Consumer Critique: "Pretty"

I recently had the opportunity to review "Pretty" by Jillian Lauren. Jillian is a mom, blogger, and writer, and the book is a look at a girl's life as she recovers from a series of mistakes while living in a halfway house and attending cosmetology school.

The official description is this:

Bebe Baker is an ex-everything: ex-stripper, ex-Christian, ex-drug addict, ex-pretty girl.
It’s been one year since the car accident that killed her boyfriend left her scarred and shaken. Flanked by an eccentric posse of friends, she is serving out a self-imposed sentence at a halfway house, while trying to finish cosmetology school.

Amid the rampant diagnoses, over-medication, compulsive eating, and acrylic nails of Los Angeles, Bebe looks for something to believe in before something–her past, the dangerously magnetic men in her life, her own bad choices–knocks her off course again.

The book is not a light read. It deals with some pretty serious stuff in Bebe's life - her drug and alcohol abuse, the death of her boyfriend, etc. Although the language is simple, it's not a book that should be read by young teens. However, it does provide a fascinating window into the life of someone I have no experience with - I've never been involved with drugs, never lived in a halfway house, never had to deal with a lot of the things in Bebe's life.

To say I enjoyed the book would be misleading. I didn't enjoy it the way I do fantasy books that I read to escape. I did enjoy reading a piece of a life I don't know. It's not an optimistic, happy book. But it is thought-provoking and well-written, and I'm glad I had the chance to read it.


Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of "Pretty" to facilitate this review.