Synopsis:

Yellowjackets meets She Is a Haunting in Gorgeous Gruesome Faces, a debut speculative thriller that follows a disgraced teen idol who comes face-to-face with the demons of her past in a glittering, cutthroat K-pop competition.

After a shocking scandal that abruptly ended her teen popstar career, eighteen-year-old Sunny Lee spends her days longing for her former life and cyberstalking her ex-BFF and groupmate, Candie. The two were once inseparable, but that was then—before the tragedy and heartache they left in their wake.

In the here and now, Sunny is surprised to discover that Candie is attending a new K-pop workshop in her hometown. Candie might be there chasing stardom, but Sunny can’t resist the chance to join her and finally confront their traumatic history. Because she still can’t figure out what happened that horrible night when Mina, the third in their tight-knit trio, jumped to her death. Or if the dark and otherworldly secrets she and Candie were keeping had something to do with it . . .

But the workshop doesn’t bring the answers Sunny had hoped for, nor a happy reunion with Candie. Instead, Sunny finds herself haunted by ghostly visions while strange injuries start happening to her competitors—followed by even stranger mutilations to their bodies. In her race to survive, Sunny will have to expose just who is behind the carnage—and if Candie is out for blood once more—in Linda Cheng’s spellbinding sapphic thriller that will have readers screaming and swooning for more.

Review:

Gorgeous Gruesome Faces is an immersive thriller set in the world of K-pop idols. It has one of the most beautiful covers I have ever seen and this definitely swayed my decision to read it. 

Firstly, the narration was brilliant. The acting was actually good. The narrator wasn’t just reading the words, they put a lot of emotion into it and some of the most intense scenes were so good. I’m genuinely impressed with this performance.

A few moments of Gorgeous Gruesome Faces were haunting. I didn’t feel tense for a lot of it but the moments when Sunny thought she was seeing an apparition of Mila were chilling. The descriptions of how Mila moved were great, some of the best parts of the whole book.

I also really enjoyed the flashback chapters, I thought these were more entertaining than the ones in the present day. Getting insight into the experiences that shaped the fraught friendship between Sunny and Candie you’re witnessing in the present day was really interesting. You spend a lot of the first half of the book wondering what went wrong between them, thankfully that is answered. You actually get to witness them becoming friends, then a found family, potentially something more and then the big fallout happens.

The story felt a little all over the place at times. I loved the parts that showed the bond between the three girls, but the addition of the Maiden myth made it a bit messy. I think the thriller aspect of this book would have had more impact if one of the girls in the competition was the one hurting other people. The folklore stuff was interesting but I did find my focus waning for these parts.

I’m not a K-pop fan so I don’t know a ton about the world of idols but I am aware of how cutthroat it is. Gorgeous Gruesome Faces makes that term literal. There’s a lot of gory descriptions and moments of intense violence, so please be aware of that before starting this book. Is it weird to say that these scenes were some of the best written?

I’ve just found out there’s a sequel book, that’s technically a standalone, that I’ll definitely be checking out at some point. It’s not out until November and I’ll likely want to listen to the audiobook so I likely won’t do so until next year. Something to look forward to!

---

Check out Young Creative Press on all socials

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Goodreads
• Instagram
• Facebook

You can also check out my StoryGraph here

Like this post? Why not read this one too: The Best Of: Kindle Unlimited & Prime Reading #18