding out what really happened. The truth behind Wendy's disappearance has a devastating effect on the town: what was once a rural idyll is now the backdrop to murder, violence and revenge.
My Review This certainly was a different type of murder mystery. It switches from first person to third person as all the different characters give their points of view on what they heard or saw in regards to what happened to Wendy. After the murder has been explained, the book takes off and becomes a real page turner as the murder of Wendy White is avenged. With themes of violence against woman by men who hate women, the book is not an easy read. It is, however, an excellent debut for Cara Hoffman and I do look forward to reading more from her. - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I thought this was going to be an interesting mystery but it was too all over the place for me. I didn't like the way it jumped from the present to 1992 then to 2004 and back. I felt like the story didn't even really get started until I was 3/4 of the way through the book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book went in the complete opposite direction of where I thought it was going to go.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Something happened to Wendy and the town seems satisfied to ignore it. Everyone, except Stacy Flynn, is willing to go on with their lives. Flynn is the local journalist but an outsider, her story of Wendy’s death causes a chain reaction and Alice is right in the middle.
This murder mystery gripped me right from the beginning. I couldn’t put the book down! There is a lot of questions raised on justice, ethics and the doing things for the good of human kind. It explores prejudices within communities, touches on environmental issues and is so realistic that I won’t be surprised if I picked up the newspaper and read about Wendy White and Alice Piper.
The narrative switches from first to third person and from different view points, so the story is fleshed out by all parties. The insertion of the video and audio interviews from some of the minor characters was a great touch and added an extra layer of reality to the book.
Cara Hoffman did an excellent job in this debut novel. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I loved the way this story kept building. The first few chapters, I was just feeling my way through...no idea what was going on. As the story was pieced together I was drawn further into the story, but still not sure what was going on. There were some parts/perspectives that I'm still not sure why they were included, but overall a very surprising story (you think it's one thing...it turns into something else).
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I've mixed feelings about this book. Some parts of it were interesting and some parts, particularly the essays forming case evidence, caused me to start skimming the text. Not until the last 80 or so pages did I become really interested and then, I didn't want to put it down. I'm still a little unclear about the parents' and friends' political and ethical motivations but that's possibly because I might well have skimmed too much!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Written from various POV, fractured timeline. Not suitable for school library b/c of sexual exploitation content.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This was harder work than most of the 'thrillers' I'm into, but totally worth it in the end. After a slow and somewhat confusing start (multiple characters, perspectives, timelines), the story opened up as delicately as a bloom, culminating in an ending that had me cheering inside my heart. The political/feminist slant will not be to everyone's taste, but I thought it was a great way to explore the great grey elephant in the room ... how women are still very often judged by their appearances or their 'purpose' in relation to men ... and that the three central characters were female was an inevitable counterbalance.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5“So Much Pretty.” An unusual title to a somewhat unusual book. Reading reviews from the USA, where it was released earlier, it appears to be a “marmite” kind of a novel……..you either love it or hate it. I loved it!Admittedly, it took me a while to get into the story. Frequent changes of characters and switching from the first to the third person with startling regularity, can be confusing to begin with, but I urge readers to stick with it. The story is set in the small town of Haeden, in New York State, the type of place where everybody knows everyone else. A young waitress called Wendy disappears, which unsettles the whole community and the police appear to make no headway in trying to find Wendy’s whereabouts. Some say she has run away to start a new life in the city. Those who know her well do not buy in to this theory and fear she is dead. Six months later, Wendy’s body is discovered in the woods and it is obvious that she has been starved and tortured, both physically and sexually. But what is puzzling is the fact she has only been dead a few days. Where has she been all this time? Cara Hoffman builds the suspense brilliantly, and the story unravels through the eyes and experiences of the inhabitants of Haeden and Wendy’s former school friends. A journalist, wanting to find that ultimate headliner, is relentless in her pursuit of the facts. The book’s tragic conclusion is totally unexpected and the realisation of what ghastly things have been happening in this small town comes as a shock, to say the least. I was gripped by Hoffman’s writing and found it hard to put this one down. Although the subject matter is disturbing, a great deal is left to the imagination, and the writer does not revel in violence for violence’s sake. That elevates this novel beyond a simple whodunit or psychological thriller. Highly recommended for it’s uniqueness.This book was made available to me for an honest review.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Unfortunately, this book was practically unreadable.The writing is "clever" (a.k.a dense) and full of philosophical commentary (a.k.a "preachy"). Every 3-4 pages is a new "chapter" which involves a change of character speaking and/or a change of timeline. The first 6 chapters change person 6 times (3 different people) and timelines 3 - I think - I had to go back to check every time I started a chapter to see what timeline I was in, and who was talking, because it switches from first person to third person narration too.What is my summary? This book is just way too much work to figure out. I'm sure the plot is great, but I can't be bothered flipping back and forth to keep the characters/time straight. And I don't need someone lecturing me on small-town/feminist politics while telling a story either.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It was creepy, and the ending strained credulity -- after a while, I started skipping the philosophy lessons -- but she does a great job of unfolding her story.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It was way too difficult to write my own synopsis of this book, but even harder to write a review.I read this book over a month ago and I still don't know what I think. Maybe that is a good thing. This was not predictable nor your average mystery. I'm not even sure it fits in that genre. The characters were well-written but I'm not sure how I felt about a lot of them, though they were quite interesting. Especially Alice, she was very unusual and as the book moved from past to present, I had no idea what to expect by the end.Wendy is tenacious and really brings to light to violence against women and the workings of a small-town with their collective heads in the sand.This novel has gotten fantastic reviews. I thought it was thought-provoking, but did I really like it? I still don't know, so I guess you should read it and come back and tell me what you think. This would be great for a book club, better than the usual fare that gives you 5 minutes worth of discussion.