“Television writer [Kirker] Butler (Family Guy, The Neighbors) brilliantly skewers the child pageant circuit in his laugh-out-loud debut…. a hilarious, smart satire.”
—Kristine Huntley, Booklist
“Butler manages to elicit laughter and winces in equal measure. The situations are styled with a kind of absurdist realism; although extreme, nothing that takes place is impossible, partly because Butler is dexterous in the way he intertwines his characterization and plotting. Repugnant, tasteless and often behaving illegally, Butler’s characters are the human embodiment of misguided desire. Butler’s excellent observational skills and hilarious prose make this a simultaneously funny and awful satire of thwarted ambition.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“To the pantheon of comic American fiction-kings – think Nathanael West, think Terry Southern – let us now add the name of Kirker Butler. In fine-tuned, generous prose that careens from screamingly funny to downright poignant, Pretty Ugly tells the tale of Miranda Ford, a pretty little girl with big-time, beauty pageant dreams. Butler has written a laugh-out-loud joy-ride of a book, the kind you don’t want to finish, and find yourself pressing into the hands of loved ones once you do. But don’t listen to me, grab it yourself. Kirker Butler is the real thing, and I can’t wait to read his next one.”
—Jerry Stahl, author of Happy Mutant Baby Pills
“The person who wrote this book asked me for a quote, so I gave them one.”
—Ricky Gervais
“Pretty Ugly is everything you’d want in a novel: funny, poignant, exceedingly well-written. I look forward to reading it.”
—Stephen Colbert
“I love this book, and I think Kurt Vonnegut would have loved it, too. In fact, it might have been his favorite book of all time. Hell, I’m just going to go ahead and say it: Kirker’s book is hilarious, and it was Kurt Vonnegut’s favorite book of all time.”
—Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy and Ted
“What I’ve read of this book I have liked!”
—Amy Sedaris
“Miranda Miller and all the people of the South that orbit her are the dunces of the Confederacy you’ve been waiting to meet. They make one shockingly bad decision after another yet you will still be constantly surprised and delighted by every outcome. Bad things happen to bad people. Good things happen to bad people. Hilarious things happen to everyone. And there’s a funeral so nutty that the only person who gets out with his dignity intact is the dearly departed. You may think you know something about children’s beauty pageants but Kirker Butler has created a world that makes ‘Toddlers And Tiaras’ look like a nineteenth century book club meeting.”
—Bean, KROQ’s Kevin and Bean Show
“A funny, slam-bam-thank you, ma’am, voyeuristic look at the world’s most dysfunctional family. I could not put this book down!”
—Jennifer Garner, actress
“Reading this book is like watching a children’s beauty pageant. Kirker Butler has crafted an exploitative masterpiece of hilarity, both brilliant and tacky, from which you simply cannot avert your eyes.”
—Alex Borstein