Pretty Monster? More Like Pretty Mediocre.

Title

Author

Reading Format

Genre

Storygraph Rating

My Rating

Recommended?

Pretty Monster

Sheridan Anne

Physical Book

Dark Stalker Romance

3.76 ⭐

2 ⭐

Eh, not really

• Repetitive plot that could have been condensed to under 200 pages

• An FMC with no survival instincts

• Unrealistic and underdeveloped FMC (i found MMC more interesting, but still underdeveloped)

• Guessed the plot twist on page 39 - it wasn't revealed for another ~200 pages

• Undeserved/unearned happily ever after

• No character development

• Cringy and problematic dialogue/scenes

• Not romantic - just embarrassing and confusing

• Interesting idea, poor execution

When I reflect on my reading experience with the book, the thing that stands out most to me is how many times I rolled my eyes and cringed, especially in the last 100 pages. When I picked this book up, I was excited to embark on a new stalker romance journey, yet I only found myself severely disappointed and praying for the end of this novel. For me, this book falls squarely into the category of mediocre. While I can see the vibe that the author was going for, I think the execution was lacking. For a 350+ page book, I don't feel that much happened. If I were to describe to you the plot, I think that I could do it in maybe 3 sentences ... with spoilers and the ending, because the "major plot points" were all the same but in slightly different fonts. Think Arial vs Arial Bold.

As a main character, Kyah lacked depth. In my opinion, her whole personality was being helpless, clueless, generally unsafe, having poor boundaries, and fucking multiple men. As I read, I took some notes with my thoughts, and early on in the book, I wrote, "Seems like you're letting men who are by no means family have too much power in your life. Kinda gross," and I stood by that throughout the novel. She seems to have no backbone and just goes along with whatever the nearest man says.

I also think she cannot think critically and has no survival skills whatsoever. In my opinion, the thing that makes a stalker romance interesting is when a) the person being stalked, Kyah in this case, takes matters into their own hands, and b) the stalker outwardly shows care towards the stalkee prior to revealing their identity. In this novel, neither of those occurred. Kyah essentially becomes complicit in her victimhood: not locking her windows, not telling anyone about the stalker, and even going along with what he wants. Slight spoiler: she even goes on to get a security system installed, but fails to properly use it. In my opinion, Kyah's lack of survival instincts is so unrealistic that I am unable to fully immerse myself into the story.

I think the thing that irritates me most about this book is the fact that Kyah will seemingly sleep with anyone for any reason. She openly has freaky conversations with people in public settings at full volume. She will have sex anywhere. She seems to have very little self-respect, honestly.

Next, let's talk about Reid - the "love interest" for a bit. At the start of the novel, we meet him and learn about his psychopathic ways of using murder as an aphrodisiac, and I honestly found it fascinating... until he compared stalking/coercion/future murder to getting a free cheeseburger at McDonald's. 19 pages in mind you. If nothing else, however, he is consistent. He gets turned on by murder, and that doesn't change throughout the novel. I don't want to spoil the book, just in case you do decide to read it, but I think that Reid is a more interesting character than Kyah, the main character. Not by much, though.

In the end, I gave this book a 2 star reveiw, because in the beginning, I was interested in the plot and characters, the concept has potential, the smut was decent, and the suspense was there. Overall, I would only recommend this book to you if you don't care about pacing or character development and have a relatively high cringe tolerance. If you want a stalker romance that's better than this (in my opinion), read Haunting Adeline - at least there the FMC isn't bird brained. I'm sorry that was insulting to birds. I love birds <3

Here are a few things that specifically pissed me off, but are definately spoilers:

• Weird and Unnecessary Commentary/Tropes

  • Some incestuous commentary: she says something along the lines of "we're like siblings, but sexually attracted to each other" - just generally weird and gross. Didn't need to be in the book

  • Some pedophilia: one of the men trying to "claim" Kyah has been asking for her hand in marriage since the day she turned 18, but mentioned it when she was 17. He's in his 40s.

• Unrealistic and frustrating character decisions

  • The number of times that Kyah was within touching distance or being touched by a man she did not know in her own home, and had no idea.

    • He masturbated right next to her head while she was sleeping, and she didn't wake up at all.

    • He was walking around her apartment while she was in the shower, and then hid in the closet when she got out, and her arm was close enough for him to lick... but she had no idea anyone was in her apartment?

  • The number of times she came home to or woke up with her supposedly locked window open, and she shrugged it off.

  • The fact that her "brother," whom she fucked punched her in the face hard enough to send her "flying across the room," and then she felt bad for leaving him bc he was murdered shortly after that. She blamed herself for his death.

  • The fact that when she looked at the security cameras after Reid left, and saw there was nothing there, her immediate reaction was essentially "oh these brand new cameras are ass... oh well" and never said anything to anyone. AND when it was later brought to her attention that the footage was tampered with, she goes, "i'm only 23, and im just a girl, how was I supposed to know that could happen..."

  • When she found out who her stalker was, she TAUNTED him.

  • When she found out who her stalker was and told her best friend and NOT the police.

    • follow up: when her best friend said, we should get you a new place to live, and a new number, and she said, "it doesn't matter, he's going to find me anyways"

    • follow up to the follow up: when they found out that said stalker was dishonorably discharged from the military for MURDERING HIS MOTHER, and then the stalker finds her, and she runs into the trees where there's nobody there instead of the busy New York City street.