Great thriller. Kept me guessing. Will definitely be adding to my collection. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

3.5 stars!!

Mysterious. Thrilling. Suspenseful and downright creepy at times! I'm very thankful to NetGalley for giving me a ARC to read and review, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Heather was a perfect protagonist for this kind of book, though frustrating at times, but it was hard to not get tied up with how her story was told. We get flashback of little Heather with Becca and her other friends and their secret club that traded murder stories. And then we see adult Heather who seems to be haunted by Becca or someone else- who knows what she did to Becca.

The Dead Girls Club had the perfect plot and I loved the dynamic of the younger girls and how it was told, though I did still have questions that were unanswered I did like the ending.

Longer review to be on my blog this Monday!

Red Lady, Red Lady, show us your face...

In 1991, Heather Cole and her friends were members of the Dead Girls Club. Obsessed with the macabre, the girls exchanged stories about serial killers and imaginary monsters, like the Red Lady, the spirit of a vengeful witch killed centuries before. Heather knew the stories were just that, until her best friend Becca began insisting the Red Lady was real—and she could prove it. That belief got Becca killed.

It's been nearly thirty years, but Heather has never told anyone what really happened that night—that Becca was right and the Red Lady was real. She's done her best to put that fateful summer, Becca, and the Red Lady, behind her. Until a familiar necklace arrives in the mail, a necklace Heather hasn't seen since the night Becca died. The night Heather killed her.
Now, someone else knows what she did . . . and they're determined to make Heather pay.

Oh man, this was such a spooky, unsettling story! Wow is all I can say, you need to pick this book up and read it!!

#TheDeadGirlsClub #NetGalley
Pub Date: 10 Dec 2019

Wow. This one was definitely edgier than I expected. I would say this supernatural suspense really boarded on horror and was good enough to keep me up at night!! This one was pretty darn scary and I really felt like I was on the edge of my seat for a good bit of it.

The only negative I really had was that it was hard for me to connect with the protagonist for the beginning of the novel. Once it got rolling, I really did empathize with her and thought the story was captivating enough to keep me on edge! Really suspenseful and fun!

I had high hopes for this book and they just fell short. I wasn't the biggest fan of the writing style and didn't enjoy the plot as much as I hoped.

This book is a twist on the classic story told by an unreliable narrator, and I think the author spun it with great success. From the beginning, I can see that the reader might be inclined to question the judgement of Heather, a psychologist who claims she murdered her best friend, Becca, when they were teenagers. Heather has grown up and hidden her secret past from everyone she loves, until it comes back to haunt her in the form of the necklace Becca was wearing when she died. Who could have sent Heather this necklace? Has her well-guarded secret been discovered?

When the author takes us back to the time surrounding the event, we learn that Becca and Heather were part of a “Dead Girls Club” in which macabre stories of true crime and lore were shared -- stories that include the legend of the Red Lady, a witch who began haunting the girls of the club following a ritual in which they called her spirit. Could it be that the Red Lady killed Becca? As I watched Heather grow progressively unstable, I also followed the unexpected twists and turns that led to a satisfying conclusion.

I received a DIGITAL Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review of #TheDeadGirlsClub

REVIEW
The Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters
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Thank you for the early release of the ebook Netgalley
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Release date 12/10/2019
Review also on Goodreads and Instagram under Bookish_Pineapple

https://www.instagram.com/bookish_pineapple/

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/45701350
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This book was not at all what I expected. The build up took me a little bit to get into but once I did, I didn’t put it down. I finished this book in less than a day. Forgo laundry and dishes. This was much more important.
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A story of preteen friends and imaginations. Stories you tell to make things seem better or deflect from what’s really going on. We’ve all done it. Our monsters are not as scary as the ones we make up. Our saviors are not as close as the ones we believe in. Friends are there until the end. And sometimes even after.
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A disturbing but enticing witchy supernatural-twist your mind-mystery. Find out what really happens as you are enveloped into the past through flashbacks. What you think is not what happens. Kept me on the edge of my seat until I was finished.

Not gonna lie, I usually don't read thrillers with supernatural but this book blew me away. Never expected to love this book as much as I did. It was amazing and couldn't put it down once I started. The writing was amazing and the story will keep you guessing.

Thank you Netgalley, the author and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Dead Girls Club is a supernatural thriller full of nostalgia. It flashes back and forth between the present moment with Heather, as her past catches up with her, and flashbacks to moments shared with her best friends she was 12. It brings back memories of sleep overs and sneaking out after dark, telling ghost stories in the dark, and playing games like Bloody Mary or Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board.

The author nailed the character of 12 year old girls, the fights, the love between them, the back and forth chatter. She had me remembering things I hadn’t thought of in ages. Overall I liked most of the characters and felt they were pretty fleshed out. I did grow frustrated at times at Heather’s inability to communicate with her husband and friends, as well as her increasingly erratic behavior, but it makes sense in the context.

The writing style felt very heavily stream of consciousness, which isn’t always my thing and grew a little tiresome here from time to time. Otherwise the writing and dialogue were fine.

The pacing is never feels slow, (I’d actually describe it as quick) but the actual action doesn’t really ramp up until the very end. It’s more. Of a slow burn, strange things happening throughout, each becoming more brazen and mysterious. I often found it hard to put it down, no matter which storyline I was following. The spooky parts are sufficiently creepy, but it doesn’t veer too far into horror territory.

The ending is not predictable (I sure didn’t guess it, I don’t think anyone else will either) but it also isn’t surprising, I don’t want to say it’s been done before, but I feel like things like it have been done before. There was no definitive OMG I can’t believe it! Moment.

Overall a solid entry into the thriller genre with mass appeal. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an electronic copy for review.

🎶 “Cause this is thriller...thriller night....”🎶

Now that you’re trying to get that out of your head...this actually was a pretty awesome thriller novel. It had so much of what I look for in a good thriller- murder, unexplainable elements, interesting relationship dynamics- all the good stuff.

So the narration jumps back and forth between Heather then and Heather now. From the childhood Heather we get the story of The Dead Girls Club, which is really a group of four friends who meet to talk about true crime, murders, ghosts...you know, the usual childhood conversations. 😂😂 The girls also become fascinated and fixated on the story of The Red Lady. They perform a ritual to conjure up the spirit of this long dead lady which would be downright scary as a child. We also learn that Heather’s best friend Becca comes from an abusive home, which I think may account for her need to escape into these stories. A tragedy occurs within this group of friends, which I won’t give away. The childhood Heather was my favorite narrator- very relatable and “real.”

Adult Heather is being stalked, and is on a hunt to find the culprit. Someone is sending her items and reminders of her childhood with the group of friends. Some of the memories are ones that she doesn’t want to relive. I found myself guessing as to who Heather’s present-day tormentor could be.

🖤🖤🖤🖤I really liked this book, and it was a hard one to put down. I would give it 4/5 hearts simply because I would have liked to have seen more development of The Red Lady, and I enjoyed the childhood story more than the adult Heather’s story.

This is a very creepy, very suspenseful murder mystery. The story is told in different timelines. The first is 1991 teenage girls while the second is 30 years later...

My thanks to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for this advanced readers copy. Release date for this book is set for December 2019.

A decent psychological thriller. I liked Heather and the author pulled me in to her head effectively. She also represented the dynamics of a group of tween girls with eerie precision. She kept me guessing till the end with whether the paranormal was real and even made me wonder if Heather might be the culprit and the victim.

I thought I was going to like this more than I did. The story was well written. The main character was not someone I could care about which made the story less enjoyable. The teen friendship was believable. This story is still a good read if you want something to read that you don’t really have to think about.

Excellent, fast paced psychological thriller. Kept me guessing until the very scary twisted end. Two young girls who have a fascination with the macabre start a club with two other young girls. As the four girls start learning the story of The Red Lady, strange things begin happening to all of them. If you are a fan of horror and mystery novels then this book is for you. Left me completely creeped out for several days. Highly recommend!

I was given an advanced copy of The Dead Girls Club in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley, author & publisher for the chance to read this book!

Thoughts:
This book was super creepy. I seriously had to stop reading it in the middle of the night as I was freaked out a bit.

Great premise & I loved the THEN & NOW concept as well. The THEN was so entertaining and kept me riveted. The NOW had some issues for me. Overall I really enjoyed Heather and Becca’s story and the preteen issues they had to overcome. The ending didn’t go exactly how I would have liked but I was surprised and happy with it!

If you want a ghostly, preteen best friend story with a tad of urban legend thrown in - this is a book for you!

I give it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars overall!
Dig in and get creeped out- !

*ARC provided by the Publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*
Imagine the start of a horror film aimed at teenagers. There are four friends who share scary stories (Stephen King/urban legends) and serial killers. They have come across the story of the Red Lady and are obsessed with it. They believe that she's real. This belief got one of the girls, Becca killed.
This is 30 years later and Heather has put the Red Lady and everything behind her. Heather is the one that kills Becca, but she is the only one who knows. Someone remembers what happens and wants Heather to pay for that night though.
I think it was fun in the same way watching a predictable horror film or reading Agatha Christie is. It's not reinventing the wheel, but it's enjoyable and fun. It feels a bit like a paint by number horror movie with the plot points, flashbacks and the belief in an entity. With some drama akin to teen dramas thrown in.
The writing was fast paced and intriguing. The relationships between the children was relatable and believable. The girls hanging out and doing rituals seems so relatable to things children do at that age. I was reading Stephen King and was obsessed with serial killers and horror at that age, so I enjoyed that aspect. I think some of this was inspired by the Slender Man controversy. The creativity of Red Lady was good, it fit right in with the many urban legends and rituals I've read on the Internet over the years. It had some aspects of them, but was different enough to stand on its own. I'm now waiting to see creepy pastas on this.
3.5/5
I liked it. If you like mysteries and horrors, you'll have fun with this novel. If your looking for something to read at the pool or beach grab this one, as its an easy read! I don't think this book is asking for more than just being a fun read, which was exactly what I was in the mood for.

I quite enjoyed this book. I kept hearing good things so when I saw it available to request a galley of I jumped on it and was rewarded for my vigor.
The book is creepy, with a fun mystery to unravel running adjacent to a potentially supernatural tale. I feel like the point of inspiration is clear here - - the Slender Man stabbing - - and it did a great job of playing with that idea in a smart, eerie way.

I am a huge thriller reader, but this fell short. I expected to enjoy it as I am interested in the idea of urban legends, etc. but no luck. Not very realistic and didn’t find the characters engaging.

This thriller overall really impressed me. The supernatural element had me completely caught up in the story that I found myself missing a lot of the clues that I normally would've seen a lot sooner.

The main character was incredibly frustrating and I could just see her spiralling through the whole story and I had to keep reading just to see what happened next.

The dual timelines was interesting and though I felt at times that the "Then" chapters really didn't add a whole lot to the story it did help tie everything together.

Some of the writing was quite juvenile sounding, obvious metaphors and similes sprinkled far too often for my liking and that's a big part of the reason I gave it four stars. It was just grating and it kind of just pulled me out of the story too much.

This book had me hooked from the first page to the very last!

The story of 4 friends, aged 12 and 13, who were obsessed with the macabre. The girls exchanged stories about serial killers and imaginary monsters, like the Red Lady, the spirit of a vengeful witch killed centuries before. Heather knew the stories were just that, until her best friend Becca began insisting the Red Lady was real–and she could prove it. That belief got Becca killed.

The book goes back and forth between present time - which is 30 years later - and the past, and it does this very fluidly. The transition between now and then is practically seamless which makes it easy to stay focused on the plot. I honestly did not figure out the twist until the very end - but what was fun is that I would think I knew and then something I read would change my mind. The end wrapped everything up but not too tightly because I still can't stop thinking about everything that happened.

Definitely could not put it down from the very beginning to the end!