Pretty Things

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussions of death by suicide, murder, drugs, domestic abuse, sexual harassment and abuse, and stigmatizing language about mental health.

An unnamed narrator discusses what happens when a dead body winds up in Lake Tahoe: it does not return to the surface. Lake Tahoe is one of the oldest and most frigid lakes in the United States, and it is also one of the deepest. Many corpses likely exist at the bottom due to the Mafia, railroad tycoons, bad cops, and wives seeking vengeance.

Another unnamed narrator introduces a Los Angeles nightclub full of young, rich, and attractive people, and they post pictures of themselves on social media—some of the nightclub attendees are influencers—boasting about all the “pretty things” in the world they get to have.

A woman intently watches Alexi Petrov, the son of a Russian potash oligarch. He does cocaine and puts his hand up the skirt of the waitress, who brings his party another $50,000 bottle of champagne. The woman dances to Petrov and falls in his lap, freeing the waitress from Petrov. The woman is not the most attractive person in the club, but she has good