The Dead Girls Club

I know that the lower I rate a book, the longer the review tends to be, so I’ll try to be more succinct in this one. Most of what I really want to say is spoilery anyway, so here goes. I really did not like the main character…couldn’t connect with her at all. I also didn’t find the mystery or the twists all that interesting or surprising, and pretty strongly dislike the ending. And the synopsis is very misleading.

The story is told in 2 timelines–the NOW is first-person POV with Heather as an adult narrator. The THEN is third-person POV, but still focuses on teenage Heather. I could not stand adult Heather. She acts like a victim of this mysterious person who is sending her little things that Heather knows were directly related to the night Becca died, but uses this as an excuse to stalk people from her past and treat pretty much everyone she interacts with terribly. By the second half of the book, I would literally groan every time the book went back to the NOW storyline, because it was just so boring. Her obsession with finding out what was going on turned her into a monster. And don’t even get me started on how terrible she became at her job, which just bugged me so much.

I also got to a point by halfway in the book where reading it made me feel kinda skeevy. Heather had a habit of picking at her cuticles when she was nervous and stressed, which of course she was during the entire book. As an author, it is important to give characters quirks, ticks, habits like this to make them seem real, but the amount that her peeling, biting, and scratching at herself enough to draw blood is shown got under my skin (pun intended).

I am surprised I haven’t seen this in any reviews yet, but during the THEN timeline, the teenage girls go into a bit too much detail about their menstrual cycle for my taste, which makes me feel especially bad for any men who read it. There’s just no need for some of what they said to be included in this book…at all.

Now about the horror aspect…I honestly can’t even tell you why I requested a book classified as horror (I told myself that it must not have been listed as horror until later, but I really can’t say if that’s true), because I am really not into horror in general. But I steeled myself for a scary read…that hardly came. The supernatural elements that the book promised were flimsy and constantly explained away by the MC. I think I came to realize at some point that the narrator was very unreliable, which just made me doubt everything that happened in the THEN parts. I also didn’t find the stories about the Red Lady scary. A bit gruesome and over-the-top, yes, but not so much scary. Near the end, the combination of reading the last 25% at night and a decently creepy scene did finally give me some chills, but that was pretty much it. I’m seriously a wimp when it comes to scary things, so that might tell you something about the level of horror in this book. I also wouldn’t really classify it as a thriller, so suspense is the best I could come up with.

In the end, a lot of this probably boils down to personal preference. So this wasn’t a good book for me, but it has plenty of 4- and 5-star reviews. The THEN parts contain some 90s nostalgia that a lot of people will probably enjoy, and the horror and thriller elements will likely hit the mark with plenty of people. So if it seems interesting to you, please be sure to check out others’ reviews for this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing me a copy of this book to review.

“THE DEAD GIRLS CLUB” by Damien Angelica Walters

This is my first book with this author and what a great experience it was reading this thriller/suspense/frightening read. The story is psychologically disturbing and she wrote a solid mystery novel that is addicting and hard to put down. The tension Walters built through the alternating chapters of the past and the present really gripped me to the story and the anticipation of what is to come. The writing is absolutely solid and prose is perfection. This is such an entertaining and enjoyable spine tingling read that I highly recommend. No doubt this is one of the most anticipated reads of 2019. I get it!! So everyone else should also read this now.

This was a real unsettling book. It shows how easy it is for pre-teen and teens to get them self’s talked into doing something which can have major consequences. Heather Cole has been living with a secret which she thinks is the truth for about 30 years.
Is she hallucinating? It is not until the end of the book that everything becomes clear.

***I got a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

I really enjoyed this supernatural novel. It was told through Heather’s first person point-of-view. She was a child psychologist to make up for what happened when she was a kid. I definitely liked the “then” chapters better than the “now;” however, the ending really started to pick up, leaving me engrossed in the story.

My favorite lines: 1) Guess I’ve always been better at keeping secrets. Even from myself. 2) You can’t unopen an envelope. Can’t undo the damage you’ve done. 3) This is a private apocalypse. 4) I refuse to believe the dead can buy postage stamps. 5) An apology lingers on my tongue but it’s bitter and sharp and I keep it to myself.

The beginning was very slow and drawn out, for me as a reader. I started to enjoy the story better when it introduced the “then” sections. As little girls, Heather, Becca, Rachel, and Gia took part in the dead girls club. They talked about serial killers, dark topics, and the Red Lady. I loved the twists at the end. I hadn’t seen any of that coming!

I was hooked the second Heather announced she had killed Becca, and no one had ever found the body. I’m a sucker for a good mystery, so I was excited to see who was behind taunting Heather. The ending did not disappoint.

I RECOMMEND this book to read.

It appears that this is Damien Angelica Walters third novel and she has stories in a bunch of anthologies. I will be reading more of her short stories, and maybe go back to read her other novels because The Dead Girls Club was excellent.

The book flips back and forth between Then and Now, and since there is only two timelines, it is not difficult to know what is going on. Not like some Suspense or Thriller books that have so many different timelines that it takes a few pages of reading the new chapter before you figure out or remember what is going on. I greatly appreciated the simplicity since it didn’t pull me out of the story.

Walters does an amazing job capturing the essence of young girls, almost as if she was one once. 😉 All the angst and drama, and how one day you’re best friends and the next day you hate that person was written to perfection. It was as if she transported me back to my teenage years. And although we didn’t tell ghost stories, at most sleepovers we would watch horror movies, play Light as a Feather, or freak each other out by chanting Bloody Mary into the bathroom mirror. So I felt even more of a kinship with Heather, Becca, Gia, and Rachel. She really shined in her portrayal of how girls act when they get together.

And although Heather declares at the beginning of The Dead Girls Club that she killed
Becca, the way Walters writes has you questioning if Heather is losing time and sending herself the threats, if she’s being gaslighted by her husband and friends, if the Red Lady really is coming after her, or at one point, I was wondering if Heather was in an insane asylum and imagining all of the events that were happening in the current time. This is the other reason that this book was so good to read, I was constantly questioning what was going on, just like Heather. In so many Suspense and Thrillers I have part of it figured out early on, if not all of it, but not so with The Dead Girls Club.

Heather Cole is being haunted …. by her guilt? by someone who knows what she did 30 years ago? A ghost story that’s come to life?

Thirty years ago, Heather and three friends were members of the Dead Girls Club. They were obsessed with serial killers and bizarre deaths.

Heather’s best friend, Becca, became enamored of a story she told. The Red Lady was supposedly a witch who was killed centuries ago. Heather knows that the stories Becca tells are fiction … but Becca’s belief got her killed.

Heather is now under siege … by someone… or something … who knows what happened … and are determined to make her pay.

A little bit supernatural … crime fiction … thriller …. reminding me of the scary campfire stories told to children before bedtime. … this one seems to have it all. An interesting concept …. what a child carries with them into adulthood. After so many years, can you really trust your own memories?

This well written novel bounces back and forth between the happenings of today and the adventures of Heather’s club when she was 12 years old…. as she remembers. There are many twists and turns … they will keep the reader guessing until the very surprising ending.

Recommendation — keep the light on while reading and make sure all windows and doors are locked.

Many thanks to the author / Crooked Lane Books / Netgalley for the digital copy of THE DEAD GIRLS CLUB. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

This is billed as a “supernatural thriller.” I don’t read in the horror genre, nor do I read much dealing with the supernatural, so I can’t say how this book measures up against Trembley’s A Head Full of Ghosts or others in this category. As a thriller, I think it was a mixed success.

This novel is written in the ever-popular dual timeline format.

In the “now,” we follow adult Heather as she receives the necklace in the mail and hunts for who sent this to her. In the “then” sections, we follow Heather and her other friends during the summer between 7th and 8th grade. Becca tells stories about the Red Lady. They’re fascinated. But as the summer progresses, “fascinated” becomes “obsessed.” As you’d expect, the two timelines converge at the end.

At first, the “then” sections didn’t interest me. When I was 12-13 years old, the supernatural wasn’t enthralling to me. Ditto for scary stories, ghosts, anything macabre. Never played Bloody Mary or Light as a Feather. In other words, the girls of the Dead Girls Club would’ve kicked me out if a) we’d known each other, and b) they weren’t fictional characters.

Even so, there were things in those sections that rang true in my memory. The mistaken idea that once you make a promise, you must keep it. The equally mistaken idea that adults don’t have a clue and can’t help. The idea that best friends stay best friends forever.

Walters does a great job capturing the teen mindset and how easily they succumb to obsessions not easily understood by the adults around them. Because of this, by the end of the book, the “then” sections captured my attention. I read quickly, eager to learn what happened to Becca.

The opposite was true of the “now” sections. At first, I was curious about Heather’s reactions. But as her mental state rapidly deteriorated, her decisions became self-defeating and hurtful, both to herself and others. Just like Becca became obsessed with the Red Lady and was convinced only the Red Lady could help her, Heather becomes obsessed with finding out who knows “the truth.” She can’t think rationally.

After a certain point, I (along with another character) lost patience with her. She’s a trained child psychologist. Yet she behaves unprofessionally: forgets to take notes during sessions; zones out during group sessions with volatile teens; and reschedules patients’ appointments so she can hunt for whoever continues to send her items from the past.

(As a mom, I feel badly for the guardians of her child clients who have undoubtedly taken off from work, specifically chosen a particular time to fit into the child’s school/activity schedule, and will not be happy at last minute cancellations. Like I said, Heather’s not being professional, nor empathetic to her clients’ needs.)

At this point, she appears to need counseling more than give counseling.

It’s also increasingly apparent that she’s an unreliable narrator. How much of what she tells us is real? How much is delusional? Is her memory reliable? For example, we hear the Red Lady stories through Heather’s first person point of view memories from thirty-odd years before. Were these really the stories that Becca told? Have the stories been colored by Becca’s fate?

While I can enjoy an unsympathetic, unreliable narrator, these characters are tricky to pull off. (The type of narrator has also been overused in recent years, in my opinion.)

Heather’s paranoia escalates quickly. Rather than a gradual mental breakdown, which would feel more compelling and understandable for most readers, her reactions become overreactions.

While I understand her desire to keep this a secret, her continual secrets and lies make her previous stability seem unbelievable. How on earth was this woman able to function well enough (without counseling, apparently) to get a doctorate in psychology? Of all people, she should know the dangers of keeping secrets; she kept the secret of Becca’s mother’s “problems” even when questioned by her parents, with disastrous results.

At the same time, though, I understand why she’s haunted by Becca. She turned a blind eye to her best friend’s need, and when she did try to help, she only hurt her. That’s not a decision that can be undone.

I remember being a teen and responding inadequately to friends in similar circumstances. The evidence was right before my eyes but I was too naive, too preoccupied with myself to act in my friends’ best interest. (Yes, plural.) Those times of willful blindness haunt me to this day. As I read this book, I thought about them. No one died, but if they had . . . Who’s to say that I wouldn’t be as paranoid as Heather?

All that to say, while I frequently lost patience with her, I also saw certain elements of myself reflected in her. And that scared me more than any Red Lady story.

I had mixed feelings about the ending. It felt like the conflict both was and wasn’t resolved at the same time. Still, I don’t know what a better ending would be.

In the end, The Dead Girls’ Club is worth reading. Here’s why: Walters beautifully captures the early teen mindset of all-or-nothing thinking. Heather and Becca’s story serves as a sober reminder that the stories we tell ourselves are rarely only stories, obsessions can turn deadly, and turning a blind eye to those in need will haunt you for life. Recommended to suspense fans.

Thanks to Crooked Lane Books and Netgalley for a copy of The Dead Girls’ Club in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4

A twisted tale that is hard to believe. Two children play a game that turns deadly. Secrets hidden for decades slowly begin to come to light and Heather’s life and marriage to Ryan begins to fall apart. The life she has carefully constructed is coming apart with each new bit of information revealed to her about the murder of her best friend Becca. The author uses a masterpiece of plotting to bring the characters to life and ensures that the reader stays glued to the pages. The end is unexpected but shows the depth of a parent’s love.

I really liked this book! It was a spooky, and suspenseful book! The book starts in present tense, and goes back in time to 1991 , when Heather Cole and a few other friends were in a club, called the Dead Girls Club. The kids were fascinated with serial killers, and a witch that was killed many years ago, called the Red Lady . And then one of the girls, Becca dies. Fast Forward 30 yrs later, Heather receives something in the mail that brings back all the memories and secrets she had been carrying around for so long.
I was flipping the pages to the ending. If you like thrilling books, you will enjoy this one.

The books releases in Nov 2019

Thanks @Netgalley @CrookedLaneBooks #TheDeadGirlsClub for giving me the chance to read this book.

This book tells a story from present to the past, where we get the glimpses here and there about what transpired between two friends.

Heather Cole, a child psychologist, received an envelope at work only to discover it is a necklace belonging back in another place in time. Half a heart with letters, and Heather knows it’s the type of necklace the one wears half and the other half is worn by a friend…best friend to be exact. This necklace shakes Heather because it looks like the same one that belonged to her best friend, Becca, who is dead.

Becca, Heather, Gia, and Rachel all hung out together. While Heather and Becca were best friends, often doing things without the other two. Becca’s mother was in real estate, and Becca takes a key to a listing that is empty. It is there that the four friends, develop a secret group called The Dead Girls Club.

Becca enjoys telling tales and feeds her friends a horror story about The Red Lady. Over time, the story seems to take on a life of its own. Becca becomes obsessed with it, making claims the Red Lady is real. When Heather doesn’t agree wholeheartedly, it causes a rift in her and Becca’s friendship.

Now, thirty years later, someone is sending Heather mementos from the past that appear to be Becca’s. Someone is stirring up the past. Heather starts to look into Gia and Rachel, because it was just the four of them that knew of The Red Lady, and they were the ones that belonged to The Dead Girls Club. Heather has a secret of her own, and in trying to uncover who is stalking her, it’ll take a toll on her marriage and friendships.

After all, The Red Lady is just a made up story, right?

This book kept me glued to the pages. We know up front, something happened, but it’s through the unveiling of the story that adds a shocking unexpected twist. It centers around that one special friendship that means so much, and what one will do for their BFF.

I received an ARC from NetGalley via Crooked Lane Books and I voluntarily reviewed this book.