I must admit that I gave a small internal groan when I opened this book and my eyes landed on the lengthy list of characters that appear in the story. I’ve never been good at keeping track of who is who in relation to a storyline, but in this case, I needn’t have worried as all of the names and characters do eventually come up in the story, but not all of them are characters that need to be paid close attention to. 

So you already know that in the first few pages of Pretty Furious, we’re given the names of all of the characters appearing within the book, including a group of girls who have been friends for forever and who have birthdays listed next to their name. Birthdays they’ve been looking forward to, but not necessarily for the reasons you might think. Yes, there’s delicious cake and snacks and a night with their friends, but behind the scenes they all have something bigger going on–something they’re not telling anyone about. 

Maddie, Mags, Louise, Jenny, and Jen are the five main girls that this story is centered around. They’re all really involved in school and seem very responsible and like the type of girl you’d trust in a sticky situation, or the girl you’d look to when things are falling apart and no one is taking the lead. Each one has her own personality of course, but to me they all kind of ran together a lot of the time. These girls are like sisters, and they trust each other endlessly. So when Maddie, the first of them to celebrate a birthday that year decides to make a major wish as she blows out her candles, all of the girls are on board to make sure her wish comes true.

I don’t know much about small Canadian towns, but I assume they’re similar in lots of ways to small towns anywhere: everyone knows everyone else and is all up in each other’s business. For some people, this isn’t an issue, and they live their lives paying no mind to the things going on around them that don’t affect them. But to this group of girls, small town drama means more than just gossip. And sometimes a little revenge is worth the risk, especially if you’re getting revenge for someone you care about.

Pretty Furious wasn’t as detailed and mysterious as I thought it would be, but it was still an enjoyable read, and not every book can be a perfect fit. Lately I’ve been reading YA that verges on adult to some extent, with a really high level of involvement of teens in crime and murder investigations, which to me is somewhat unrealistic but entertaining. A little break from the heart-pounding thrillers and mysteries was called for and Pretty Furious fit the bill.

Review of a Digital Advance Reading Copy from Penguin Young Readers Group

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language: 12 religious exclamations; 4 mild obscenities; 1 religious profanity; 8 scatological words; 9 anatomical terms; 14 F-Word derivatives.

Violence/Gore: Abortion is mentioned several times throughout the book in regards to a teen having had an abortion recently and the local church being involved in trying to smooth things over; a group of minors make plans of how to kill grass and sod around a monument they disagree with; a group of minor girls make a plan and go through with using chemicals to ruin some property; self-harm is mentioned in reference to a struggling teen; a minor is mentioned to have punched a boy who was verbally harassing her and her friends, causing him to have a broken nose and her to receive a suspension at school; a dead body is reported to have been found with no further detail; a reference is made to a drive-by shooting that occurred years ago; a group of minor girls plan and pull off a scheme involving arson where a billboard about abortion is burned down.

Sex/Nudity: Making out is mentioned; a minor boy and girl are mentioned to hold hands; a man is reported to have been seen taking a college age girl to his new bachelor pad; a group of boys at school is mentioned to repeatedly harass girls verbally, some of it being sexual in nature.

Mature Subject Matter:

Abortion; gender identity; teen identifying and coming out as “non-binary”; divorce; bullying; arson.

Alcohol/Drug Use:

Meth use and meth labs are referred to; steroid use in sports is mentioned to be a concern at school sporting events; smoking pot is mentioned; heroin use is referred to; a minor girl answers questions a police officer has about selling cigarettes during her convenience store shift.