GIVEAWAY ENDED
SO MUCH PRETTY
SO MUCH PRETTY
BY CARA HOFFMAN
ABOUT THE BOOK:
When she disappeared from her rural hometown, Wendy White was a sweet, family-oriented girl, a late bloomer who'd recently moved out on her own, with her first real boyfriend and a job waiting tables at the local tavern. It happens all the time—a woman goes missing, a family mourns, and the case remains unsolved. Stacy Flynn is a reporter looking for her big break. She moved east from Cleveland, a city known for its violent crime, but that's the last thing she expected to cover in Haeden. This small, upstate New York town counts a dairy farm as its main employer and is home to families who've set down roots and never left—people who don't take kindly to outsiders. Flynn is researching the environmental impact of the dairy, and the way money flows outward like the chemical runoff, eventually poisoning those who live at the edges of its reach.
Five months after she disappeared, Wendy's body is found in a ditch just off one of Haeden's main roads. Suddenly, Flynn has a big story, but no one wants to talk to her. No one seems to think that Wendy's killer could still be among them. A drifter, they say. Someone "not from here."
Fifteen-year-old Alice Piper is an imaginative student with a genius IQ and strong ideals. The precocious, confident girl has stood out in Haeden since the day her eccentric hippie parents moved there from New York City, seeking a better life for their only child. When Alice reads Flynn's passionate article in the Haeden Free Press about violence against women—about the staggering number of women who are killed each day by people they know—she begins to connect the dots of Wendy's disappearance and death, leading her to make a choice: join the rest in turning a blind eye, or risk getting involved. As Flynn and Alice separately observe the locals' failure to acknowledge a murderer in their midst, Alice's fate is forever entwined with Wendy's when a second crime rocks the town to its core.
Stylishly written, closely observed, and bracingly unexpected, So Much Pretty leads the reader into the treacherous psychology of denial, where the details of an event are already known, deeply and intuitively felt, but not yet admitted to, reconciled or revealed.
Five months after she disappeared, Wendy's body is found in a ditch just off one of Haeden's main roads. Suddenly, Flynn has a big story, but no one wants to talk to her. No one seems to think that Wendy's killer could still be among them. A drifter, they say. Someone "not from here."
Fifteen-year-old Alice Piper is an imaginative student with a genius IQ and strong ideals. The precocious, confident girl has stood out in Haeden since the day her eccentric hippie parents moved there from New York City, seeking a better life for their only child. When Alice reads Flynn's passionate article in the Haeden Free Press about violence against women—about the staggering number of women who are killed each day by people they know—she begins to connect the dots of Wendy's disappearance and death, leading her to make a choice: join the rest in turning a blind eye, or risk getting involved. As Flynn and Alice separately observe the locals' failure to acknowledge a murderer in their midst, Alice's fate is forever entwined with Wendy's when a second crime rocks the town to its core.
Stylishly written, closely observed, and bracingly unexpected, So Much Pretty leads the reader into the treacherous psychology of denial, where the details of an event are already known, deeply and intuitively felt, but not yet admitted to, reconciled or revealed.
To read an EXCERPT from SO MUCH PRETTY, visit Cara Hoffman's website HERE!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Cara Hoffman’s amazing life experience has given her writing a rare depth and authenticity. The daughter of frustrated hippie radicals living in a suffocating small town, her brother a real-life polymath and piano prodigy, Cara never received a high school diploma. Instead she left home as a teenager—ironically embracing her parents’ anarchist ways—and traveled Europe and the Middle East working under-the-table jobs, street performing, hitch hiking, sleeping in train stations and parks. When she moved back to upstate New York to take care of her baby, she got a job at a small newspaper, eventually working her way up to the city desk. Even without an undergraduate degree, she landed a spot in a Masters program at Goddard College on the strength of her portfolio, and received her MFA in 2009.
PRAISE FOR SO MUCH PRETTY:
"A mixture of The Lovely Bones and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo . . . Hoffman's narrative oscillates between various characters, carefully building suspense, depth, and new insight with every chapter. Let's hope we will be seeing more of this talented new writer."
-- Booklist
"This beautiful, stealthy novel creeps up on the mesmerized reader, subtly drawing new strands into itself until what begins as the suspenseful story of a rural American murder grows into a dark, disquieting and urgently fascinating examination of the violence and concealment practiced by a whole society. By choosing a small town canvas on which to paint her big picture, Hoffman achieves a focused intensity which she holds on the very edge of anger, without once giving in to it. She never surrenders the compassion, insightfulness and humor that make her a masterful navigator of the human heart. This is an impassioned, intelligent and important work of art, and with it Hoffman takes her place in that select group of American novelists including Philipp Meyer and Adam Haslett who, eschewing nihilism and hauteur, write with urgency and passion about what is really going on out there."
-- Chris Cleave, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Little Bee and Incendiary
"The theme of So Much Pretty is innocence lost and idealism gone wrong. . . . In the rundown little town of Haeden, things are never what they seem, as the tone of the novel grows more sinister and a young woman disappears. . . . The pace quickens as Hoffman brings the story to its dark and chilling conclusion. VERDICT: This gripping novel asks readers to judge whether a horrible crime can ever justify a terrible act of revenge. It will engage individuals and book groups interested in debating this tough topic."
-- Library Journal
"In this remarkable debut, Hoffman addresses serious injustices in present-day America. . . . This searing novel will linger long in the reader's memory."
-- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"So Much Pretty unravels a narrative that's rich with suspense and moral complexity. Delicately balancing two story lines, Cara Hoffman dramatizes a death and a disappearance. Along the way, we get caught up in her portraits of those who belong, those who don't, and the irreversible consequences of lives coming together. This story of violence begetting violence is a fine debut."
-- Lee Martin, author of The Bright Forever, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize
"So Much Pretty is certain to be talked about--not merely because it is a profound meditation on both public and private violence in small-town America, but for its captivating storytelling which draws you in on a visceral level and leaves you feeling haunted, in the best of ways."
-- Philipp Meyer, author of American Rust
"So Much Pretty is everything I love in a novel--dark, fascinating, beautifully written, impossible to put down. It marks the beginning of what promises to be an indelible literary career for Cara Hoffman."
-- Lauren Grodstein, author of A Friend of the Family and Reproduction is the Flaw of Love
"So Much Pretty is a compelling whodunit, an unnerving portrait of just what the back of nowhere looks like, and an arresting meditation on our culture's ongoing acceptance of violence against women. It's powered by both a despairing tenderness and an unflinching rage, each of which, as the novel makes heartbreakingly clear, are more than justified."
-- Jim Shepard, author of You Think That's Bad and Like You'd Understand, Anyway
MY REVIEW/THOUGHTS:
SO MUCH PRETTY was just released this week. I know there is a lot to read here about this much talked about (lots of buzz on this one, folks!) first novel by Cara Hoffman. That said, I am just starting my copy and will be reviewing it soon. WATCH for my review so that you can gain extra BONUS ENTRIES as you will want them for I am sure this will be a book many want to get their hands on. I would write more but can't put this book down and am off to keep reading!
GIVEAWAY
THANKS TO KELLY AND MY FRIENDS AT
SIMON & SCHUSTER, I HAVE THREE COPIES
OF THIS SUSPENSEFUL NOVEL TO GIVE AWAY
--U.S. AND CANADIAN RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
IN CASE YOU WIN!
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO
COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!
HOW TO ENTER:
--NO P. O. BOXES
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
IN CASE YOU WIN!
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO
COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!
HOW TO ENTER:
+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON WHAT YOU READ ABOVE AND SIMPLY TELL ME YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS AND WHY YOU WOULD LIKE A CHANCE TO WIN THIS BOOK
+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND COME BACK AND LEAVE A LINK THAT I CAN FOLLOW
+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FIND INTERESTING WHEN VISITING CARA HOFFMAN'S WEBSITE HERE.
+1 MORE ENTRY: "LIKE" SO MUCH PRETTY ON FACEBOOK HERE AND LEAVE A COMMENT ABOUT THIS POST/GIVEAWAY THERE
GIVEAWAY ENDS AT
6 PM, EST, APRIL 3!
GOOD LUCK!
