Beautiful Malice (Rebecca James), centres around Katherine Patterson who has left her home town to start afresh after her sister's death. She is befriended by Alice, an egmatic, bubbly girl who quickly becomes fast friends with Katherine. She introduces Katherine to Robbie (who loves her, but she's not interested) and the three of them are the best of friends. On the surface at least. Underneath, Katherine is trying keep to demons down, which is hard when, one night, the friends, plus a girl (whose name for the life of me I can't remember) play 'truth or dare' and Alice asks "Were you glad, deep down? Were you glad to be rid of her? Your perfect sister? Were you secretly glad when she was killed?".
DUM DUM DUM!!
During the course of the novel, we learn about what actually happened to Rachel (Katherine's sister) and why Alice was really so interested in being her friend. The book is broken into three different time periods - the past (flashbacks of the what happened to Rachel/the party that changed it all), the present (what is happening with Alice/Robbie at the given time) and the future (when Sarah, Katherine's little girl is around).
During the course of the novel, we learn about what actually happened to Rachel (Katherine's sister) and why Alice was really so interested in being her friend. The book is broken into three different time periods - the past (flashbacks of the what happened to Rachel/the party that changed it all), the present (what is happening with Alice/Robbie at the given time) and the future (when Sarah, Katherine's little girl is around).
This is a re-read and having loved the book the first time I read it, I decided it was time. To my surprise, I didn't like it. It was too fast, too fake. I feel as if the character of Alice was fast, fleeting and even though pretty much the whole book was centred around her (and Katherine), I feel as if I don't know her. Maybe that was the point? Katherine and Alice's relationship was so fast - it was like they'd met one day and the next they were best friends. And then when it was revealed that Alice's relation to Katherine was Alice's brother Sean, I was surprised, sure, but not shocked. It was said in about three lines and I think because of the non-but-very-important relationship between Alice and Katherine, it didn't feel as if everything has happened. I turned the page with an 'oh, okay'. I also didn't like the fact that things were given away:
1. That on the back is the quote "Were you glad, deep down? Were you glad to be rid of her? Your perfect sister? Were you secretly glad when she was killed?" Which I thought was a bit stupid, because now the tension and excitement of what happened to Rachel at the party is spoiled. We know she's dead. We know that Katherine blames herself. And that's all without opening the book.
2. When Sarah asks 'where's dad' and Katherine replies "he's dead". BUT WHYYYYYY? Not WHY is he dead, why did you have to say that????? There are a million other things she could've said, for exmaple 'he's gone'. This way, when it came to Mick drowning, we were at least shocked or surprised. As soon as I knew Katherine was pregnant, I was kinda just waiting for Mick to die. And he died for Alice at the end too. (But I guess that was to show her true nature even after/at death).
1. That on the back is the quote "Were you glad, deep down? Were you glad to be rid of her? Your perfect sister? Were you secretly glad when she was killed?" Which I thought was a bit stupid, because now the tension and excitement of what happened to Rachel at the party is spoiled. We know she's dead. We know that Katherine blames herself. And that's all without opening the book.
2. When Sarah asks 'where's dad' and Katherine replies "he's dead". BUT WHYYYYYY? Not WHY is he dead, why did you have to say that????? There are a million other things she could've said, for exmaple 'he's gone'. This way, when it came to Mick drowning, we were at least shocked or surprised. As soon as I knew Katherine was pregnant, I was kinda just waiting for Mick to die. And he died for Alice at the end too. (But I guess that was to show her true nature even after/at death).
But things weren't all bad. I really liked Robbie, and I wished I couldn't heard more about his character (and not the cliched thing of meeting after 20 years or whatever). I liked Mick too and was sad that he died. I don't normally enjoy flashbacks, but these were good and gave some context to the whole i-blame-myself thing. The bit after the reveal about Sean is very good. The action seems to slow down and it gave me a chance to actually take in what was happening. While I didn't like the actual writing of the book, the way she writes is amazing and I really liked the idea of the book.
Rating: 3/5 (or maybe 2.5. Can't decide if that's too harsh or not)
