Fast Boys and Pretty Girls

I was drawn to this story between the lovely cover and the synopsis. But unfortunately, it feel short of expectations. Giving it a 3. A 2 or maybe 2.5 for the story itself but since I was given the audiobook to specifically review, and that was high quality, I’m averaging to a 3.The story follows the life of Danielle across two times, present day, when her daughters found the a dead body and years before, when Danielle was a teenager. The majority of the story is in the past, following an intentionally unlikable Danielle as she tries becomes a model. The writing is descriptive and detailed, drawing out the plot and instead, focusing on Danielle and her actions.I had a few key issues with the story. I didn’t like Danielle and she didn’t have any real growth over the story, thus making it hard for me to be invested in the story. Additionally, the plot was very slow moving, making it hard for me to care about the mystery element of the story.

Fast Boys and Pretty Girls by Lo Patrick is a compelling, layered story that blends small-town secrets, family dynamics, and unexpected tragedy into a gripping narrative. Centered around a former teen model who returns to her hometown only to have her children stumble upon a body, the novel wastes no time plunging readers into a web of mystery and emotional complexity.Patrick presents a strong concept with rich potential, and she delivers a story filled with intrigue and heart. The character work is particularly well done—flawed, real, and emotionally nuanced—adding depth to a plot that steadily unfolds. While the shifts in time and perspective can occasionally feel disorienting, the overall momentum and intrigue of the story keep the reader engaged.Balancing suspense with emotional resonance, Fast Boys and Pretty Girls is a thoughtful and entertaining read. Lo Patrick delivers a novel that explores the messiness of returning home, the weight of the past, and how quickly innocence can collide with reality. A solid and memorable story with a chilling edge.

Lo Patrick’s Fast Boys and Pretty Girls is a quiet triumph—an emotionally resonant coming-of-age story set in the heat and haze of the American South. At its heart is the unforgettable voice of her young narrator, who offers a tender, sharp, and unflinching perspective on family, longing, and survival.Patrick masterfully captures the raw vulnerability of adolescence, wrapping it in lush prose and vivid imagery. The characters feel achingly real—flawed, resilient, and profoundly human. Their stories unfold with a sense of inevitability and grace, never rushed, yet always compelling.Themes of abandonment, love, and personal agency ripple through the narrative, often beneath the surface, giving the story a subtle power that lingers long after the final page. It’s a book that doesn’t shout—it hums, aches, and eventually sings.For readers who appreciate literary fiction rooted in voice, atmosphere, and emotional depth, Fast Boys and Pretty Girls is a standout. Lo Patrick continues to prove herself a writer of exceptional sensitivity and strength.

This is the 3rd book I’ve read by Lo Patrick and I must admit that it was a bit of a disappointment for me. I had really enjoyed her first 2 books but thought this one was a little slow. I really feel that giving it a 4 star rating is me being generous. I loved the title, Fast Boys and Pretty Girls, but didn’t feel that the storyline lived up to my expectations for what a book with that title should be. I also didn’t really like any of the characters involved. Danielle, the main character, was allowed to move to New York City at the age of 17 to take up modeling instead of finishing high school. What kind of parents would allow their child to do that? And Dani becomes obsessed with a younger bad boy from back home and that just didn’t make any sense to me either. If a young girl who is living on her own in the big city and is pretty enough to be a model, what would she want with a younger boy who is a troublemaker and is not going to amount to anything? There were just so many things to this book that didn’t seem logical to me. I didn’t understand why the mother did what she did and was basically allowed to get away with it. And I also would have liked to have learned how Danielle met up with her husband as none of that was disclosed. She was just a young girl moping over a boy and then she was married and a mother of 4 with no explanation as to how all that took place. I just wish the story would have went a little deeper and maybe I would have felt better about reading it. I’d like to thank Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the arc. I’ve always enjoyed reading this author but I’m not sure that I’d be too quick at recommending this particular book. I feel that 4 stars is being generous and that it’s really more deserving of 3. However, I do realize that a lot of thought and work went into it and not every book can be great. And just because this particular book didn’t wow me, it will have absolutely no impact from me reading any of Lo Patrick’s books in the future.

Danielle Greer starts the book in North Georgia with a four-pack of daughters, a husband who basically exists offstage like he’s waiting to be called in from the wings, and the kind of haunted past that makes your childhood home feel like it’s whispering “bad decisions” through the floorboards. So when her kids stumble across a whole dead body in the ravine behind the house, it’s not just a murder mystery. It’s a full-throttle faceplant into the swampland of her teenage trauma.Now let’s be honest. This book is called “Fast Boys and Pretty Girls” and that’s EXACTLY the energy we’re working with... teen modeling, questionable romances, emotionally stunted adults pretending to be grown, and the Southern-fried melancholy of never really escaping your hometown. The setting? Perfection. It’s humid. It’s tense. It smells like secrets and hot asphalt. I grew up in North Georgia too and yeah, Lo Patrick absolutely nailed the vibe where everyone knows your business and your bad decisions are just family lore now. It's less a small town, more a time loop in denim.But sweet Lord, I have to ask… why was Danielle so into Benji Law? Like, deeply, devastatingly, “I will ruin my life for this man” into him. He’s got all the red flags of a boy your mom would say “bless his heart” about and then immediately forbid you to be alone with. He is Peak Tragic Southern Dirtbag. And yet, teenage Danielle treats him like he’s the last cigarette in the apocalypse. It’s not even hot. It’s just bad. Not “bad boy” bad. I mean objectively bad choice bad.Danielle herself is… a lot. Both as a teen and an adult, she’s prickly, selfish, and kind of a mess, which I honestly respect in theory. Give me a complicated woman with too much eyeliner and an avoidant attachment style. But the problem is, she doesn't really change. Past Danielle is obnoxious. Present Danielle is just bored and tired and still making it about herself. I was rooting for her to have a moment of clarity, or like, any noticeable growth arc, but alas… nope. Still stuck on Benji like he was the plot of her life, not just a speed bump.The dual timeline thing almost works. The teen sections feel more alive, more dramatic, more messy (which, okay, that’s probably the point), but the adult sections are just kind of... there. We open with the Big Dead Body Discovery and then promptly slam the brakes and vibe in the past for 90 percent of the book. I kept yelling “HELLO?? There’s a skeleton in the yard??” but Danielle is too busy re-living her 17-year-old downward spiral to focus on the present.And listen, I didn’t come here expecting a twisty thriller. This leans way more literary mystery than beach read crime novel. That’s fine. It’s moody. It’s reflective. It’s kinda sad and nostalgic and smells like Aqua Net and unresolved guilt. But at a certain point I needed something to happen. I can only hear about Danielle’s crumbling modeling dreams and morally gray teenage choices so many times before I start rooting for the corpse in the ravine.The saving grace? The atmosphere. I mean it. The setting is so good it’s practically a character. That weird, sticky North Georgia limbo where everything is either decaying, haunted, or both. I felt that. You can taste the humidity. You can hear the cicadas. You can smell the bad decisions baking in the sun and fully understand why our girl is camped in front of a cranked up air conditioner.So yeah, it dragged in places. And Danielle’s obsession with Benji made me want to stage an intervention via time travel. But I kept listening, and I did care, even if I wanted to throttle half the cast. Plus, Eliza Summers absolutely ate the narration. If nothing else, it’s worth the listen just to hear her bring this sleepy, broken woman to life.Final verdict? Three stars. A little too slow, a little too moody, but still got under my skin in a “haunted hometown heatwave” kind of way.Whodunity Award: For Making Me Suspect Hormones Were the Real Killer All AlongBig thanks to Tantor Audio and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced audiobook of “Fast Boys and Pretty Girls.” I listened, I cringed, I yelled “girl no” into the void. Honestly, I haven’t side-eyed a teenage crush this hard since “Twilight” tried to convince us imprinting was romantic.