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Pretty Little Thing by Kit Duffield - Review

Sunday, October 27, 2024



I've read one of Chris Russell's Young Adult novels and I quite liked it so I signed up to his newsletter forever ago, and I was intrigued when he wrote that Kit Duffield is his new pen name and that this was the first novel under that name. I liked the premise of the book so I bought it and picked it up soon after it arrived. However, I don't think it really lived up to the premise which is a shame. I can't really pinpoint why, but I wouldn't rush to read something else under this name, unfortunately. 

Beckett Ryan is a writer who has been estranged from her parents for years and years. She grew up in a small seaside town where her dad was the headteacher at the local school. The house she grew up in was vast, but she suffered from night terrors and was not a happy child. Her parents seemed the very upstanding moral people that the town wanted them to be, but behind closed doors Beckett's dad was abusive towards her. 

Now both of her parents are dead, having died just a week apart from each other. Her dad was suffering from dementia and the surroundings of her mother's death are a bit cloudy. Beckett has to return to bury them and sort out the house. The house is worth somewhat of a fortune but there's a lot of stipulations in the will. Local gentry lady (I forget her name, because I'm reviewing this book a couple of weeks after I read it) wants to buy the house and turn it into a children's home in memory of Beckett's dad. Beckett clearly doesn't want this to happen but she's not exactly sure how to stop it.

Then there's Leanne. She turns up all bright eyed and stuff, telling Beckett that they used to be best friends and used to run around Beckett's house together. Beckett was sent off to boarding school aged nine, though, and she doesn't remember Leanne from before that at all. But it's obvious that Beckett has significant trauma from her childhood and her memories can't really be relied upon. 

The setting is really creepy and I liked the weird town and the town too, but I felt that the story overall was a bit confused. The ending came all in a rush and got a bit stupid for me. I'm giving this three out of five. 

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