Heather Cole is a successful child psychologist with a loving husband and a dark secret. When she was younger, Heather was part of a group called The Dead Girls Club. Together she, her best friend Becca, and their friends Rachel and Gia got together to tell horror stories and discuss serial killers. When Becca becomes obsessed with the story of a woman called The Red Lady, Heather and her friendship begins to dissolve. Unfortunately Becca's obsession with The Red Lady lead to her death. Now decades later, Becca's half of her "Best Friend" necklace arrives in Heather's mailbox and someone is looking for revenge.  

If you're a fan of supernatural thriller stories like those of Paul Tremblay, you'll be delighted with The Dead Girls Club. The book keeps the reader guessing the entire time of whether the force haunting Heather is supernatural in nature or a real killer coming for her. I felt for her as Heather tries to use her background as a psychologist to keep things in perspective and keep looking for what the real cause of everything might be, but only making herself look guiltier and guiltier.

The Dead Girls Club is the type of book that you start thinking you'll just read a few chapters, and then find yourself hiding under the covers trying to hide either a flashlight or your phone light so you can get to the very end. 

The Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters comes to book stores December 10, 2019.

“The Dead Girls Club” by Damien Angelica Walters
Genre: #thriller #horror #fiction
Pub Date: 10 Dec 2019
Rating: ☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️/5
a·gog /əˈɡäɡ/
adjective
very eager or curious to hear or see something.
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Ok, so I sat here contemplating my review but I decided that life is too short for 5/5 ratings to be unattainable. Did this book keep me entertained? Was it suspenseful? Was it the right amount of horror to reality ratio? Yes, Yes and Yes! Did I figure out the twist before I read it? No. So there you have it- a ☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️/5. I’m a sucker for a good or even twisted love story in a thriller and this book kept me entertained WITHOUT that.
Thanks @netgalley and @crookedlanebooks

The suspense/creepy factor was well done, never quite so strong as to be unbelievable, never quite so faint as to fade into the background. Overall though, this just doesn't feel like a book I'll be thinking about for any length of time.

Wow! Awesome book. This book really kept my attention and guessing for more. I thought some of the flashbacks were a little long: it gave good information on the background and relationships between the girls, but the Red Lady stories were a little disturbing for me. (I was never one that got into that stuff as a kid). Throughout this book, I kept thinking this is predictable, this is predictable, it's the friend; it's the husband, but WOW what a great ending twist in more than one way! This will be an author I keep reading.

Loved it. Could not stop reading. Full of suspense and creepy. I knew when I saw the similarities to Head Full of Ghosts that I was gonna love it. I hope to read lots more of this type of horror. So unique.

Thank you NetGalley for letting me read an advanced copy of this book. I absolutely loved it and what a thrill ride it was!
It was so hard to put down and it is definitely a must read book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this ARC!

I feel like most books written about this kind of thing and in this genre have been falling flat for me lately, but I loved The Dead Girls Club! It kept my interest throughout the entire story, and I couldn't put it down once I started it and got more into it. This is a fantastic thriller for fans of the genre, and for people looking for a read that they won't be able to put down. I felt that the ending was a little rushed, but the reveals at the end were absolutely devastating and not what I was expecting at all. It was very hard to tell whether this was a supernatural thriller or just a normal one, and I really enjoyed that it kept me guessing. I'm really looking forward to reading more of Damien Angelica Walters' work now.

I had to take a few days after reading this book to let it settle. Very well written. Fast paced. Great suspense. Not all questions are answered - but I felt very satisfied with the story. The characters are well developed - I was very attached to the main character. Moves between present and past when event occurred - smooth transitions, kept me wanting to know more.

The past comes back to haunt Heather Cole in a major way. Almost thirty years after she killed her best friend Becca, Heather begins receiving mementos. Who is sending them? Was someone else in the house with her and Becca that night?

I enjoyed the majority of this novel, particularly the chapters with Heather and Becca. The present narration with Heather was not as enjoyable and overall, I didn't really like Heather. She seemed to have an extreme reaction for almost everything, even before Becca's death. The story itself is really good though and I had a hard time putting it down.

Wow, What a wild ride. This book had the most creative plot, amazing characters andd suspense to the max. The past and present story telling worked well with the plot. The ending surprised the hell out of me. I could not put this one down. such an epic story. So well written!

This story of Heather and her friends Becca, Rachel, and Gale kept me guessing. It went from her past to her present every other chapter so I was able to follow along with what happened pretty good but I didn’t know who the bad guy was until the very end. I love that about a suspenseful story. I like not being to guess what happened and who did it.

Damien Angelica Walters is one of my favorite literary horror writers. In her latest book, The Dead Girls Club, Walters veers a bit more toward a standard horror thriller without losing the brilliant turns of a phrase and human insight that makes her writing such a pleasure to read.

In her most mainstream work to date, Walters puts her unique spin on a few common horror tropes. Most notably, the “someone knows about an awful thing I did in the past” and “children play around with an urban legend” tropes. Thankfully, Walters is able to infuse both of these tropes with enough new energy that they still feel fresh and relevant.

Walters always mentions scars in her work, often as a physical representation of emotional turmoil. In this book, there’s not much of an emphasis placed on physical scars, but there are plenty of psychological scars to take their place.

The pacing of this book reminded me of Bird Box by Josh Malerman, and the comparisons to A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay are apt as well. Paper Tigers is still my favorite of Walters’ books, but The Dead Girls Club is also a 5-star, must-read for fans of the horror and thriller genres. It has plenty of tense, unnerving moments and a resolution that left me completely satisfied.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

There was a lot of working up to what happened that one night during Heather's childhood. At times it seemed to "drag" a little, like there was a lot of detail that could have been left out and it wouldn't have changed the book. There were times towards the end that I really thought maybe this was all in Heather's mind, that none of this really happened. So obviously, the ending wasn't one I saw coming! The end had a good twist and it's a book worth reading!

Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the opportunity to review this book!

GoodReads Synopsis:

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.


Review:

Where to even start! Honestly I was worried I would not be a fan of this book,solely because of the chapter length, but this book was written so well that it didn't even bother me! Chapters were all written from the point of view of Heather and jumped between present day and the past. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time battling with myself over what was really going on and trying to figure out where the truth lies. It was compelling following Heather and seeing how the past was slowly taking control of her. She became fixated to the point of ruining current day relationships and putting her job in jeapordy. I highly recommend this to all those who love thrillers, suspense, and even supernatural stories. I can't to get my hands on a physical copy because to cover is just as beautiful as the story itself!

I enjoyed this book, which is my first by Damien Angelica Walters.

The book tells the story of Heather, a children's psychologist, who may have been part of a crime in her youth. When reminders of that time begin to come through the mail, Heather thinks she may have remembered details falsely or someone else may know the secrets of Heather, her best friend Becca, and the mysterious Red Lady.

The book hinges on the story of the Red Lady, who Becca may or may not have made up, and is part urban legend and part savior of injustice. From this story, the girls bond and become even closer friends while embracing the other members of the club: Gia and Rachel.

The book has a lot of interesting twists, but the ending was a bit of a letdown. I found the dialogue a little stilted at times, and I had some issues with the flashbacks. I felt that was both unrealistic and I only knew the girls were best friends because I was told often.

Overall, this was an enjoyable mystery and a fun way to pass the time.

Thanks to NetGalley.com, the publisher, and author for my advanced copy.

I really enjoyed this plotline and read the book in just a couple of days. Heather, the main character, was not a super likable character for me, but the plot and mystery elements were more important and well done. The author did a great job flipping between the present and past to paint the picture of the story. I was actually pretty scared at a few parts and had to stop reading before bed!

My one issue with this book was the SUPER overdone descriptions of Heather's anxiety response of ripping up her cuticles. I truly almost quit the book because the author writes about this way too many times in too much detail and its not necessary or honestly very important at all.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for a review.

These 4 little girls make a Dead Girls Club. They are fascinated by serial kills and when together they tell stores about famous and not so famous killers. Until one of the stores is a bit too real and Becca is dead.

This book is very intriguing, you want to keep reading because your sure that the "Red Lady" has put a curse on Becca because there is no one of the other girls could have done something so terrible. This is has a horror feel as well as a thriller all in one. If you like a bit of the supernatural then you will like this book.

I was excited about this novel, and it was a strong read. Always a fan of mystery thrillers, I was intrigued by a story about young girls conjuring the spirit of The Red Lady with their Dead Girls Club. It ends with one girl dead. Yet thirty years later, her murder and/or disappearance is still unsolved. When Heather gets a necklace in the mail, she realized their secret might be out.
I was a teen with a flair for the macabre, so I could definitely relate. Walters' pacing and storytelling were even, and pulled me in. I consistently wanted to find out what was going to happen next to Heather, while still questioning all that had happened those many years earlier. I was guessing all over the place about the outcome, but ironically never guessed it. Glad her outcome cleanly tied up loose ends. Damien Angelica Walters is a writer I will look out for in the future.
Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the digital ARC.
thelithaven.com

The Dead Girls Club is a wonderful, dark and incredibly rich mystery/thriller novel, so well built and fast paced that I wasn't able to put it down till I reached the end. I was absolutely captivated by the atmosphere, and the characters.

This novel submerges the reader in a landscape so detailed that the plot never feels forced, and is never difficult to understand or picture in one's mind. All in all, a fantastic and well-rounded novel!

I thought this was a very good horror novel. It reminded me a bit of S.P Miskowski's Knock Knock and the more recent The Rust Maidens by Gwendolyn Kiste. I read it quickly and found it tense. I enjoyed the writing style, characters, and attention to setting.