Pretty Baby – Mary Kubica

Last December, I read the debut novel from Chicago-based novelist Mary Kubica.  Based on the strength of that work, I purchased her next two offerings over the past year and finally decided it was time to break in to one.  Sadly, it was a bit of a let down.

Pretty Baby tells the tale, slowly, of a Chicago family, a runaway with a baby, and the slow descent into madness that comes from their intersection.  The only plot point that comes as something of a surprise is the parentage of the baby, but the twist wasn’t all that interesting.  Also, and I don’t know if this was an issue with the print version as well as the eBook, but the name of Halsted St. was consistently misspelled.  I’m sure this bothered nobody outside of the Chicagoland area, but bother me it did.

I still have Kubica’s latest waiting on the Kindle, though I’m not particularly looking forward to it at this point.  I can only hope that she returns to the promise of her previous work and that this isn’t an indicator of what is to come.