Review: Pretty Crooked by Elisa Ludwig

Read from April 5, 2012
to April 6, 2012

Book: Pretty Crooked by Elisa Ludwig

Publication Date: March 13, 2012

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

Number of Pages: 368 pages

Genre/s: Young Adult, Contemporary

Willa’s secret plan seems all too simple: take from the rich kids at Valley Prep and give to the poor ones. 

Yet Willa’s turn as Robin Hood at her ultra-exclusive high school is anything but. Bilking her “friends”-known to everyone as the Glitterati-without them suspecting a thing, is far from easy. Learning how to pick pockets and break into lockers is as difficult as she’d thought it’d be. Delivering care packages to the scholarship girls, who are ostracized just for being from the “wrong” side of town, is way more fun than she’d expected. 

The complication Willa didn’t expect, though, is Aidan Murphy, Valley Prep’s most notorious (and gorgeous) ace-degenerate. His mere existence is distracting Willa from what matters most to her-evening the social playing field between the have and have-nots. There’s no time for crushes and flirting with boys, especially conceited and obnoxious trust-funders like Aidan. 

But when the cops start investigating the string of burglaries at Valley Prep and the Glitterati begin to seek revenge, could he wind up being the person that Willa trusts most? - Goodreads

I never knew that this was a series. Why does everything has to be in a series these days? I mean, Pretty Crooked could've been a pretty good stand-alone novel if it just went on a little farther and tie its several loose ends. I don't even understand why it has an epilogue. 

But before I got carried away, let me tell you what Pretty Crooked is all about first. Willa is a new student at Valley Prep, a sophisticated, classy school for rich kids. She immediately befriended one of the Gliterati, a nice girl who introduces her to the other girls. After their ridiculously lame discussions, outrageous shopping sprees and bullying, Willa realized she had enough. She decided to pull on a Robin Hood-esque stunt to spread the wealth and change the social standing system. But how long can she get away with it? 

So that's basically the backbone of the story. One girl took it in her hands to stop bullying by stealing. Sounds crazy, right? But Willa has enough ethics behind her not-so-good actions--or so Tre says. I could go on about how the end does not justify the means but I think you'd start glazing off and start staring at me like I'm sprouting leafs or laying eggs or something. 

To be honest, I never knew much about Robin Hood. Yes, I know, shame on me. Robin Hood, just wasn't much of a talk when I was a kid or when I was growing up for that matter. I just knew that he was some kind of a rebel or a hoodlum with a good heart and cause. That's it, never watched any movies, TV series, read any books with any Robin Hood tale on it. 

So what exactly is my point, you say? Well, I do believe this is a problem on my part, but the thing is the plot, the characters, the scenes, the dialogues, just didn't translate to me. It was all flat. It just didn't work. The place, the Gliterati, the mean girls vibe. It was just mildly interesting and it was such a feat that I managed to finished the book. Praised the minimal pages! 

Tre and Aidan for me was the saving grace in this book. There was some layer beneath those muscles, good looks, and their awesome smell. And believe me when I say, I'm not fangirling and fawning over their hawtness when I said that.

If there's any indication how much the Pretty Crooked didn't work for me, I did not even talked about Willa. The Sly Fox. The person this book revolves around into. But I know many people enjoyed this book. So I suggest for you to give it a try and see for yourself. 

Cupid's Verdict:

2 Cupids

An advance copy was provided by the publisher at no cost via Netgalley.