Murder Road

April’s prettiness comes up at several points, and in several ways, throughout the novel. This motif explores the advantages and disadvantages of being pretty, and the ways in which April has learned to use or downplay her looks throughout her life. This motif illustrates the theme of Finding Connection in Common Experience: As April learns how to use her looks to get what she needs while avoiding attention and keeping herself safe, she also comes to understand that she shares this experience with many other women who have learned to how to navigate patriarchal expectations around their bodies.

April is the first person to mention her looks and the way that, early on, she learned to be a “pretty girl who was an expert in moving through life unnoticed when she wanted to” (41). It served her well when she was young and discovered that “I was tall and pretty enough that if I put on makeup and did my hair, I could appear older and work behind the counter at Dairy Queen” (91). Throughout her life, she specifically cultivated that prettiness, specifically “high school yearbook kind of pretty, not the kind of beautiful that made men crazy” (5).