This explores what happens when scary stories turn into real life nightmares.
One thing I really liked about this book was how fast paced it was. I felt like I flew through it because I wanted to know the truth about what happened to Becca. I also enjoyed how it switched between then and now. Time jumps are always something I enjoy in a thriller. The paranoia level is definitely high in this book to the point where I even found myself to be questioning what in the book was real and what was not. I had no idea what direction the story was going to take and I loved that! The ending was definitely not one that I saw coming at all. I don't think I could have ever predicted it, but I did like it.

In a continuing (futile) bid to clean out neglected ARCs from my Kindle, I recently looked at the mystery and suspense titles I had languishing that I could, in turn, score audiobook copies of via work. First up in this project is The Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters, a suspense horror title from late 2019.
In 1991, Heather Cole is a pretty typical pre-teen girl. She's got a best friend, Becca, and with two other girls, they form The Dead Girls Club. Like a lot of kids, they're a bit obsessed with the macabre - ghost stories, serial killers, Stephen King novels, things that go bump in the night. While there are four of them, Becca is the undisputed leader of the group, and has a love of ghost stories - which is how she starts telling the girls stories about The Red Lady, the spirit of a witch who was murdered centuries before. Heather knows these are just stories, until Becca starts acting weird, insisting The Red Lady is real. And then, Becca ends up dead.

Thirty years later, Heather is a child psychologist, happily married, and has done everything to put that summer, Becca, and The Red Lady behind her. It's a secret she has buried deep, until one day a necklace arrives in the office mail. The other half of a Best Friends Forever necklace. The half that belonged to Becca. The half that Heather knows Becca was wearing the night she died because Heather was there. Someone knows Heather's secret and is toying with her - but who?

Let's get this out of the way right up front - this sounds like a supernatural thriller with an unreliable narrator but...it's not. There's non-woo-woo explanations for everything, so just roll with it. Also, while Heather most definitely runs around halfcocked, calling her an unreliable narrator strains. Oh, don't get me wrong, she's Annoying AF - but she's mainly sloppy and stupid - not gorked out on pain meds and booze.

The first half of this book is really slow. The story goes back and forth in time - Annoying AF Heather in Present Day and Annoying AF Becca in 1991. And by the end I felt bad for thinking either of them was Annoying AF, but there you have it. It's a lot of Heather freaking out in present day and Becca telling scary stories in 1991. That's it. I basically kept listening because I had to know what Heather's secret was and what really happened to Becca - especially once I figured out the whole "supernatural" thing was a bit of a red herring.

However by around the 50-60% mark things really start to cook and I couldn't tear myself away. I raced to the finish and then met my final quandary. Yes, bad people are punished. Just not all the bad people. The reader finds out what happened to Becca, but secrets get kept, the world keeps on turning, but justice for Becca? At the end of the day? Only partly.

Final Grade = C+

So here’s the thing: I have had this book on my shelf for almost 5 years now and I have not once attempted to read it. I’m so sorry for accepting the request on this and not reading it but I can only blame my baby Bookstagrammer self who didn’t know any better.

This is a great coming-of-age story that blends horror and thriller. This story alternates between past and present, which I like. I did love the last chapters more than the present. I just didn't completely connect with the main character in the present and found some of her choices to be odd. Overall a great book though, and I will read more from this author!

Decent enough book packed with urban legend...The Red Lady. Four twelve year old girls start a club obsessed with serial killers and death. Reminiscent of the Slender Man crime, things get out of hand. Heather has been living with the consequences until everything comes back to remind her.
Thanks Netgalley for the advancement reading copy in exchange for my opinion.

A child psychologist that you'd want to keep far away from children!

Heather, a child psychologist, is trying to piece together the fateful night in her childhood when her friend Becca ended up dead.

Unfortunately, I wasn't a fan of Heather and the switch from the Then and Now storyline wasn't compelling for me.

This was ok but I expected more.

Damien Angelica Walters' The Dead Girls Club is a dark and atmospheric novel that follows the story of five teenage girls who are drawn together by their shared interest in the occult. The girls soon find themselves caught up in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse with a killer who is targeting young women in their small town.
The novel is poorly written, suspenseless, and predictable. The characters are flat and the ending is a letdown. Overall, The Dead Girls Club is a good novel that is worth reading. However, it is not without its flaws.
I would give The Dead Girls Club 3 out of 5 stars.

I gave this a four out of five stars. I really enjoyed this story, it was something different than I thought it would be. I want to get a finished copy.

This was a great book. I thoroughly enjoyed it. A scary story told among friends. I could totally remember being that age and doing things like this. But thank goodness they never escalated in this fashion! It was a thrilling story. Interesting characters. I will definitely continue to keep my eye on this author. I am pro feminist horror always! It started off simple/familiar enough but definitely doesn't hold back on gore.

The Dead Girls Club kind of reminded me of YA horror books I read as a teen, like Christopher Pike and RL Stine. I liked the girls obsession with the macabre because I definitely could picture it being something a group of friends would do. Heather was an inconsistent character so it kind of made me less invested in the plot. The ending also was a little more open than I would preferred too. However, still a fun read from a new to me author.

Was not able to finish. Though I appreciate the opportunity to read this book, it did not hold an interest for me.

I received a free e-copy of The Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters from NetGalley for my honest review.

This was an interesting read but the writing fell flat for me. I enjoyed the beginning of the book a lot more than the last half of the book.

Heather and her best friend Becca, along with two other friends are obsessed with serial killers. Becca loves to tell scary stories. One story in particular, The Red Lady, keeps getting revisited. A story of a witch who was murdered by her own town and not even her friends did anything to help her. The story continues that the whole town ended up dying afterwards. Becca believes the story and convinces all her friends as well except Heather. But then something happens that makes her doubt herself and her friend Becca. Heather decides to help Becca prove the Red Lady is real until Becca turns up dead.

Now 30 years later and strange things start to happen. Someone knows what Happened all those years ago. Is Heather's life in danger? What really happened to Becca and who knows the truth?

Oo I'm so happy I had a chance to read this book. I abostly loved it. 5 star book. Highly recommend it. I couldn't put it down, kept me pulled into it . I already told a few people about this book. And I hope they read it. Might reread this book next year.

This book definitely didn’t end the way I thought it would!! It was hard to put down and I loved every moment.

I had hopes for this book to be something I could recommend to my students. Normally I have no issue with (and seek out) "then and now" reading, but there was no real jump or distinction between the two times. Heather didn't seem to grow up. The writing kept me going. I'll be trying out other books from the author

This seemed overly hyped and kinda unoriginal. I felt let down after reading this. Didn't mind that it was a thriller but the sudden surprise ending felt rushed and unreal. The relationships between the girls didn't seem real and even the victim was someone I couldn't stand as a character. This was an average okay read.

Started off with a bang but ended up fizzling out as it went along. Due to my annoyance with the characters, I failed to feel the suspense and thrills as intended.

I received an advanced review copy for free from NetGalley

“The Dead Girls Club” by Damien Angelica Walters started out as an interesting read but as I got through it, I started to feel a bit let down as the story progressed. While I did enjoy going back and forth from the present to the past of the main protagonist Heather, things started to get repetitive with certain situations and well, boring.

I enjoyed the parts involving The Red Lady and wish there was more of that as it started to get really interesting and well, scary. I felt this book didn’t really bring all that much horror to the table but ended up being more of a thriller/suspense, which is fine, but the ending was a major letdown. After building things up and with Heather making very unusual and erratic decisions for someone who is a psychologist, it wasn’t all that believable.

With that being said, I give “The Dead Girls Club” by Damien Angelica Walters a 2/5 Stars as I did enjoy her writing style and certain parts in the beginning but this novel could have been so much more. I feel if this went down the path of The Red Lady being a force to reckon with and having it all be fleshed out well primarily involving her, it would have ended up being a better read. At any rate, it just fell flat for me in the second half of the book and with its lackluster ending.

“The Dead Girls Club” is a slow-paced, riveting horror novel that keeps readers on their toes from start to finish.

The novel is told in dual timelines. In the past, twelve-year-old Heather and her friends were members of “The Dead Girls Club”, where they shared their interest in the macabre, from telling ghost stories to talking about true crime. It’s just harmless fun, but when Heather’s friend, Becca, becomes obsessed with the story of the “Red Lady”, things become a lot more sinister. Is the Red Lady embellished fact or pure fiction? The lines begin to blur for both Heather and the reader. The present day timeline is set decades later, where Becca has been missing for years and Heather has become a child psychologist. One day in the office, Heather receives a mysterious message from someone who might just know what happened to Becca years ago. But how does Heather know that these messages aren’t coming from Becca herself? Because she killed her.

This book is compelling, and while we know the outcome of the past timeline right away, it is still unputdownable. How Becca’s death happens is unknown to the reader, and there are a few startling twists along the way.

Heather is a sympathetic protagonist, and it’s clear that the guilt from what she did has been weighing on her all these years. The anxiety that she feels is almost palpable in the writing. Little things, like the way that she picks at her cuticles until they bleed, are realistic, disturbing, and incite higher stress levels in the reader.

The book is gruesome at parts, and the tension never truly lets up. As the book progresses, Heather grows more and more obsessed with figuring out who’s reaching out to her, and her own sanity starts to come into question.

All in all, this is an enjoyable read, but not for the faint of heart!

It took me a very long time to read this novel because the beginning just didn’t catch me like most novels that I like. The Dead Girls Club did eventually capture my attention due to its ability to encapsulate dread and emotion in a way that feels unique. I recommend that you pick this book up even if it takes a few tries to commit to reading it.