Review: Bad Girls with Perfect Faces by Lynn Weingarten

Title: Bad Girls with Perfect Faces

Author: Lynn Weingarten  
Publisher: Simon Pulse 

Publishing Date: October 31st, 2017

Pages: 320
Genre: YA Psychological,  Mystery/Suspense

Series:  Stand Alone 
Source: Audio

 

From the New York Times bestselling author of Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls comes a stylish thriller about the darkness that lurks inside all of us.

When I looked up, his smile was wide and real. “Ready?” he said.
I faked a smile back. I had gotten so good at faking things.
I thought: You brought this on yourself, Sasha. You will have to pretend forever now.
He squeezed my hand again. He couldn’t begin to imagine what this actually was. He had no idea what I’d done. What any of us had.

When Sasha’s best friend Xavier gets back together with his cheating ex, Ivy, Sasha knows she needs to protect him. So she poses as a guy online to lure Ivy away.

But Sasha’s plan goes sickeningly wrong. And she soon learns to be careful of who you pretend to be because you might be surprised by who you become…

Told in multiple points of view, Bad Girls with Perfect Faces is sexy and twisted with shocks at every turn

I'm gonna be honest, this book was a book I noticed but paid no attention. I didn't think I had any interest in reading it. It sounded like an angsty read to me and I just wasn't in the mood to get involved. Well, looking through audible one day I found this book, it had some pretty glowing reviews... so I said okay I will read this... Oh, am I ever so happy I did. I am totally all over this read. 

There is a girl, Sasha, and she has a best friend, Xavier, who has an ex-girlfriend, Ivy. Sasha has feelings for Xavier who is still hung up on Ivy who cheated on him when they were together. Following... yes see sounds really angsty. Sasha and Xavier go hang out one night and Ivy shows up, talks Xavier into getting back together. Bad Xavier. At this point, things just happen. Sasha takes control. Xavier finds himself in a bad relationship, and bad things happen. Plans backfire, good intentions turn not so good. And this is the mystery... What really happened. 

First off, this book completely screwed with my head. In so many ways. I thought I knew what was going on, who was who, who was the good guy and who was the bad guy. The mystery in this book was so incredibly well done. It was purely psychological and so suspenseful. In the first part of the book, there was a whole lotta character development and story build going on. I could tell things were going to get intense, eventually, something big was going to happen... It just wasn't even close to what I imagined. I was never bored, I was completely wrapped up in this story. I never once thought about putting this read away and doing something else... even things that needed to be done. I was so into this book. There was so much tension being built I just knew something big was going to happen. I could just feel the tension in every word... and something big did happen and it was oh well this is going to be trouble, big trouble. 

I want to talk about the characters. Let me tell you when I say everyone in this book was screwed up, I mean screwed up to the max. In fact, screwed up doesn't even scratch the surface. These teens were off their rockers, angsty, angry, jealous, and were into head games and so much crazy.  And even more crazy, I liked it. I liked the crazy, the screwed up, the missing more than a few marbles. They were likable in all their craze. They were interesting and multi-layered. There was a very fine line between what they thought was good and knowing they went too far. They were so wrong and I knew it was all bad, very bad things.. .but I wanted more. I devoured their antics. I even cheered them on. I know how messed up am I?

The entire story was just messed up, including the ending. The ending was so very disturbing and yet I liked it. I felt it fit and I was happy with how it ended but then not happy that I was happy with the way it ended. It almost felt dirty to like it and to enjoy this book. I am not sure anyone else has had this feeling but its very strange. I feel conflicted. After I finished this book, smiling and a little shell-shocked... all I remember is thinking am I okay to like something so messed up? I loved every moment of this book.

Guilty- I absolutely loved this book and I need more from this author! 

Lynn Weingarten is a New York Times bestselling author living in Brooklyn. Her fifth young adult novel, BAD GIRLS WITH PERFECT FACES, was released in the US on Halloween 2017. It will be out in the UK on January 11th, 2018.

Her previous books include SUICIDE NOTES FROM BEAUTIFUL GIRLS (a NY Times bestseller, a YALSA Teens’ Top Ten book for 2016, one of Vanity Fair’s list of Best Books for July, and on The Guardian’s list of 5 of the Best in Young Adult Fiction), and WHEREVER NINA LIES (an ALA Top Ten Popular Paperback for Young Adults, a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age, a YALSA Teen’s Top Ten Nominee and a Sequoyah Book Award Nominee)

In the past, Lynn edited books and developed ideas for Alloy Entertainment. She is currently Creative Director of Dovetail Fiction, a new sister company from the book packager Working Partners.
She can be found on Twitter and Instagram as @lynnweingarten