Pretty Girl-13

by Liz Coley

Overview

A disturbing and powerful psychological thriller about a girl who must piece together the mystery of her kidnapping and abuse, Pretty Girl-13 is a haunting yet ultimately uplifting story about the healing power of courage, hope, and love.

Angie Chapman was thirteen years old when she ventured into the woods on a Girl Scout camping trip. Now she's returned home...only to find that it's three years later and she's sixteen—or at least that's what everyone tells her. What happened to the last three years of her life?

With a tremendous amount of courage, Angie embarks on a journey to discover the fragments of her lost time. She eventually discovers a terrifying secret and must decide: What do you do when you remember things you wish you could forget?

Perfect for fans of books like Elizabeth Scott's Living Dead Girl and Kathleen Glasgow's Girl in Pieces.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062127389
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/19/2013
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	711,736
File size:	447 KB
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Liz Coley's short fiction has appeared in Cosmos magazine and speculative fiction anthologies. Her passions beyond reading and writing include singing, photography, and baking. She plays competitive tennis locally in Ohio to keep herself fit and humble.

With a background in science, Liz follows her interest in understanding "the way we work" down many interesting roads. Pretty Girl-13's journey into the perilous world of dissociative identity disorder is one of them.

What People are Saying About This

Lauren Myracle

“Unflinchingly honest and brilliantly conceived. This book will haunt you.”

Editorial Reviews

Gr 9 Up—Angie Chapman's return three years after she disappeared on a camping trip stuns her parents and the detective who assumed she had been kidnapped and killed. Angie remembers nothing. In fact, she thinks she is still 13, not 16. She can't explain the scars around her wrists and ankles or where she has been. After she is diagnosed with dissociative personality disorder (DID), a psychologist helps her draw out her different personalities, aka "alters," and how they helped her cope with her kidnapper. Girl Scout took care of household chores while Little Wife dealt with his sexual demands. The alters influence Angie's behavior at home and school, where she has difficulty finding a place. Her struggles to remember and fit back in intensify when she hears the story of "Tattletale," an alter, and realizes that her DID began when she was repeatedly abused by her uncle. Despite the difficulties, Angie ultimately emerges as a strong young woman with new friends and an improved relationship with her family. Some explanations of her treatments, especially experimental procedures to eliminate alters, have a textbook quality. A final revelation wraps up the plot a bit too neatly. However, for the most part Coley presents the impact of DID without sensationalizing the situation. Readers interested in psychological explorations will appreciate and admire Angie's struggles and journey.—Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University, Mankato

School Library Journal

For the three years after 13-year-old Angie Chapman was abducted during a camping trip, her life was not her own. Now that she's back, arriving on her parents' doorstep with no memory of how she got there—or what happened to her—the same is still true, to an extent. Coley, the author of several short stories and a self-published novel, turns Angie's internal psychological struggles into a gripping, almost cinematic thriller. Because of Angie's amnesia, the hidden truths she uncovers about her captivity and her childhood come as surprises both to her and to readers. Through therapy, Angie learns she has dissociative identity disorder; the book largely focuses on Angie's struggles to communicate with, absorb, and/or destroy the "alters" in her psyche, who shielded Angie from the traumas she endured—and retain the ability to wrest control of her body. It's a harrowing journey with no shortage of creepy moments and imagery, and readers should be fascinated by Angie's efforts to put her life and mind in order after years of abuse. Ages 14–up. Agent: Nancy Coffey Literary and Media Representation. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Unflinchingly honest and brilliantly conceived. This book will haunt you.” — Lauren Myracle, New York Times Bestselling author of Shine and Bliss

“It’s a harrowing journey with no shortage of creepy moments and imagery, and readers should be fascinated by Angie’s efforts to put her life and mind in order after years of abuse.” — Publishers Weekly

“Chilling...fascinating.” — ALA Booklist

“Readers interested in psychological explorations will appreciate and admire Angie’s struggles and journey.” — School Library Journal

“Readers...will certainly find themselves emotionally involved in [Angie’s] story from beginning to end.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“A story of survival and resilience that will haunt you long after you turn the last page.” — Cinda Williams Chima

From the Publisher

Unflinchingly honest and brilliantly conceived. This book will haunt you.

Lauren Myracle

Chilling...fascinating.

ALA Booklist

A story of survival and resilience that will haunt you long after you turn the last page.

Cinda Williams Chima

Readers...will certainly find themselves emotionally involved in [Angie’s] story from beginning to end.

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Readers...will certainly find themselves emotionally involved in [Angie’s] story from beginning to end.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

The opening chapters of Coley's debut for teens will chill readers to the bone--unfortunately, the rest of the novel fails to deliver. The haunting description of 13-year-old Angela Chapman's abduction from a Girl Scout camping trip and her mysterious return three years later has all the makings of a deeply disturbing but satisfying psychological thriller. With a combination of third-person narration and first-hand accounts by the multiple personalities Angie's created to protect herself from the trauma of her abduction and sexual exploitation, the structure of the novel is innovative and rich with potential. Rather than reveling in the complexities of Angie's broken psyche, however, the story spoon-feeds readers critical pieces far too quickly. For example, the day after her miraculous return, Angie has her first therapy session, at which she falls immediately under hypnosis and leaves with a diagnosis. Readers are cheated out of the pleasure of suspense. For a novel about a young girl's miraculous return to her family and community, there is also a surprising and disappointing lack of emotion. Even though her friends thought she must have been dead, Angie's return to La Cañada High School feels more like the popular girl coming home after a stint in rehab than the return of someone who has survived the truly unimaginable. It simply doesn't ring true. (Psychological thriller. 14 & up)

Kirkus Reviews