The Dead Girls Club is a fabulous thriller that I could not put down. I loved the storyline and characters. Well written and well developed characters.

It’s kind of scary how much this book appealed to me. Title...check. Cover...check. Synopsis...check. It didn’t disappoint. Having never read anything else by Walters, I’m excited to go down a rabbit hole and discover her past titles. Heather, the protagonist, is reliable, if shifty and while I found myself growing increasingly frustrated with her choices...when I sat back and really put myself in her shoes, I’m not sure I would have done things differently myself. I also loved how childhood friendships were discussed. When you’re that age, losing friends feels like the end of the world and it all felt so relatable. I’m excited to see what Walters writes next. It seems like this is her first mystery/thriller without a horror bent...and I’m really happy that it didn’t disappoint.

I have not read a scary book, thriller, suspense since I was in the 7th & 8th grade, when I asked for the arc of this book, I wasn’t even thinking how I should probably not read it at night. Heather is a woman who is trying hard not to feel guilty over what happened with Becca, she has a lot of baggage and it starts affecting her real life when she receives a necklace only Becca wore along with her as a child. She begins to stalk people, and feels herself going crazy, she doesn’t want to believe the Red Lady is real yet she does believe she is.What made The Dead Girl’s Club interesting was how Heather kept going back to THEN and NOW, so she is reliving the story in the past and in the present, which is helpful to find out what really happened with Becca. I thought it was a perfect thriller, I could not read it at night because I would literally be scared to have nightmares, but this book could easily be turned into a movie and a great one at that. I would recommend this book for those who like mystery, thriller, suspense , scary, etc. With this book you find yourself questioning what is real and what isn’t. I would recommend this book to those who like a chilling experience, I can’t say that I found anything I hated, everything in the book seemed calculated until the end. I really enjoyed this read.

Thanks to NetGalley for a Kindle ARC of The Dead Girls Club.

Heather Cole has a secret. When she was a tween, she killed her BFF, Becca, as part of a ritual for an urban legend called The Red Lady.

Now, years later, Heather is a respected child psychologist who receives something unsettling in the mail.

Is Becca still alive? Does she want revenge?

The narrative takes place between the past and present, and the author does a good job of recapturing what it was like to be a tween, the angst, the adolescences, the ability to switch friendships and alliances in the blink of an eye. It reminded me of my own youthful digressions.

I especially liked the inclusion of The Red Lady story, a horror tale the four friends are fascinated by, not unlike the urban legends like Slenderman that captivate today's youth and contributed to shocking violence.

Readers are drawn into Becca's obsession with The Red Lady, and you don't have to be a psychologist to understand the reason for it, an escape from the horrors of living with an abusive and alcoholic parent.

When Becca's obsession turns deadly, Heather is drawn into her BFF''s macabre devotion, and there will be no turning back.

In the present, Heather begins to unravel when she believes Becca may still be alive. Strange things begin to occur, causing a rift in her marriage and colleagues, causing her professionalism to suffer in the workplace.

Her investigation forces her to reconnect with her former friends, one friendly, the other not so much so.

Heather is a decent character. I liked her though at times I found her frustrating. Some of the things she does weren't sane, but as humans, we make mistakes, more so when we are stressed and living on the brink of sanity.

I figured out the twists long before the ending, but only because I read so many books of this type.

This was a decent read, and I would recommend it to readers who want a little scare but not too much.

This book flips back and forth between the present and the past. From the first page you are left wondering what the main characters have had happen in their lives and question whether they are reliable. Very suspenseful!

I loved this book so much that I read it all in one night, which I was not planning to do! I have to say, I'm a little biased as I live right in the area the book was set and I couldn't get over that. Maybe that's why I was so drawn into the story, but boy, was I unable to let go! We're informed early on in the story that the Becca, the best friend of the narrator, Heather, was killed as a child. And surprisingly Heather herself states that she killed her. What you need to determine as the reader is how literal Heather is actual being...

The book begins in the present day and transitions between now and the months leading up to Becca's death.
I think this author does a brilliant job of capturing the essence of young teenage girls and the drama and angst that they experience on a daily basis. I found the conversations and behavior between Heather & Becca and their other friends Gia & Rachel believable and quite reminiscent of my own teenage years. Even their interest in horror stories and serial killers isn't hard to imagine as there's nothing spookier than sitting around telling scary stories. Becca's favorite are her tales of The Red Lady, a scorned witch from the distant past who takes revenge on the evil townspeople that bury her alive. As Becca becomes more and more obsessed with The Red Lady, her friendship with Heather begins to suffer.

The current events of the story revolve around the mementos of Becca being sent to Heather now, almost thirty years later. Who is sending them? How do they even have them? Heather's sanity slowly begins to unravel as she desperately tries to figure out what is happening. The one thing I was worried about was that the supernatural aspect would leave the conclusion somewhat vague or mysterious, but that was not the case. The reader is not left with any questions and I think it was the best way to end the story. It was such an engrossing read and has introduced this reviewer to a new author to enjoy!

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.




Thank you to net galley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book it was a great experience first time reading anything from this author. It had me on the edge of my seat.

Four teenage girls with a morbid fascination with serial killers and death form the Dead Girls Club, where they read about Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy and other killers. Then one of the girls, Becca begins to talk about the Red Lady, a woman buried alive for witchcraft centuries earlier. She becomes so fixated on her, it begins to drive a wedge between the girls. Years later, as adult Heather is spooked when reminders of Becca and TDGC begin arriving in the mail. Only Becca could have access to the objects and information Heather is getting, but Becca is dead, as Heather well knows. The premise for this book is fantastic, but it falters somewhat in the telling. The back and forth between past and present is a little clunky and there are no huge surprises.

From the very beginning I did not like the protagonist/narrator. I find her selfish, self-centered, egotistical, and a drama queen. Almost immediately she goes into the "huff, puff, I'll swoon" stage like a well-bred Victorian noblewoman on her fainting couch. I'm reminded of the antagonist Kate in Robyn Harding's HER PRETTY FACE; I could not abide her character either (though I adored the book). Heather also reminds me of the unreliable narrator of GIRL ON A TRAIN. This protagonist has no reason I could see to be as she is: she didn't have an abusive childhood; she had supportive and loving parents, a best friend, and two other almost-best friends. They seemed to have much freedom as far as being able to roam and go about, separately and together. Perhaps she is one of those cases of "damned by faint praise," a person whose life is too stable so she gets spoiled and seeks out excitement, then blames her failings on others (including the victim).

All that aside, the novel did catch my interest about 18% in, and the plot is intriguing, especially certain events which begin to occur in the life of the protagonist in an odd but compelling sequence, so that the reader wonders if the protagonist is having blank spells and acting thus herself, or is being gaslighted, or is in actuality being threatened. Throughout the story, the past is interwoven with the present, so that we see why events in the past happened as they did, and in what I think is the denouement, we find out exactly what was and was not done that fateful past night, and why, and what were the intents. I will only say how tragic, for all, but especially for some.

Despite my strong and persistent dislike of the protagonist, Heather Cole, the story line did maintain its intrigue and keep me turning the pages till the end.

For #stitchmaynia11 I'm working on Glendon Place's Monster Mash. I'm stitching it on a fabric called Eye of Newt, This was the perfect recipe of my favorite kind of Thriller. And it delivered. The characters are well fleshed out and you either like them or you don't like them but they seem real. The story moves along at a good pace, not too fast not too slow - so you really find yourself falling into the storyline, wondering what's going to happen next.

*I would like to thank the author/publisher/Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book and exchange for a fair and honest review.* is a 32-count line by Weeks Dye Works - deep outrange with smudges of purple.

It's a lovely fabric. I'm using the monochromatic palette, in black and in the purple of 208 209 and 210. I've always loved the old style Universal monsters and this is what it reminds me the most!

Happy Saturday stitching, everyone!

"What begins as a story became something more, and what started as a chain around my ankle turned into a noose around my neck. Maybe Becca and I were damned from the first mention of her name."
Twelve year olds Heather, Becca and two other friends made up a club called the Dead Girls Club where they talked about serial killers and exchanged ghost stories. One night Becca tells her friends about about a witch name the red lady who she truly believed was real. This belief got her killed...by her best friend Heather. Now 30 years later, Heather has still not told anyone the truth about what has happened but when she received the necklace Becca was wearing the night she died in the mail, she knows that she is not the only one who knows her secret.

I am not normally do nothing ready supernatural thrillers but I decided to give this one a try. Unfortunately, it fell pretty flat. The writing was a bit all over the place and very choppy. There was no development of the characters and overall I just didn't find it very engaging.