Title: Dirty Girls
Author: Lily White
Release Date: January 22, 2020
** Kindle Unlimited
★★
They were the boys any good girl knew to avoid.
Rich and privileged.
Gorgeous and cruel.
The poster boys for rebellion…their tongues so sharp they cut to the bone.
We worshipped them despite their dangerous games.
We laughed even as we cried.
It was all fun and games until the first dirty girl died.
Now, as the bodies pile up, I believe I can endure their wicked ways. Only time will tell if I’ll escape.
Because when wealthy boys are accustomed to getting everything they want, not even the lives of those around them are too high an asking price.
This is one of those books that I really, really wish that I had liked more than I did. I loved the premise of it and I was really interested in the pairing of a new adult romance with a pretty dark and heavy murder mystery. Unfortunately, I think both the romance and the mystery parts of the story sort of failed for me in different ways.
What inspired me to pick up this book, being completely unfamiliar with Lily White as an author, was that I stumbled on it clicking "People who liked ____ also liked..." and it has absolutely amazing reviews. And honestly... I feel like I didn't read the same book as those reviewers because I feel the complete opposite way about pretty much everything in the reviews.
First off, I didn't really like any of the characters in this book and I feel like who they are as people and why they do the things they do wasn't really explored in a way that made me care either way about them. Olive is... just kind of a blank for me? She felt wishy washy, had moments of standing up for herself and others but was generally just pretty bland and underdeveloped for me. Soren was an asshole throughout the book and the reasons that the book gave for his behavior didn't really redeem him for me or make me think that his sudden change towards the end of the book made all that much sense. And Jonah... Nah. Why? There had to be a better way to present the mystery and investigation than the way it was done, because Jonah's presence, his interactions with Olive, and his generally being such a significant part of the book just made zero sense to me in the context of the story. They just didn't amount to anything at all.
Second, the romance, for me, was basically a non-starter. It just didn't... do anything. And honestly, the whole older brother's best friend thing is actually a long time favorite trope of mine, especially when paired with the whole darker bad boy thing, but this might be the most boring, nothing version of that for me. There was so much that could have been there with these two characters, but it wasn't explored. I almost felt like it was left to me to fabricate the romance in my head from the little bits of whatever the author gave us for this relationship and I just couldn't get there at all.
Finally, I figured out who the killer was some time during the first half of the book, which made the "twist" at the end super underwhelming. Honestly, I don't even read a lot of mysteries or thrillers, so the fact that I figured out the end before I got the middle was really disappointing for me. I actually think it was a good narrative choice for the Who in the whodunnit, but the execution of it just felt really obvious to me. Just me? I don't know, I've seen reviews from people who were completely shocked and I sincerely don't get it.
I have to say, I'm really extra disappointed about this book because all of the elements for a seriously amazing book were there, but they never came together for me. I think the characters could have been incredible if they'd been explored a little more deeply, I think the romance could have felt really intense and authentic, and I think the mystery/thriller aspect of it could have seriously been incredible, but just... nothing got there for me. When I finished this book, I just felt a sense of being underwhelmed and bored. In fact, the only reason I think this book didn't end up on my ever growing DNF shelf was because I wanted to know if I was right about who the killer was - and, again, I was.
I don't know, based on the Goodreads score, a lot of people liked this book and maybe you will too, but I don't really feel like I can recommend it. It's definitely a pass for me, but I'm definitely thinking about trying out another Lily White book to see if there might be something else in her catalogue that will do it for me.
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