Posts Categorized: Review

I received this book for free from Tor Teen in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

A CIA prodigy's cover is blown when he accidentally becomes an internet sensation in #Prettyboy Must Die, inspired by the #Alexfromtarget story.

When Peter Smith's classmate snaps a picture of him during a late night run at the track, Peter thinks he might be in trouble. When she posts that photo--along with the caption, "See the Pretty Boy Run,"--Peter knows he's in trouble. But when hostiles drop through the ceiling of his 6th period Chem Class, Peter's pretty sure his trouble just became a national emergency.

Because he's not really Peter Smith. He's Jake Morrow, former foster-kid turned CIA operative. After a massive screw-up on his first mission, he's on a pity assignment, a dozen hit lists and now, social media, apparently. As #Prettboy, of all freaking things.

His cover's blown, his school's under siege, and if he screws up now, #Prettyboy will become #Deadboy faster than you can say, 'fifteen minutes of fame.' Trapped in a high school with rabid killers and rabid fans, he'll need all his training and then some to save his job, his school and, oh yeah, his life.

I wanted to love #PrettyBoy Must Die and I did NOT. It’s not even entirely easy to pin point where it went wrong and why I am not here salivating over its goodness? It’s got a teen CIA agent who is undercover, a mystery and some twists. My issue was that even though so many exciting things were happening in the story. I was not invested in the happenings. I did not care about the main character or the secondary characters and I didn’t really care about what was going on.

I didn’t passionately dislike or like the book so I basically have no idea how to rate it. Objectively, its not a terrible book but I do think that the writing might be part of the reason why I had 0 investment in the happenings of the novel.

The writing made me feel like I was reading a never-ending essay and to be entirely honest, I am not sure why I didn’t DNF the book? Its short and yet it took me an abnormally long time to read because I kept having to read paragraphs again and again when I lost focus. I think there was never any real showing within the novel and I kept feeling like I was being told things?

Basically, I don’t have as much to say about this book which sucks because I have no real strong feelings about it. Which means I CANNOT BLATHER ON ABOUT ANYTHING. Wow, reviews are hard. Anyway, I do think that in terms of whether or not you should read the book, it is a choice you should make on your own because the premise is amazing and maybe the book might just work for you where it didn’t work for me. I do hope we’ll get more CIA agents in YA though because I think we DESERVE THEM. I WANT THEM. SOMEONE GIVE ME THEM. Anywayyyyyy… I am off to hunt more books with teen agents/teen detectives.

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