Ros met Jono online just a couple of weeks ago. Now Jono’s beautiful ex-girlfriend Freya has disappeared without a trace… and disturbing evidence is coming to light. so Ros agrees to help him search for her – but she is hiding a secret of her own. This is only the beginning. This story is about to get PRETTY TWISTED.
The idea behind Pretty Twisted was a simple one – I wanted to write a story about an Internet friendship. Back when I drafted the book in 2008, the Internet didn’t feature much in YA fiction and most representations of it struck me as rather cliched and negative. Jono, Ros and Freya were all characters I had created for something else and wanted to write more about, so I imported them into the story.
As my debut novel, Pretty Twisted is always going to have a very special place in my heart. While the original draft took a few months, editing it took closer to two years!
There are a lot of personal things in Pretty Twisted. Ros is very like me around that age – I often felt annoyed with being labelled “the sensible one” in my friendship group. Fortunately I never experienced a painful crush! I’m nothing like Jonathan but the zombie bus he uses to get to college in Norwich is based on the one I used to get when I was working at the college his is modeled on.
There’s a cameo appearance near the end of a dog called Rudi. He was our family pet at the time I wrote Pretty Twisted and is much missed to this day. Rudi used to hang out with me when I was writing so it feels right that he should make an appearence.
Reviews
“One of the things I liked most about this book was the fact that the writing and the events of the story are so realistic and believable. Gina Blaxill is a really fresh and modern teen voice and she has definitely tried to capture the feelings, emotions and experiences of young people in a way that the reader can really connect with. She’s obviously researched her characters well and it shows.”
“As the story is told by two people, both boys and girls can enjoy it. The dialogue between Jonathan and Ros on the internet is particularly good. The book has great descriptions of London and some awesome action sequences… All in all it’s an awesome read with cool stuff happening all the way through.”
“Pretty Twisted is an easy to read and enjoyable novel which had interesting and engaging characters and a storyline that kept me happily entertained as it twisted and turned its way along nicely.”