Looking for more New Adult mysteries? Nice Girls by Catherine Dang is about a college student with issues who has to slink back to her small hometown and solve a mystery. Check out my review of Nice Girls by Catherine Dang!
Nice Girls by Catherine Dang
Nice Girls by Catherine Dang. To be published by William Morrow on September 14, 2021. Thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy for review.
Synopsis: Growing up in Liberty Lake, Minnesota, Mary was chubby, awkward, and smart. Earning a scholarship to an Ivy League school was her ticket out. Three years later, “Ivy League Mary” is back. Kicked out of school at the beginning of senior year, she won’t tell anyone why. Working at the local grocery store, she sees familiar faces from high school and tries to make sense of the past and her life. When beautiful, magnetic Olivia Willand, a rising social media star, goes missing, Mary—like the rest of Liberty Lake—becomes obsessed. Best friends in childhood, Mary and Olivia haven’t spoken in years. Everyone admired Olivia, but Mary knows better than anyone that behind the Instagram persona hid a willful, manipulative girl with sharp edges. As the world worries for perfect, lovely Olivia, Mary can’t help but hate her. She also believes that her disappearance is tied to another missing person—a nineteen-year-old girl named DeMaria Jackson whose disappearance has gone under the radar.
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Review of Nice Girls by Catherine Dang
Nice Girls is pretty much a classic mystery, with Ivy League college student Mary returning to her small hometown in disgrace after she’s kicked out of school. At home, she gets a job at the grocery store and reconnects with former friends. But when a local girl goes missing, Mary decides she’s going to get to the bottom of things.
What I liked about Nice Girls:
While the whole “main character returns to their small town to face their past and solve a murder” is one of the most familiar tropes in mystery fiction, but I always think it’s a good one. Mary isn’t the most likable character, but I could still relate to her.
I loved that this book highlighted the terrible disparity of media attention between white victims and victims of color.Mary is convinced that the disappearance of the Instagram-famous (and white) Olivia is connected to the disappearance of black single mother DeMaria.
I loved Mary’s relationship with her widowed Dad. She’s put him through a lot and still he’s always there for her.
What I liked less:
Toward the end, the plot took a turn that I wasn’t happy with. Like… ugh. The ending was also too unresolved for me.
The book repeatedly mentions how fat Mary was in high school, which was off-putting to me and might be to other readers. To me, it felt like the book equated being fat with being awkward and unattractive, and I think we’ve moved past these stereotypes in 2021. People with all different body sizes and shapes can be beautiful, happy, attractive and confident.
Have you read this? Are you planning to? Talk to me in comments!
Sorry to hear that it had some problems and an ending that you didn’t care for.
Thanks!
Aww bummer- I was liking the sound of this. I agree though about the body size issues though. And the end sounds iffy. Still this sounds like it’s worth a read- especially for fall!
It did have its good points!
Sorry to hear there were issues with this one. I was vaguely intrigued by the summary (but did see warning flags when Mary was called chubby and awkward) but I do think the things you liked less would be deal breakers. We all know that we’ve moved forward and I’m not comfortable having fat being equated with unattractive. And you didn’t like the ending? The ending is essential in a good mystery.
She was the smart girl in high school and always felt awkward, which I liked. But there’s a subplot about her deep shame over the fact that someone finds a picture of her when she was fat and she has this crazy over the top freak-out. She was a very complicated character (which I also liked) but I wished something in the book would have pushed back agains the idea that being fat was this horrible and shameful thing. It did bother me.
As for the ending, things took another turn that I didn’t personally like and the ending was somewhat unresolved, which I do NOT like at all.
“I loved that this book highlighted the terrible disparity of media attention between white victims and victims of color.”
This is commendable. I’ve only read another thriller that does that – Throwaway Girls by Andrea Contos. The main character there does the same thing as Mary, that is, she investigates the disappearance of a friend but soon realises there are a few non-white girls who have disappeared as well and no one cares, so she includes them in her investigation as well.
The fat shaming though…ugh. And I’m sorry to hear you weren’t a fan of the ending.
Yes it is terrible! After I wrote this review the issue has been discussed in regards to the Gabby Petito case (not sure if that made the news in Italy). What happened to her was terrible but often missing women of color get NO press attention and that is so wrong!
Hoping you write a spoiler recap for this one–I read it just last weekend and can’t remember all of what happens! Ugh
Hi Caroline!
I didn’t do a recap yet – trying to focus on the books that everyone is reading but I will add this to the list!!