Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Pretty Little Mistakes: A Do-Over Novel
    Unavailable
    Pretty Little Mistakes: A Do-Over Novel
    Unavailable
    Pretty Little Mistakes: A Do-Over Novel
    Ebook661 pages8 hours

    Pretty Little Mistakes: A Do-Over Novel

    By Heather McElhatton

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    There are hundreds of lives sown inside Pretty Little Mistakes, Heather McElhatton's singularly spectacular, breathtakingly unique novel that has more than 150 possible endings. You may end up in an opulent mansion or homeless down by the river; happily married with your own corporation or alone and pecked to death by ducks in London; a Zen master in Japan or morbidly obese in a trailer park.

    Is it destiny or decision that controls our fate? You can't change your past and start over from scratch in real life—but in Pretty Little Mistakes, you can! But be warned, choose wisely.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061857027
    Unavailable
    Pretty Little Mistakes: A Do-Over Novel
    Author

    Heather McElhatton

    Heather McElhatton produced the award-winning literary series Talking Volumes. Her commentaries have been heard on This American Life, Marketplace, Weekend America, Sound Money, and The Savvy Traveler. She lives in Key West with her pug, Walter.

    Read more from Heather Mc Elhatton

    Related to Pretty Little Mistakes

    Related ebooks

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      What’s In A Name?

      Dec 22, 2021

      What’s In A Name?
      9 min read

    • Article

      About Time

      Jan 29, 2020

      About Time
      3 min read

    • Article

      Wise old Mrs Merrow

      Jul 27, 2020

      Littlesea was everything the description said: a white stone cottage with beams and higgledy-piggledy walls and steps away from a tiny quay in a private bay. It would have been the perfect spot for honeymooners had it not had just the one single bed

      8 min read

    • Article

      Portrait Of An Artist

      Jan 6, 2022

      Portrait Of An Artist
      6 min read

    • Article

      Northern Soul

      Apr 2, 2020

      Northern Soul
      10 min read

    • Article

      SPINOFFS & ADAPTATIONS

      Jan 13, 2022

      SPINOFFS & ADAPTATIONS
      4 min read

    • Article

      Let’s Play A Painting Game!

      Dec 1, 2022

      Let’s Play A Painting Game!
      1 min read

    • Article

      The Kill Registry

      Dec 10, 2022

      My sister chose to use her bullet years ago and ever since she has badgered me to liberate my own from its chamber. Beth leveled her pistol at her husband five years into their marriage, and she has no regrets, which is one of the things I admire abo

      14 min read

    • Article

      ‘She’s My Heart’

      Feb 26, 2024

      ‘She’s My Heart’
      3 min read

    • Article

      Enjoy a Special Picnic

      Apr 27, 2023

      Enjoy a Special Picnic
      5 min read

    • Article

      Elsi, The Strange Maid

      Aug 29, 2018

      Elsi, The Strange Maid
      17 min read

    • Article

      Reading Corner

      Jul 12, 2020

      Could witches actually exist? Are fairy tales not tales at all but relics of a the not-too-distant past? These questions and more are on Roxy’s mind ever since she moved into the Soup Ministry’s servant quarters with her sister Gretel. The Soup Minis

      1 min read

    • Article

      A Vegan Take On Bake Off

      Sep 30, 2022

      A Vegan Take On Bake Off
      4 min read

    • Article

      I Was TRAPPED In A BODY BAG For THREE DAYS

      Apr 28, 2021

      Shirley Smith, 37, Sydney, NSW* Swaying on the dance floor, I was having the time of my life. Aged 18, I’d just graduated from school and was excited to let my hair down. Then, I locked eyes with a good-looking guy across the room. Introducing hims

      3 min read

    • Article

      Cookies

      Sep 23, 2021

      Cookies
      3 min read

    • Article

      In The Running For Romance

      Mar 4, 2021

      The RNA has announced the category shortlists for the 2021 Romantic Novel of the Year Awards. • The Katie Fforde Debut Romantic Novel Award: Cow Girl, Kirsty Eyre; The Bookshop of Second Chances, Jackie Fraser; The Silent Treatment, Abbie Greaves; Th

      1 min read

    • Article

      Under the Ackee Tree

      Jun 15, 2019

      If you’re the only son of uptown Kingston parents, then you will have options. You can take Daddy’s Datsun or Mummy’s new ’68 VW and fly past street urchins who sell bag juice and ackee at red lights down Hope Road to pick up Reyha or Sanya or Cherie

      27 min read

    • Article

      Hitting a SOUR NOTE

      Sep 22, 2021

      Hitting a SOUR NOTE
      3 min read

    • Article

      Nik Rabinowitz

      Nov 26, 2018

      Nik Rabinowitz
      3 min read

    • Article

      A quiet NIGHT IN

      Jun 15, 2022

      A quiet NIGHT IN
      3 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Jul 1, 2019

      You agreed to meet him in one of those cafés you imagined yourself writing in if you could afford to live in that city. He was also a writer, but older, and you wanted to know how to get published. Slip a picture of yourself in with your poems, he ad

      6 min read

    Reviews for Pretty Little Mistakes

    3/5

    185 ratings19 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      how many people remember reading Choose Your Own Adventure books when you were younger? it is a generation thing, so older visitors may be familiar with them whilst never having read one themselves. Those who have read them inevitably have a similar response when they are brought up. They all enjoyed them and they all wish that there were adult versions of them to read.. well get used to it, there are not. get over it.. nah, just fucking with you.. there were not.. now there is one..

      Pretty Little Mistakes was written by Heather McElhatton is the adult answer to “why are there no adult choose your own adventure books?” She calls them “Do Over” books and has filled a gaping hole in the consumer world.. addicted adults with no outlet for their addiction to manifest itself. She has created a story that begins on the day you graduate highschool.

      * do you go to college? if so, do you major in art or science?
      * do you say “fuck college” and go touring the world with a back pack and an eye for adventure?
      * do you start making drugs and selling them to an unsuspecting populace?

      and one of my favorites…

      * do you strap the meat to your naked body?

      this book is not for younger kids. some of the sections you would not want your 5-11 year olds reading. it is not meant for them, it is meant for us! We are taking back the genre!! this book is filled with tumorous cocks, bullets, random accidents, numerous versions of heaven and hell. angry gods, flaccid boyfriends, lesbian lovers, fame fortune, porn stars, disease.. that is the short list.

      unlike a normal choose your own adventure, and contrary to how you are told to read the book, Heather has made i easy for you to quickly navigate the story lines. it is simple to “do over” decisions that you feel were not the best. each decision is set before you with a section number as well as a page number. i found that the section numbers were easier to navigate as they are presented in large bold print in the top corner where as the small print page numbers in the bottom left were cumbersome. each section begins by telling you what section you came from, thus allowing you a fast back pedal action if you decide not to start from the beginning.

      i read this book through to its completion, which can be difficult with 150 possible endings. there seemed to be an underlying theme to the whole story. regardless of what choices you make, you were still brought back to some similar situations. almost as if heather’s book was a chronicle of fate’s tangled web. you have a path, and you can stray from it, but in the end fate only gives you a few scenarios to play with.

      it was interesting to read extra into the stories. i found myself pondering creationism and evolution.. considering that one person could be fucked for life from the get go with only one decision to sway the odds. it was fun, and surprisingly compelling.

      i officially have fed the addiction and anxiously await more of my drug.
    • 2/5
      I remember those choose you own adventure books from the 70s. This one is fun for the first few read throughs. I should have left it at that instead of leaving it on the back of the commode and methodically checking out all the story lines. One section left me baffled (109) and there were quite a few repetitions. Some endings were cute and sweet, but some were gratingly flippant and bitter. It is a fun gimmick, but it needed more quality control.
    • 4/5
      how many people remember reading Choose Your Own Adventure books when you were younger? it is a generation thing, so older visitors may be familiar with them whilst never having read one themselves. Those who have read them inevitably have a similar response when they are brought up. They all enjoyed them and they all wish that there were adult versions of them to read.. well get used to it, there are not. get over it.. nah, just fucking with you.. there were not.. now there is one..

      Pretty Little Mistakes was written by Heather McElhatton is the adult answer to “why are there no adult choose your own adventure books?” She calls them “Do Over” books and has filled a gaping hole in the consumer world.. addicted adults with no outlet for their addiction to manifest itself. She has created a story that begins on the day you graduate highschool.

      * do you go to college? if so, do you major in art or science?
      * do you say “fuck college” and go touring the world with a back pack and an eye for adventure?
      * do you start making drugs and selling them to an unsuspecting populace?

      and one of my favorites…

      * do you strap the meat to your naked body?

      this book is not for younger kids. some of the sections you would not want your 5-11 year olds reading. it is not meant for them, it is meant for us! We are taking back the genre!! this book is filled with tumorous cocks, bullets, random accidents, numerous versions of heaven and hell. angry gods, flaccid boyfriends, lesbian lovers, fame fortune, porn stars, disease.. that is the short list.

      unlike a normal choose your own adventure, and contrary to how you are told to read the book, Heather has made i easy for you to quickly navigate the story lines. it is simple to “do over” decisions that you feel were not the best. each decision is set before you with a section number as well as a page number. i found that the section numbers were easier to navigate as they are presented in large bold print in the top corner where as the small print page numbers in the bottom left were cumbersome. each section begins by telling you what section you came from, thus allowing you a fast back pedal action if you decide not to start from the beginning.

      i read this book through to its completion, which can be difficult with 150 possible endings. there seemed to be an underlying theme to the whole story. regardless of what choices you make, you were still brought back to some similar situations. almost as if heather’s book was a chronicle of fate’s tangled web. you have a path, and you can stray from it, but in the end fate only gives you a few scenarios to play with.

      it was interesting to read extra into the stories. i found myself pondering creationism and evolution.. considering that one person could be fucked for life from the get go with only one decision to sway the odds. it was fun, and surprisingly compelling.

      i officially have fed the addiction and anxiously await more of my drug.
    • 2/5
      It's fun to pick your own ending, but the use of 2nd person POV is really annoying!
    • 4/5
      Borrowed from LeeAnn.

      This is such a fun (and sometimes really heartbreakingly sad?) book! I think my favorite parts were how so many situations could turn into situations-involving-meth, any guy you were involved with had a humorously giant dick, and you got killed by terrorists a lot. Also you were constantly getting accidentally pregnant? Like, were you just straight up not on birth control or bad about taking it or what? You were just always suddenly realizing you were pregnant by the giant-dicked guy you were dating and I feel like in one of your reincarnations you would've gotten tired of this. Definitely worth picking up if the idea of a collection of short stories that's also a game appeals to you.
    • 4/5
      Okay so this novel isn't for everyone, especially for those that like a novel to stick to a normal routine of telling a story from beginning to end. This does that, but with a handful or your own that you can choose instead. The reason for that is there are 150 endings to choose from in the book!Growing up I was into the Goosepbump books that let you choose your story. Not only was I totally into those covers (they were pretty awesome for Goosebump books!), but I loved changing the story into something more interesting. I was the kid that would mark my page if there were two choices and then go back to it if the one ended too quickly or was too insane for me.I still did that with this novel. It has some grown-up themes to it, so maybe this wouldn't be a good book for those under the age of 15 (i.e. - sex, drugs, and a few other descriptive things that most YA books don't have!).Anyway, the book starts off with you either choosing to go to college or off traveling. From there depending on which choice you make you can either go into an art program or science program or travel to europe and have your life changed. Along the way things get more complicated and life gets a little too real for the choices you make or just a little crazy, because let's face it, it's fiction, but still really interesting fiction.I've gotten to read about 20 or more different endings so far, but all of which have been really interesting. I've died a handful, been shot, grown old and happy, grown old and sad, fall in love, been cheated on by men, been discovered, became famous, made my parents proud or shamed them, lived out my dreams, made miserable choices, and still trying to get to every ending!No two endings are the same. And that's what I love the most. It makes you wonder, "what if I choose to fly to...?" or "should I have gone to that show with...?" or even "was that a really big mistake to...?"This book I think is for those that get frustrated when books don't go the way they like it and wish they could have chosen something else or are the types always wondering "what if...?" about their own life in general.
    • 3/5
      This is a "Choose your own adventure" book for grown-ups. It was fun and interesting, but the choices available were not always what I would do, and I kept reaching dead ends...
    • 4/5
      Most of the time we spend money on a book we will read once and forget about. My copy of Pretty Little Mistakes has been used time and time again by myself and my girlfriends. I thoroughly enjoy the writing style Heather Mcelhatton uses. However, I was disappointed that there were so many options for bad decisions. It gave the book a dark atmosphere, with so many choices to be made in regards to sex, drugs, etc. While there were positive choices and positive endings, I feel like a majority of my endings were keeping true to this dark theme. But despite this I still continue to read. I can't help it, it's always fun to make the bad decisions that you'd never make in real life.Kudos to Mcelhatton for putting together such an incredible and complex book! I can't wait to read her next book.
    • 2/5
      Odd format. Kind of like choose your own adventure for somewhat stoned adults...
    • 5/5
      Heather McElhatton's Pretty Little Mistakes: A Do-Over Novel is more fun that a barrel of monkeys! Beginning after your high school graduation, you are asked to make a choice between going to school and travel. Based on that decision, you make another and another in this updated version of the old "Choose Your Own Adventure" novel. The possibilities are truly limitless, and the adventures extraordinary! You can read each "life" in about 20 or 30 minutes from start to finish, but you won't want to stop there. If you're like me, you'll read this book dozens of more times, trying out different decisions and getting outcomes that range from the hilarious to the heart-breaking.Each life you live ends in death - sometimes a natural death after living a long life, sometimes death by accident, and sometimes murder. After each life ends, McElhatton describes the afterlife of that person, ranging from textbook descriptions of heaven and hell, to a "choose your own afterlife" sort of thing, to re-incarnation as a fish! It's all just utterly fascinating.I couldn't stop myself from trying on new lives all week long! The funniest thing is that the life yielded by my first choices was the best one in my opinion. I ended up living in a stone cottage in the country with a husband, child, and grandchild that I loved. I died at a "ripe-old-age," after a life full of love, travel, adventure, and even a little fame - who wouldn't want to live such a life? Just like in real life, the safe, honest, and "right" choices didn't always yield the best results. I really did get my share of horrifying death scenes in my exploration of Pretty Little Mistakes, but it was still fun to make those decisions in my quest for the perfect life. Pretty Little Mistakes: A Do-Over Novel is an inspired idea, brilliantly conceived and expertly accomplished. It is one of those library books I wish I'd bought and not checked-out. After all, there are probably a hundred or more combinations that I didn't get to examine. I may need to run to the bookstore for this one...
    • 2/5
      Wasn't impressed with this book, don't think books like that are my kind of books!
    • 4/5
      I'd like to refer to this book as a "choose your own adventure" for adults. The first page starts with high school graduation and from here, you decide whether you want to go to college or travel to California or Europe. Where your life leads is completely up to you.I loved that the book lets the reader go down various paths but I hated that all my paths ended with me dying.Overall, it was a fun and interesting book that I'd definitely read again.
    • 3/5
      This book was a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon, though, as many of the reviewers have mentioned, many of the scenarios are more negative than I would have liked. A fun choose your own adventure for adults, I'd recommend it to people who like fast paced, entertaining books, though there isn't a lot of substance to it for people who like meatier reads. I'll probably loan it to friends who used to read the kid versions of coose your own adventure back during their heyday in the nineties
    • 5/5
      I'm not done with the Choose-your-own-adventure stories. This one is called a "Do-over novel".This one is written from the perspective of a woman. I suppose it could be a gay man, but "you" bear children in some of the scenarios...so, maybe, someday? Miracle of science?You start out on the day of High School Graduation. You get a healthy chunk of money from Grandpa - do you go directly to college, or do you travel? If you go to college, do you study art or science? If you travel, do you go to California or Europe? And so on, and so on. Each scenario only lasts about 5-6 jumps before you've settled in for life and eventually die.It's fun, I guess. I got a bit depressed while reading it. Most of the lives sounded much better than the one I'm currently living, making me feel like my end-scenario would have been one of those that made the reader go quickly back to the beginning and try again. The back of the book states (as polar opposites): "You may end up in an opulent mansion or homeless down by the river; happily married with your own corporation or alone and pecked to death by ducks in London [I got that ending once]; a Zen master in Japan or morbidly obese in a trailer park." Well, I don't like how obesity wound up in the same pole as "homeless by the river" and "being pecked to death by ducks"...but it's just a book, hmm?I wonder if the author is particularly morbid in real life. The most interesting, poignant, beautiful, and disturbing sections of the stories seemed to revolve around "my" eventual death. "My" exits from the corporeal plane were varied (there is a God, there isn't a God, reincarnated as a human, reincarnated as a squid, etc.) and some were beautifully described. Once I wound up sailing away on a sea of pinks and reds. Once, I wound up meeting a bizarro St. Peter and being sent directly to the Skinning Room. Yeesh!There seems to be a disproportionate number of endings in exotic locations (although some of them had "me" at Betty's Pies!), and a disproportionate number of death-by-car-accident. Also, "I" was quite...erm...promiscuous at the beginning of the book (not my choice, my character was written that way). Not that there's anything wrong with a healthy appetite, but screwing a mechanic for parts and labor...when I've GOT money in the bank...yeah.Anyway! Reading this book at this particular point wasn't a great idea for me. I didn't need to see all of the paths that I could have taken (even though I know it's fiction...the world WAS that open at one point), and have my current path treated like something I'd better do-over.
    • 1/5
      Unlike the other reviewer, I would go so far as to say buying this book was a "Pretty Little Mistake." This book is nothing but shallow and disappointing with very little adventure.
    • 2/5
      I REALLY REALLY wanted to like this book more than I did. I love the idea of a chose-your-own story for adults. I found the author made too many choices for you. And the story lines were pretty annoying. *sigh*
    • 2/5
      An interesting premise--being given a decision to make at the end of each short section, thus changing the story depending on what path you choose to take. I used to love books like this when I was a kid. The problem was that the writing was overly simple (though to a certain extent I can see how it would have to be to make the premise work), I really wasn't engaged by it, and the choices seemed rather judgemental (if you make what the author deems a morally questionable choice, you're sure to meet a bad end). It was an okay way to pass a slow afternoon, but I wouldn't have read it if I'd had anything else around.
    • 4/5
      This book works best as an aid for nostalgia. It's a quick experience - it takes less than twenty minutes to get from the first page to the end of a story line - but it's fun. The stories are absurd and while not particularly well-written, they're not dreadful either. However, if you liked the choose your own adventure books when you were a kid, this is a fun way to bring that experience into adulthood.
    • 2/5
      Pretty Little Mistakes is unique in the premise of a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book for adults. However, I found that many of the endings were too extreme and/or unbelievable to keep my interest. Also, too little thought is invested in plot and character development to make the various endings worthwhile. The choices are also limited - often when I wanted to make a choice, I couldn't; other times there were not enough options to choose from. However, the concept is very good. Allowing the reader to interact with the text by providing a variety of endings is intriguing. I would like to see another book like this with more of a potpourri of bland and spicy endings based on the reader's choices, rather than pure sensationalism.