The Prettiest Girl In the Grave by Kristopher Triana REVIEW

Summary:

When Bella, Celeste, and Rose meet with new friends at a graveyard in the woods, they soon realize they're unprepared for what's planned. At twenty, Aubrey is older than the high schoolers, and she knows of a secret game that's been played by local girls for decades.

It starts with personal questions, but quickly moves on to a test of courage as Aubrey guides them into an underground crypt. But even Aubrey doesn't know what they're really getting into. Bella's mother, Holly, may be the only one who does.

As a teen, Holly and her friends also played the game, and Holly barely survived. When she discovers her daughter has gone to the graveyard, she fears Bella will get lost in the mysterious catacombs just as she had . . . and face the same sinister forces.

As the girls search for a way out, Holly must return to the dreadful crypt she swore she'd never come back to, and finally face her own dark secrets. 

My Thoughts:

When I discovered this was getting published in May, I dropped everything to buy it. Girls, graveyards, and Triana? It sounded too good to be true.

Bella is the main character, and so is her mother, Holly. She and Rose had been friends since childhood, but their friendship was starting to strain when Bella started hanging out with goth girls. Rose is really only there because Bella asked her to be. For a novella, the characters are mostly super well developed. The only characters with not much are Rose's parents, Savannah, and Marnie.

While the book starts out a little slow, it hits you with a brick out of nowhere when Savannah and Marnie are mauled by black bears in the catacombs and reminds you just what author you are reading.

The game is intended to have only one survivor, and pits the friends against each other as they desperately try to find a way out of the graveyard. Ghosts of previous contestants appear as the audience for the current players. When Holly goes out to find her daughter, the ghosts are a grim reminder of her own survival and the price she had to pay to leave the graveyard.

My Rating: 4 stars