My name is Justine and I have a story to tell. I have a story the way everyone has one, and it’s not a new story the way no one’s story is new. You’ve heard this one before. You hear it everyday." 

So begins the story of cynical, college dropout Justine. Sparked by a break-up with her married boyfriend, Justine trades in university for the underbelly of international cities, and descends into a destructive reinvention. 

Acutely aware that she's not the first girl to experience these formative misadventures, Justine hijacks the vocal chords of archetypal characters from myths, fairy tales, literature, and pop culture. She employs the stories that echo her story—the violent exit from girlhood via a botched love life—better than her own.

She doesn't have to profess another mistress's manifesto: Kalypso, one of the paramour goddesses from Homer's Odyssey, has that one covered. She was never overtly vicious without provocation, that's the job of a sadomasochistic Wicked Witch of fairy tale infamy. She doesn't have a penchant for picking the wrong guy over her soul mate, Catherine of Wuthering Heights does.

PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES is a dark and stylized examination of post-adolescent disillusionment, and questions the frantic necessity to tell our stories to establish human connection—however ugly they may be.

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Pretty Girls Make Graves: A Novel from Nicole Trilivas on Vimeo.