BOOK REVIEW: Pretty Deadly by Joe Schreiber ★★★☆☆

It’s prom night—and Perry just wants to stick to his own plan and finally play a much-anticipated gig with his band in the Big Apple. But when his mother makes him take Gobija Zaksauskas—their quiet, geeky Lithuanian exchange student—to the prom, he never expects that his ordinary high school guy life will soon turn on its head. Perry finds that Gobi is on a mission, and Perry has no other choice but to go along for a reckless ride through Manhattan’s concrete grid with a trained assassin in Dad’s red Jag. Infused with capers, car chases, heists, hits, henchmen, and even a bar fight, this story mixes romance, comedy, and tragedy in a true teen coming-of-age adventure—and it’s not over until it’s “au revoir”.

This book goes by two names. The copy I got out Pretty Deadly, but in America, it’s known as Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick. The reason behind two different titles is beyond me but there you go, so for those who got either title out, it is the same story.

Imagine Collateral, Wanted, Ferris Bueller and Le Femme Nikita all mashed together and you get a funny, action-packed young adult novel. But it also reminds me of a teenage boy’s wet dream fantasy book. Awkward girl with a deadly secret and it’s like “hey, this girl is really hot and she shoots people and it’s gonna be a night to remember”. And sure for Perry, it was a night to remember, full of deception, suspense, murder and chemistry.

Pretty Deadly is from Perry’s point of view as he recalls the time the foreign exchange student Gobi changed his life, well more like ripped his life apart like a bombshell. Perry just wanted to perform with his band Inchworm in New York City. Well, he did get his wish, but not in the simplest way possible. He takes Gobi to prom like his mother wanted and out of the blue Gobi wants him to go to NYC, which he doesn’t see anything wrong about it. Only she took the term “let’s paint the town red,” a little too far. And she pretty much holds Perry’s family hostage – yes what a complete psychopath (that’s when I think of Vincent from Collateral.)

I read this book in a day, as it normally takes me days to read a book. Although the book seems to be a fusion of things I’ve read or seen, the only uniqueness I like about it is the structure of each chapter. Each chapter begins with an essay question for a college application form. I thought that was brilliant! It flows with the idea of how Perry is working on his college application and how he can easily relate those questions to his adventurous night.

Yes, it was action packed and never a dull moment, but I just found that it was lacking something. Schreiber builds this stereotype of an awkward eastern European exchange student and before she flies back to Lithuania she turns into this badass assassin, hell-bent on revenge and drags average daddy’s boy Perry around NYC. I just thought it was a child’s version of Collateral and I just couldn’t get over that. Plus the ending was soo unbelievably predictable and he does see Gobi again and with that a promising sequel.

To summarise; yes I recommend it to young adults above 16, not any younger to be honest. It’s a one-off readS and it was funny in some parts so I’m not completely eradicating it. I will read the sequel Pretty Lethal or the other name Perry's Killer Playlist.

Rating 3/5 Stars
Publishers: Electric Monkey
Publication date: May 8th 2014
Genre: Young Adult/ Adventure