The Prized Girl

by Amy K. Green

It was always going to end in trouble. But how did it end in murder?

A murdered beauty queen. A town full of secrets. Who killed Jenny?

Jenny Kennedy appears to have it all. She’s the perfect daughter, the popular girl at school and a successful beauty queen. But then Jenny is found dead in a murder that rocks the small town she grew up in to the core.

Her estranged half-sister Virginia finds herself thrust into the spotlight as the case dominates the news and is desperate to uncover who killed Jenny. But she soon realises that maybe Jenny’s life wasn’t so perfect after all.

The truth is that Jenny has more than a few secrets of her own, and so do her neighbours… What really happened that night?

A gripping crime thriller about a shocking murder in a picture-perfect small town, perfect for fans of Big Little Lies and Thirteen Reasons Why.

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Why readers love The Prized Girl:

‘I couldn’t figure out who did it until the very end’
‘Kept me guessing right up until the last few pages. What a plot twist!’
‘A suspenseful, entertaining, page-turner’
‘Read in one sitting, couldn’t put it down’
‘Highly recommend this book’
‘So many twists and turns, it kept me turning the page’
‘Had me hooked from page one – a MUST read’

• ISBN13: 9780008334475
• Publish Date: 19 March 2020 (first published 14 January 2020)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: HQ
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 384
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[Joni Reads]

This book was all over the place but not really in a bad way?

The whodunnit was impossible to guess. I changed my mind with almost every chapter. I didn't see it coming. Nor did I see that ending coming. Still not sure what to think about it.

I liked Virginia's character. Specifically, I liked that she wasn't overly likable. She was morbid, depressed, she was a mess. Her inner thoughts were messy and harsh and she it had a level of realness to it that I hardly ever find in books.

Jenny on the other hand was so not believable. I have a 14 year old daughter and with her comes lots of 14 year friends. Not one of them would do the things this little girl did in this book. She was reckless to the point of destructive but in the least dramatic way. She was so chill about the dumb crap she was doing and it really annoyed me.

In the end this book had a really unique story but will I remember anything about it next year? Probably not.

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Prized Girl is a standalone mystery thriller and debut from Amy K. Green. Due out 14th Jan 2020 from Penguin on their Dutton imprint, it's 384 pages and will be available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats.

This is a darkly taut psychological thriller told in alternating PoV between two sisters in a small town. Their family dynamic is extremely dysfunctional, with themes of emotional and physical abuse, substance abuse, alcoholism added into a narrative which also contains pedophilia, rape, torture, blackmail, and multiple murders.

The contrapuntal point of view worked very well and the author's use of alternating third person PoV (for the murdered sister, Jenny) and first person (for the living sister, Virginia), was technically flawless. This is a very well written and very readable book. The plot threads are interwoven as the book progresses until they merge into a single twisty denouement and resolution. That the majority of the plot twists were expected before they were revealed is more a consequence of having read hundreds of books in the genre and not because the author lacked proficiency (she's quite adept as a writer).

I didn't find myself really warming to any of the characters, they were all quite flawed. This was undoubtedly intentional on the part of the author. The epilogue and resolution stuck with me all day.

Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.