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All The Pretty Dead Girls
All The Pretty Dead Girls
All The Pretty Dead Girls
Ebook525 pages7 hours

All The Pretty Dead Girls

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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About this ebook

One By One. . .

Two decades ago, at a private women's college in upstate New York, a student was brutally attacked in her dorm room. Her assailant was never found. . .

They Disappear. . .

Sue Barlow arrives at Wilbourne College twenty years later. When a classmate disappears, Sue thinks it's an isolated incident. But then two other girls vanish. . .

And Die. . .

As fear grows on campus, Sue begins to sense she's being watched. And as the body count rises, she soon realizes that a twisted psychopath is summoning her to play a wicked game--a game that only will end when she dies. . .

"If you like Dean Koontz, you'll love John Manning!" --Wendy Corsi Staub, New York Times bestselling author
LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 7, 2009
ISBN9780786021833
All The Pretty Dead Girls
Author

John Manning

Author and editor John Manning was born in the Detroit suburb of Wyandotte, Michigan, on October 31, 1947. Although his early years were spent in the Midwest, he grew up all over the United States. Aside from his military postings (he spent nearly twelve years in the US Army), most of his adult life was in Texas. Although he discovered his love for writing at an early age, it was not until his first novel, Black Stump Ridge (cowritten with his longtime friend Forrest Hedrick), was released in January 2011 that his dream started to bear fruit. It went on to place tenth in the Editors & Preditors Readers’ Poll in the category of Best New Horror Novels for 2011. It was also considered for a Nebula Award but did not make the final ballot. Instead, it was placed on the 2011 Nebula Recommended Reading List. He followed with eight short stories and one poem published in various collections. “Disclaimer” (Lawyers in Hell, released in July 2011), “Showdown at Brimstone Arsenal” (Rogues in Hell, released in June 2012), and “Just Dessert” (Dreamers in Hell, released in July 2013) are part of the Heroes in Hell anthologies edited by Janet and Chris Morris and published by Perseid Press. John’s fourth short story, “Asylum,” appears in the third book of the Michael H. Hanson and Ed McKeown anthology, Sha’Daa: Pawns, released by Perseid Press in November 2012 and rereleased in June 2014 by Moon Dream Press. His fifth story, “Mr. Bass Man” will appear in the fourth book of the Sha’Daa series, Sha’Daa: Facets. “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” appears in What Scares the Boogeyman? released by Perseid Press in February 2013. His last two stories, as well as a poem, are part of Klarissa Dreams, a collection of stories and artwork assembled by Elisha Fraser (artwork by Klarissa Kocsis). As editor-in-chief and owner of Fantom Enterprises, he edited What Scares the Boogeyman?, a collection of horror and dark fantasy. He is also working on nine more anthologies: Heroes All, Dark Corners, Discontinuum, Dark Love, Nightfangs, Shamblers, The Nameless, Unhallowed, and The Uninvited. Terror by Gaslight is his second anthology and the first in his Night Chills series. John now lives near Chattanooga with his wife, De Anna, and their Italian greyhound, Speedy.

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Reviews for All The Pretty Dead Girls

Rating: 3.3863636818181817 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

22 ratings6 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Going off to college for the first time is always an adventure, but for Sue Barlow, it promises to be so much more. She will finally be on her own, away from the stifling grasp of the grandparents who raised her after the death of her mother. Sue hopes that Wilbourne College, her mother's alma mater in upstate New York, will give her both the freedom that she has never enjoyed and information about the parents she never knew. What she finds there is far more terrifying than she could have ever imagined.All the Pretty Dead Girls by John Manning reminds me of a Dean Koontz novel or something by Clive Barker, without being quite as tightly written. The plot moves along nicely, for the most part, except for the back and forth between the past and the present, which I found a little disconcerting at times. This is definitely a "page-turner" in the most positive way and the twists of the plot surprised me more than a few times. It is not predictable or boring. I found the characters believable and pretty well fully-formed and although their dialogue sometimes falls a little flat the characters are not. I found myself conjuring them up in my mind... seeing what they would look and sound like.I liked All the Pretty Dead Girls even though it runs a little more toward horror than I normally go these days. I was drawn in from the first page and read it straight through to the last. If you are a fan of Dean Koontz or Clive Barker, or even Peter Straub, I think you will enjoy All the Pretty Dead Girls.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book centers on Sue Barlow, an incoming freshman at Wilbourne College in upstate New York. Wilbourne is an exclusive private college that has a small student body, primarily made up of women. Raised by her extremely wealthy grandparents, Sue initially welcomes the opportunity to be on her own. She gets a bad feeling once she's there and believes that she repeatedly sees the face of a screaming woman in one of the dormitory windows.

    Meanwhile Sheriff Miles Holland, investigating the disappearance of a student, soon discovers the college has been the site of similar incidents involving young women that have occurred every twenty years. The key to stopping these events lies with Bernadette de Salis, a thirteen year old girl who has experienced stigmata as well as a visit from the Virgin Mary. Bernie tells Sue that she is key to the upcoming apocalypse.

    I thought this book was pretty interesting even though I rarely this genre. After a somewhat slow start, the action of the main story starts to really intrigue you. There are a lot of political characterizations in the book and some readers who care about those things might not enjoy it that much. Overall, it was a great little story with hints of Omen and Rosemary's Baby thrown in. I would definitely try another of John Manning's books if the opportunity arises.


  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Had potential....started out really well and then the author messed it all up by making the entire storyline completely unbelievable....and not in a good way
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Had potential....started out really well and then the author messed it all up by making the entire storyline completely unbelievable....and not in a good way
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Not quite what I was expecting, more than just a mystery. A mix of horror and some of the elements of devil worship. I enjoyed the plot though I guessed where it was going.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Only because 0.5 stars wasn't an option. Terrible book.

Book preview

All The Pretty Dead Girls - John Manning

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