Short Fiction Friday: Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes by Karin Slaughter

Happy Friday, everyone! Today I'm taking part in the online party for Karin Slaughter's brand new e short, "Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes."

Julia Carroll's imagination has a tendency to go a bit overboard. But she hasn't imagined the recent disappearance of a fellow coed in town. Nor has she imagined the fact that one of the regulars where she volunteers has also disappeared. Julia knows that she needs to be careful on campus and around town, that's just the way things are. And she wants to write a piece about the recent disappearances. In order to do so, she begins to look into other missing girls but all her research and reading has her worried that the footsteps she hears behind her and that frisson of fear she feels when walking around campus alone might be more than her imagination this time around.

"Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes" is actually a prequel to Slaughter's upcoming Pretty Girls and there's an excerpt of the book included at the end the e short.

The story is set in 1991. As I mentioned in my synopsis, a local girl has recently gone missing and Julia is becoming more and more obsessed with the story. Julia is your everyday, average college student. She's living alone for the first time, sharing a dorm room with her best friend. Said friend is getting somewhat irritated by Julia's paranoia about things like walking home alone at night, but otherwise everything at college is great. She even has a new boyfriend.

But in spite of that normalcy, Julia is still very aware of - and intrigued by - the fact that a girl like her can simply disappear. Who took the girl? Is she alive? Why is she being kept? And could this happen to Julia?

After reading Julia's story, I am SUPER excited to get to Pretty Girls! The excerpt was more than enough to make waiting pure torture at this stage too!

I should note for anyone familiar with Slaughter's work who might be wondering, Pretty Girls is a stand alone (with the exception of the short, that is).

"Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes" is out now. Pretty Girls is due out from William Morrow on September 29.

(To anyone who came across this post before I edited it, I do apologize. Apparently the publisher's giveaway ended BEFORE my agreed upon post date for the promotion. Sorry, sorry. It wasn't me!)