Becky Baldridge
One of my biggest pet peeves with books is when the blurb is misleading. I get that it should catch the attention of would-be readers, but if you tell me it's a specific thing, I darn well expect it to be that thing. The Dead Girls Club is not a supernatural thriller. Supernatural adjacent, maybe, but other than the made-up stories of one troubled little girl and another letting it get in her head, there was nothing supernatural here. Honestly, I didn't find anything remotely thriller-like either. Here's where I put in that none of that would've been a deal-breaker for me. I still could've enjoyed a good drama with some tragedy thrown in. What I got was a lengthy, wordy story that took way too long to get through. To be brutally honest, I was bored through about 75% of this one, and it was only sheer determination that made me push through to the end. I did like some of the "Then" chapters until they became repetitive with pre-teen drama and angst, but today's Heather got on my last nerve. I finally got to Becca's death, and yes, Becca had a tragic life, but when it came right down to it, I only had one thought about the night this girl died - they were young, yes, but they were old enough to know better. There are a couple of decent twists toward the end that could've been great had the book been better executed, but they were just too little, too late for me. Then an ending that was less than satisfying, to say the least, was just adding insult to injury.
Linda Strong
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.