Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) (2021), 332 pages
Description
The summer is winding down in San Diego. Veronica is bored, caustically charismatic, and uninspired in her photography. Nico is insatiable, subversive, and obsessed with chaotic performance art. They're artists first, best friends second. But that was before Mick. Delicate, lonely, magnetic Mick: the perfect subject, and Veronica's dream girl. The days are long and hot-full of adventure-and soon they are falling in love. Falling so hard, they never imagine what comes next. One fire. Two murders. Three drowning bodies. One suspect...one stalker. This is a summer they won't survive. Inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray, this sexy psychological thriller explores the intersections of love, art, danger, and power.
User reviews
LibraryThing member LibrarianRyan
Mikela Jones, aka Mik Jagger to her new group of friends, hates having her picture taken. Her mom is a small time model, who wants to use her daughters model appearance to pay the rent. But Mik is a swimmer not a model, and her hate of pictures is more than just hate, it’s anxiety inducing.
The description says this book is an “expertly plotted YA thriller”. Umnn. Maybe not so much. It is very much a character study of these two girls and the world around them. It was pretty ho hum until the audio book was 52% complete and we get the first dead body. Then the rest wraps up pretty quickly. Some of it was predictable, some a little cringe inducing, and some truly entertaining. However, I would not really call it a thriller.
The book leaves itself open to multiple sequels, but to be honest, I’m not sure I would read them. The characters, even the villain, are likeable enough (until they isn’t), but when you are wanting a thriller and get sad romance with a bit of trouble… makes it hard to want to come back.
Overall I did like the book, and I can think of many people or teens would love it. It would even work for a book club read because there is so much emotionally going on. But I think this book might have been better if written from the killers point of view.
#popsugarchallenge
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Veronica is an artist who loves to take photos and is involved with some prettier interesting/crazy artist group. The two girls fall for each other and Veronica takes a picture of Mik that is so compelling that it goes viral on instagram, and blows up in her local art world. The description says this book is an “expertly plotted YA thriller”. Umnn. Maybe not so much. It is very much a character study of these two girls and the world around them. It was pretty ho hum until the audio book was 52% complete and we get the first dead body. Then the rest wraps up pretty quickly. Some of it was predictable, some a little cringe inducing, and some truly entertaining. However, I would not really call it a thriller.
The book leaves itself open to multiple sequels, but to be honest, I’m not sure I would read them. The characters, even the villain, are likeable enough (until they isn’t), but when you are wanting a thriller and get sad romance with a bit of trouble… makes it hard to want to come back.
Overall I did like the book, and I can think of many people or teens would love it. It would even work for a book club read because there is so much emotionally going on. But I think this book might have been better if written from the killers point of view.
#popsugarchallenge
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LibraryThing member AKBouterse
The artist is the creator of beautiful things.
To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim.
All I can really say is wow. As soon as I saw this on Goodreads I knew I wanted to read it and I was so lucky to get an ARC from Netgally. I honestly wish this came out sooner because I want
The critic is he who can translate into another
manner or a new material his impression of
beautiful things.
The highest as the lowest form of criti-
cism is a mode of autobiography.
We read half of A Picture of Dorian Grey in my 12th grade lit class before we had to stop, which is a long story, but it left me in a position of being somewhat familiar with the plot but quite familiar with the writing style. Dorian is firmly rooted in aestheticism and that style is reflected so well in this book. It was part of why this book was so fun to read, even with a grim subject matter. It definitely is YA but I still thought it reflected the stylistic elements of Dorian very well.
Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful
things are corrupt without being charming.
This is a fault.
Those who find beautiful meanings
in beautiful things are the cultivated.
For these there is hope.
This is not a book about nice people. All the characters in this book take from each other, some in more extreme ways, some in less. I loved reading through the different perspectives of Mick and Veronica. I expected certain things from their characters based on how they were presented at the beginning but was very surprised with what I actually got. There are some things about these characters that I didn't find suprising at all when they were revealed. I was kind of anticipating other things just because I felt some answers would be too obvious but I think with this book it didn't matter if I anticipated events. A surprising factor was not essential to making this a good story.
There is no such thing as a moral or an
immoral book. Books are well written,
or badly written. That is all.
For these there is hope.
I loved the dynamic between all the characters. Like I said, these are characters that are not great people. Nico and Mick especially come from very complicated backgrounds and all the characters are very complicated people. I think this book tells you a lot about the characters using their environment which I really appreciated. Even though there are some things about the lives of the characters that seemed glossed over, I still felt like I had a good sense of them as people.
The moral life of man forms part of the
subject-matter of the artist, but the morality
of art consists in the perfect use of an im-
perfect medium.
No artist desires to prove anything. Even
things that are true can be proved.
I loved the setting of this book as well. It takes place in Southern California and I think the gilded opulence that I associate with that region was very effective in this story. If you're looking for a setting that mirrors the aestheticism of Wilde's work, it's a great one.
No artist has ethical sympathies. An
ethical sympathy in an artist is an un-
pardonable mannerism of style.
No artist is ever morbid. The artist
can express everything.
I thought the progression of the plot worked really well and from what I can remember of the half of Dorian I read, it mirrors that book very well. I thought the environmental aspect was really interesting and played really well against the parts of this book dealing with natural elements. There's a lot of play with water and fire especially in this book and I think there is some really interesting imagery when it comes to how those play off each other in this book in relation to the characters and seeing when water dominates vs when fire dominates.
All art is at once surface and
symbol.
Those who go beneath the surface do so at
their peril.
Those who read the symbol do so at
their peril.
I hesitate almost to call the relationship in this book a romance when really it is more about obsession, just as in Dorian. It really is a dynamic that seems like it could never be healthy because of how they react around each other. The tipping point is the need to capture a person in an image because of their beauty and the sort of challenges that obsession with preserving someone brings about. The picture never changes but the person does.
It is the spectator, and not life, that art really
mirrors.
Diversity of opinion about a work of art
shows that the work is new, complex, and
vital.
When critics disagree, the artist is in accord
with himself.
I loved the feeling that this book created of someone being in the background controlling elements of your life. I really did like the ending, though I was a little surprised it ended like that, because it seemed to play into this idea of pieces of your life being controlled and manipulated by the actions of others. I don't know how Dorian ends, maybe someday I'll go back and read it, but this books ending was to me satisfying and unsatisfying at the same time because I wanted to know more, but it also seemed like the perfect ending to this book. Yes, there are many parts to this book that seemed very unrealistic but I never felt the need to interrogate any one particular choice in this book for realism because that's not what I saw as the aim of this story. I would encourage people to look past realism to see a possible bigger story element.
We can forgive a man for making a useful
thing as long as he does not admire it. The
only excuse for making a useless thing is that
one admires it intensely.
All art is quite useless. - The Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim.
All I can really say is wow. As soon as I saw this on Goodreads I knew I wanted to read it and I was so lucky to get an ARC from Netgally. I honestly wish this came out sooner because I want
Show More
everyone to be able to read this. I read this 336 page book in less than two hours in one sitting. It was just that compelling. The critic is he who can translate into another
manner or a new material his impression of
beautiful things.
The highest as the lowest form of criti-
cism is a mode of autobiography.
We read half of A Picture of Dorian Grey in my 12th grade lit class before we had to stop, which is a long story, but it left me in a position of being somewhat familiar with the plot but quite familiar with the writing style. Dorian is firmly rooted in aestheticism and that style is reflected so well in this book. It was part of why this book was so fun to read, even with a grim subject matter. It definitely is YA but I still thought it reflected the stylistic elements of Dorian very well.
Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful
things are corrupt without being charming.
This is a fault.
Those who find beautiful meanings
in beautiful things are the cultivated.
For these there is hope.
This is not a book about nice people. All the characters in this book take from each other, some in more extreme ways, some in less. I loved reading through the different perspectives of Mick and Veronica. I expected certain things from their characters based on how they were presented at the beginning but was very surprised with what I actually got. There are some things about these characters that I didn't find suprising at all when they were revealed. I was kind of anticipating other things just because I felt some answers would be too obvious but I think with this book it didn't matter if I anticipated events. A surprising factor was not essential to making this a good story.
There is no such thing as a moral or an
immoral book. Books are well written,
or badly written. That is all.
For these there is hope.
I loved the dynamic between all the characters. Like I said, these are characters that are not great people. Nico and Mick especially come from very complicated backgrounds and all the characters are very complicated people. I think this book tells you a lot about the characters using their environment which I really appreciated. Even though there are some things about the lives of the characters that seemed glossed over, I still felt like I had a good sense of them as people.
The moral life of man forms part of the
subject-matter of the artist, but the morality
of art consists in the perfect use of an im-
perfect medium.
No artist desires to prove anything. Even
things that are true can be proved.
I loved the setting of this book as well. It takes place in Southern California and I think the gilded opulence that I associate with that region was very effective in this story. If you're looking for a setting that mirrors the aestheticism of Wilde's work, it's a great one.
No artist has ethical sympathies. An
ethical sympathy in an artist is an un-
pardonable mannerism of style.
No artist is ever morbid. The artist
can express everything.
I thought the progression of the plot worked really well and from what I can remember of the half of Dorian I read, it mirrors that book very well. I thought the environmental aspect was really interesting and played really well against the parts of this book dealing with natural elements. There's a lot of play with water and fire especially in this book and I think there is some really interesting imagery when it comes to how those play off each other in this book in relation to the characters and seeing when water dominates vs when fire dominates.
All art is at once surface and
symbol.
Those who go beneath the surface do so at
their peril.
Those who read the symbol do so at
their peril.
I hesitate almost to call the relationship in this book a romance when really it is more about obsession, just as in Dorian. It really is a dynamic that seems like it could never be healthy because of how they react around each other. The tipping point is the need to capture a person in an image because of their beauty and the sort of challenges that obsession with preserving someone brings about. The picture never changes but the person does.
It is the spectator, and not life, that art really
mirrors.
Diversity of opinion about a work of art
shows that the work is new, complex, and
vital.
When critics disagree, the artist is in accord
with himself.
I loved the feeling that this book created of someone being in the background controlling elements of your life. I really did like the ending, though I was a little surprised it ended like that, because it seemed to play into this idea of pieces of your life being controlled and manipulated by the actions of others. I don't know how Dorian ends, maybe someday I'll go back and read it, but this books ending was to me satisfying and unsatisfying at the same time because I wanted to know more, but it also seemed like the perfect ending to this book. Yes, there are many parts to this book that seemed very unrealistic but I never felt the need to interrogate any one particular choice in this book for realism because that's not what I saw as the aim of this story. I would encourage people to look past realism to see a possible bigger story element.
We can forgive a man for making a useful
thing as long as he does not admire it. The
only excuse for making a useless thing is that
one admires it intensely.
All art is quite useless. - The Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
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LibraryThing member rmarcin
This is quite an intense YA novel. It’s is the story of two young women, Mick-a high school swimmer/lifeguard, and Veronica-a photographer. Veronica is best friends with Nico, an edgy artist who wants to create chaotic art, and Veronica and Mick become his helpers documenting the art.
Much of
I haven’t read The Picture of Dorian Grey, but this book is supposedly inspired by it. I will have to add that to my TBR list.
Much of
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what he is doing is illegal and dangerous. Sadly, the art becomes out of control, and people die. But what is really frightening is who is behind the deaths. The final lines of the book are especially chilling. I haven’t read The Picture of Dorian Grey, but this book is supposedly inspired by it. I will have to add that to my TBR list.
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LibraryThing member sparemethecensor
I finished it, which is saying something about today's YA romances. The trouble is that this novel is trying to be two separate novels crammed together, and sadly it isn't doing that effectively.
Do not be fooled by the Dorian Gray comparisons.
Do not be fooled by the Dorian Gray comparisons.
Awards
ALA Rainbow Book List (Selection — 2022)