I had some problems with Lilian West’s novel, Pretty Dead Things. However, I love the cover.
“Small towns bury their secrets deep and don’t look kindly on people digging for them.” Cora learns that quickly when she buys a jar of buttons and baubles at an estate sale and finds an engagement ring and a wedding ring amongst the colorful trinkets.
She’s from California, and she’s bored in the small town of Hickory Falls somewhere in the Midwest. She moved there to be with her fiance, Elliott, a local dentist from a long line of doctors and dentists in town. She should be preparing for her upcoming wedding. Instead, Cora digs into the story behind the rings and finds herself upsetting women in a prominent family and even her future mother-in-law.
The mystery goes back to the early 1950s, but no one dug into it until Cora starts looking in 2024. Clarity Grey married a man in town, but she disappeared from her front yard when her daughter was six. Although Clarity’s husband swore she was abducted, there was never a trace of the woman. But, her husband, Lewis Shaw, left behind three daughters to wonder about the truth. And, Cora has enough time on her hands to talk with the women and research reports of Clarity’s disappearance.
Oh, there’s so much that bothers me about this story. It’s vague and repetitive. Vague – Cora doesn’t have a last name. Hickory Falls is somewhere in the Midwest. Midwest? First, that’s a large area to cover. And, even the 2024 timeline seems set sometime in the distant past, possibly in the South with its whispers of women who live n the woods who “dabble in things good Christians don’t speak of.” I’m not crazy about dual timelines, but the vagueness of the setting and the book itself bothers me more. And, it’s repetitive and slow.as Cora hears similar stories from a number of people.
As I said, I love the cover of Pretty Dead Things. But, there were too many issues with the story for me to enjoy the book.
Pretty Dead Things by Lilian West. Crooked Lane Books, 2024. ISBN 9788892420020 (hardcover), 272p.
FTC Full Disclosure – I read a galley through NetGalley in order to review the book for a journal.
Great cover, and hate repetition. Maybe, the book was not read enough times before it went out. Also, don’t like knowing which state and area of state it is set in. It really makes you more interested in reading the book if you have lived in or know the area. The Midwest is not all the same. In my home state, there are big contrasts, like Gary, Indiana and Nashville, Indiana!
You are so right, Carol! After living in Indiana, I know that. “The Midwest” is not a setting. I like to know where it’s set, too.
It very well may be a deliberate decision to be repetitive. Recently, I have seen several different articles aimed at writers telling them to be unafraid of being repetitive in their books. In fact, to actively do it, because Covid causes brain issues, and being repetitive in stories is a good thing with a changed audience.
Have also seen some things telling folks to be more vague in their settings so as to not lock in and turn off readers.
While I sort of see why they might think the repetition is a good idea–though not for this reader—I think the second deal is absolute nonsense. I want to be grounded as to setting.
I’m glad I don’t read those articles, Kevin. They’d just make me angry. I don’t like the repetitiveness nor the vague setting. I totally agree with you, but I think real “readers” will be turned off by the repetition.