"Darkly delicious . . . Nice Girls is about the girlhood we never really leave behind, and what happens when we dare to confront our past demons. A pulsating mystery with a narrator you won't soon forget.” — Laura Dave, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of The Last Thing He Told Me
"If you’re a total true crime addict, Catherine Dang’s debut novel will have you hooked real fast." — Cosmopolitan
A pulse-pounding and razor-sharp debut with the emotional punch of Luckiest Girl Alive and All the Missing Girls that explores the hungry, angry, dark side of girlhood and dares to ask: Which is more dangerous for a woman—showing the world what it wants to see, or who she really is?
What did you do?
Mary used to be such a nice girl. She was the resident whiz kid of Liberty Lake, Minnesota—the quiet, chubby teen with the scholarship to an Ivy League school. But three years later, “Ivy League Mary” is back—a thinner, cynical, restless failure who was kicked out of Cornell at the beginning of her senior year and won’t tell anyone why. Taking a job at the local grocery store, Mary tries to make sense of her life’s sharp downward spiral.
Then beautiful, magnetic Olivia Willand goes missing. A rising social media star, Olivia is admired by everyone in Liberty Lake—except Mary. Once Olivia’s best friend, Mary knows better than anyone behind the Instagram persona hides a willful, manipulative girl with sharp edges. As the town obsesses over perfect, lovely Olivia, Mary wonders if her disappearance might be tied to another missing person: nineteen-year-old DeMaria Jackson, whose case has been widely dismissed as a runaway.
Who is the real Olivia Willand, and where did she go? What happened to DeMaria? As Mary pries at the cracks in the careful facades surrounding the two missing girls, old wounds will bleed fresh and force her to confront a horrible truth.
Maybe there are no nice girls, after all."
Title: Nice Girls
Author: Catherine Dang
Publisher: William Morrow and Custom House
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Rating: Four
Review:
"Nice Girls" by Catherine Dang
My Opinion:
'Nice Girls' was one heck of a crime thriller with so many twists and turns that the reader will have to keep up with all that was going on, especially for Mary, who grew up in Minnesota, chubby unattractive, and poor. However, Mary was smart to get a full scholarship to an Ivy League college, Cornell, until she was expelled and now back home to Liberty Lake working in a grocery store while dodging questions about what had happened.
It wasn't long after Mary found a job at the grocery store she got involved with a friend who seemed to have vanished without a trace, and for some reason, she wanted to get involved. Also, there was a Black single mother, DeMaria that had also disappeared. Is this the work of a serial killer? Will Mary put herself into situations that will have her become the next victim? The story will suck one in as you continue to read.
The author really gives the reader quite a read because it seemed like all of these characters were flawed and emotionally damaged in one way or another. Was there anyone in this story to really like?
The story was somewhat fast-paced with a unique multi-layered plot that brought in characters from elementary, high school, and even college that brought in some emotional, dark, and even disturbing subjects. Having a disgraced student to missing girls who turn up dead will give the reader quite a web that will come out quite interesting. Unfortunately, that ending was something that you will have to pick up 'Nice Girls' to see how this ending was 'super cinematic and wild' that one will not see coming.
Be ready for a good read that had issues that explored bullying and racism.
Thank you, NetGallery, and William Morrow, for allowing me to read and give my honest opinion.
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