What a weird, yet beautiful, little book. I went in expecting something a little creepy, a little sad, a little quirky, but I closed the book (er, Kindle) with the sense that (a) I had just read a painfully real look at grief and loss, and (b) I just observed one of the most bizarre endings I had ever read. No, that isn’t a spoiler; trust me when I say it is not one you couldn’t predict even if you tried.

So let’s start with the plot:

“In the beginning, the dead are always with you. It’s almost as if they aren’t even gone, as though you could round any given corner and see them there, waiting.”

Olivia is not dead, but she might as well be. Since the death of her younger brother three years ago, she has wandered in a cloud of apathy, grief, and guilt. She isolates and sometimes self-medicates, while her father stays out late nearly every night doing who-knows-what and her mother is deeply addicted to pills that numb the pain.

“When we try to hold on to the dead, we lose pieces of ourselves.”

Enter Kara: confident, sometimes cruel, and kind of morbid, a girl who is Olivia’s age but acts far older. When she moves in across the street with her mother and her blind, very-creepy grandma, she is quick to take Olivia under her wing. Soon, Olivia is stepping just slightly past the bounds of her misery, rekindling her friendship with her childhood best friend Prescott Peters, and helping Kara with her weird hobby of writing letters to inmates on death row. But as Olivia gets swept up in Kara’s orbit, she begins to question just what she needs to do to save her family…and save herself.

“Kara was my resurrection girl, my messiah, and I was Lazarus, rising from the grave at her command. But there was something unnatural in it. Was I to be a miracle? Or simply an abomination?”

It’s hard to find a good starting point for my thoughts. I guess I’ll start by reiterating that this is not a light book. It deals with a lot of heavy topics, especially death and unhealthy coping methods (see my list of trigger and content warnings at the end of this review). Yet it was still a very quick read for me, due to a combination of its accessible language and its generally quick pacing. Sometimes the pacing was a little too quick, with events spiraling out a little too quickly and not enough connective narrative tissue to hold them together, but as a whole, it balanced itself well between Olivia’s numb, self-doubting internal monologue and the blistering reality that is her life.

“‘Life goes on.’ But it’s no kind of life and my parents and I hardly qualified as living.”

The dynamics between the three main characters were equal parts absorbing and painful to watch. Kara is a masterful manipulator–that much is apparent from her first interactions with Olivia–but she oscillates between carefree confidence and a nearly-malicious need for control. She plays both Olivia and Prescott like fiddles, and they both seem happy to let her do just that. She’s one of those characters who you kind of hate, because she makes terrible choices and does awful things to the people who trust her, but you have to grudgingly appreciate because her machinations bring about a much-needed change.

“He’s dead, I thought again. We all are. How silly of me to forget.”

Olivia’s narration of all of her hurt, the shouting matches and stony silences with her parents, the self-blame and isolation and guilt, is visceral and moving. Her character development over the narrative is uneven, but this is entirely believable–human progress, especially in coming back from a horrible event, is rarely linear. We see this not just in Olivia as an individual, but also in her parents, struggling to come back from their worst nightmare, and in her rocky path back to friendship with Prescott, who has some serious skeletons of his own. I think that was one of the details that struck me most about this story: nobody’s life is perfect, and there are no golden boys and girls here–just people with unhealthy ways to cope, some of which are more visible than others. And, in a move that so many novels fail to make, this one pointedly examines the very real consequences of those coping choices.

“The story I am trapped in…never crests, crescendos, peaks, and dips back down into a resolution we can settle happily into. Instead, it slithers, bucks, and then slides along, dragging us with it.”

But, lest you think this is just a nonstop stream of sadness, I do want to stress that this story is as much about healing as it is about pain. It is a movement from wallowing to walking to running–emotionally speaking, of course. There is a tiny hint of romance, causing some turbulent waters surrounding all three main characters (and yes, there is a queer component to the…er…”love triangle” isn’t quite the right word…). And the ending had one super wild twist that I still don’t fully understand, one that really amped up the “creepy magic” element of the book to a new level.

“I think anyone is capable of love, but broken people love in broken ways.”

Ava Morgyn tells the story with impressive depth and realism (and a hint of magic), and her language manages to hit several emotional home-runs. In fact, there were a LOT of beautifully quotable lines, both in Olivia’s narration and in the dialogue between her and Kara; I highlighted entirely too many of them in my Kindle, and they’re distributed throughout this review, as you could probably tell.

“There are a thousand kinds of pain. We don’t have names for them all, but we know them individually, each by its own unique ache.”

Now, this wasn’t a perfect story. Like I mentioned at the start of this review, the pacing is kind of off, with some plot points that don’t seem to quite go in a logical order. There isn’t nearly as much time spent on Kara’s death row pen pals as there could have been; there was a lot of potential to explore more ideas on morality and mortality there, but I suppose that those themes were sidelined in favor of brevity. And, well…the ending felt out of place. It wasn’t tonally consistent with the rest of the book. Or rather, it was still dark in tone, but a specific moment (you’ll know it when you read it) made no logical sense and shattered my suspension of disbelief for a bit.

In short, this was not the sort of spooky read I was anticipating, and it gave me a heck of a lot more feelings than I expected. But, sad though it was, I’m quite glad I read it. (As an aside, the book takes place in the summer, and I think it may be a better read for a melancholy, lazy summer day than for a brisk autumn one. Perhaps, if you decide to read it, that would be a better time to do so.)

Trigger/content warnings: prescription drug abuse (by both adults and minors), alcohol abuse, addiction, death of a child, grief, depression, mention of sexual assault (in context of a criminal’s charges)

I went into this book thinking it would be creepier than it ultimately was. This is definitely a contemporary with some speculative, dark undertones. I loved what this book had to say about grief. The way we see the three family members cope (or not cope at all) with their loss was really well done. However, not much else worked for this book. I didn't quite understand the ending, and I felt like Kara's family could have been explored much more.

I really enjoyed this book. It was different than I expected but still great! I love the female bonds and familial bonds that run rampant in this book. It takes a look at the grieving process and how that looks different for everyone and that sometimes the weirdest things can bring us closure. This is also about those we love and how they help us through the darkest parts of our lives.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

Sorry for the delay in my review, life has gotten in the way.

I absolutely ADORE the cover art.
This is a fast-paced book.. easy to follow and easy to read. the main character is easy to relate to and like... s ome of the other characters were a tad more difficult to figure out or like.

the book felt like it may be missing omething, but i'm not exactly sure what yet.

This story is about losing and moving forward. The main character, Olivia is just trying to move forward after the death of her baby brother. It’s pretty much a slow process of how her and her family move forward and how they all grieve differently. It’s sad and also fascinating on how Olivia befriends with a girl who she then helps the new girl, Kara, write letter to men on death row. Pretty morbid if you ask me yet that’s one of the main things that got me so interested from the book.

I found it easy to like Olivia. She seems like down to earth girl who you can easily become friends with. Kara on the other hand, she was hard to figure out. Can’t quite out my finger on 🤔

There were some things that got me confused and wanna know what’s up. But I cannot say for it will spoil the just left me with why and how. I did enjoy reading this book. I was intrigued and in awed in the end.

I give this book 3.5 stars. It’s a fast pace book and easy to read and understand. Would recommend this if you wanna read something easy. I would have given it 4 stars but like I said, it left me with some unanswered questions on how and why.

ARC received from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All of my opinions are my own, and are in no way affected by the exchange.

This was weird. I really thought that I would love or at least really like this but it was just meh for me. I didnt really like any of the characters or the plot. This is one of the most forgettable books I have read in a while.

This book kind of confused me. I was enjoying it for the most part and then it took a bit of a weird turn 10% to the end. I felt the ending is why I gave this a 2 instead of a three. Things were building up and then... the author just kinda dropped the ball. It didn’t seem to make sense and left me feeling unsatisfied.

I think I might have been expecting something different from this book based on the cover. It was an interesting read. I did like the themes that were within it, but the characters kind of fell flat for me. I would have liked to see them a little more fleshed out especially Olivia. The ending felt rushed as well and was too convenient for my taste. Overall, it's a nice read.

Grief. Addiction. Letters. Spiritual.

My second Net Galley title, but first book! The very first one was a graphic novel that anyone can get, but I had to request this one so that was pretty cool. Unfortunately, I did not end up liking it.

In the synopsis of the book, there’s the mention of something strange and magical going on with the new neighbors. There is a kind of spiritual aspect to it, but it’s pretty nonchalant and not developed very well. Also, in the beginning of the book when the main character Olivia meets them, I thought she overreacted with how scared she was because nothing really happened. I wish that there was a better reason as to why she started acting so strange so quickly, but nothing is clear.

For the rest of the plot, there was a lot of focus on grief and addiction since Olivia’s brother drowned three years ago. Since then, her mom has been taking pills 24/7 and Olivia even steals them for herself. I can see the importance of representing this feeling of grief and hopelessness, but it all felt very repetitive to me. I’m not trying to dismiss their feelings since they aren’t just going to change overnight, but every time it was brought up, the same ideas kept being discussed. So those parts got pretty annoying. Especially since the author was trying to use kind of flowery descriptions, which I sometimes enjoy and sometimes don’t, but in this case, it felt so forced and as if she was trying to hard. I obviously don’t know for sure, but it seemed like the author wouldn’t naturally write that way but was trying to because that’s what people like right now.

The whole thing with the Resurrection Girls and writing letters to men on death row was interesting but didn’t fit into the story well. I guess it kind of does because of the whole thing with the neighbors, but since all of that wasn’t clear, it just seemed random. It was an interesting concept but I don’t think it paired well with this book because whenever it was brought up, again it seemed forced. If it was better incorporated somehow, it could have added a lot more to the story.

Alright, and no spoilers but I just have to say, the ending was awful and completely ludicrous. When I started reading it, I was like are you kidding me? What is even happening right now? It literally made no sense and I still don’t get why the author threw that in there.

Lastly, I’ll quickly talk about the characters who I also didn’t like. All of them were so annoying in my opinion, and there was a weird love triangle that was literally like flipping a switch because that’s how quickly they moved between one another. I also felt like the friendships/relationships between them weren’t well established, and overall, I just didn’t really care about any of them.

Should you read this book? I feel bad since I’m reviewing this for Net Galley, but I would say no. I might say maybe if you’re looking for a character that is experiencing grief because of losing a loved one. If so, then I would suggest looking at some other reviews and deciding based on that.

I am a little over halfway through this book and I have to quit. I am not interested enough to continue...

Thank you NetGalley for the review copy, but it's not one I enjoyed.

Olivia Foster hasn’t felt alive since her little brother drowned in the backyard pool three years ago. Then Kara Hallas moves in across the street with her mother and grandmother, and Olivia is immediately drawn to these three generations of women.


Kara is particularly intoxicating, so much so that Olivia not only comes to accept Kara's morbid habit of writing to men on death row, she helps her do it. They sign their letters as the Resurrection Girls.


But as Kara’s friendship pulls Olivia out of the dark fog she’s been living in, Olivia realizes that a different kind of darkness taints the otherwise lively Hallas women—an impulse that is strange, magical, and possibly deadly. -Goodreads


I am starting this book review off with the rating, which is 2 Pickles. This book was a hard pill to swallow because of a lot of things. Olivia isn't grieving the lost of her brother. She acknowledges that he is gone but just like her parents, she isn't dealing with what she is feeling. Kara comes along and offers Olivia a way out of her emotions until she has no choice but to start opening. 


Here is my issue with this book. It uses Kara and her family as a clutch for why Olivia makes bad decisions. It isn't fair to Kara. Kara isn't a stable character not even in the least and she has a whole lot that she is dealing with, however, I can't find it in me to say Olivia did this or is this because of Kara. 


Not every family is going to be like our own and I think the author plays upon that as way to compare what should be the normal family. Olivia does things for an reaction not just because Kara has a persuasive personality. 


Other than this, the book was boring. Not even writing to death row inmates add any form of intensity to the novel. It is just as a clutch with no real backing/substance. Because the book is boring. There is no real character development and even the grief seems brushed over, which is unfortunate. 


Things wrapped up too easily, after everything that happened, the ending was too perfectly happy and we are good now. 


I gave this book 2 Pickles as opposed to 1 because it can be good. Shoot it can be great. But it needs work.

this book was pretty much an enigma. i didn’t really understand the point or what was going on. i think that the novel tried to do too many things and doesn’t really accomplish any of them effectively. the characters felt really fake and acted strangely. you could say they were morally grey but i felt like we didn’t know them enough to call them that. the plot was kinda all over the place and i ended up not being satisfied and honestly confused with the ending.

Resurrection Girls was so much more than I thought it would be. I really grabbed me and held me from beginning to end. The way Olivia and her family have dealt with their grief by not dealing with it in a sense was suffocating. Until the new family, three generations of women, move in across the street. Kara is vibrant and captivating. She pulls Olivia outside what's become her norm in a summer that will change both of their lives.

Kara has a habit of writing to serial killers on death row. Olivia joins in and together they become the Resurrection Girls. The only thing is, while Kara is helping Olivia (and in turn Olivia's parents) through their fog of grief, she's running straight towards a dangerous situation. There are little touches and hints of the supernatural in this book. Just a little. It's more Olivia's story and how her life changes as a result of knowing Kara.

I really enjoyed this book. I cried multiple times while reading it because the grief is so real and powerful. As sad as it is, there is still some hope. Hope that things will be different. Not necessarily better, but that perhaps the fog will lift.

I feel like the synopsis for this book is somewhat misleading, but in a great way. I thought I was just going into a book about writing to serial killers and dealing with grief. But that only scratched the surface for this book. In fact, there were times I forgot that was even part of the plot.

The writing was captivating and gave me chills. I felt uneasy at times, even when I wasn’t reading it. There were many twists and turns and I felt like I never truly knew what was coming next. You could have given me 50 chances to guess the ending and I probably wouldn’t.

This isn’t normally something I’d pick up, but I’m really glad I did. This was a great, fast read. Perfect for spooky season

This book was really engrossing in a terribly sad kind of way. Content warning for grief of losing a child. What I liked best about this story was that it really highlighted how horrible families can be to each other without even trying to, all because of each individual being broken in their own isolated ways. I liked the story of the neighbor who came and helped bring the family out of darkness, but there was a bit of magical realism that I guess I wasnt understanding. I dont think that piece needed to be in the story at all. I would've preferred it to be the simple "magic" of someone really loving and being a friend to another person, pulling them up out of utter darkness and helping them "live" again after a tragedy. Since most of the story was about this family rising up out of the coma like state they'd been in for so long, I really enjoyed seeing that progress back to normal, but that magical part should've been left out. It didn't ruin it at all for me, I just was left thinking, what? What is the relevance here? Kudos to the author for the wonderful resurrection story of this family. I still highly recommend the story and would definitely read more from this author.

This just wasn't what I expected it to be at all. There was little discussion or exploration of the fantastical/paranormal elements or the writing to inmates and it instead focused mainly on the death of Olivia's brother and the grief her family has been experiencing after the fact. I liked the beginning of this and thought that it set up for some really cool things to be introduced but they never ended up being fully formed. Kara was a terrible character, and this could have be played on because she is the "daughter of death", but that never happened so she just seemed like a terrible friend and person with little to no backstory. Prescott's character was pretty unnecessary as well.
I think the cover, title, and synopsis do not match up with the actual content.

Guess what I did today? Read this book in one day while I cleaned skates at work. It was so damn enjoyable.

But enjoyable is the wrong word for this book. It's about a family who lost their youngest member of the family. Robby was three when he drowned in the backyard pool. That's three years ago now. Olivia feels guilty about it. Her mother uses pills to cope. Her father is absent most of the time. Olivia is just trying to keep everything together over the summer. And the grief is fresh even after three years. It was like it just happened.

That's when a new family moves in. Three generations of women. Grandmother, mother, and daughter. And Olivia decides to make friends with the daughter, Kara. But, they're a cursed family.

This was a very odd book. I had no idea what to expect going into it. I'm so glad that I read it, but it was a different read. The grief in it was palpable the whole time. I understood Olivia's grief, although my family has had a very different way of dealing with it that's been healthier than what was in the book.

As I said, I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I don't think everyone's going to like it, but some people will love it and others won't. It's a hard book to explain, too. It's about grief and loss, but also about healing. And Kara is, oddly enough, the healing element. That family is a wake-up call that grief if you allow it to grow and to wallow and to encompass your whole life, will kill you eventually. Grief kills. And if you don't cope healthily, it will kill you. You will die from your grief and holding on to what happened. That message stuck out to me while I read this because it's so true. I've seen good coping and bad coping thanks to my profession. There is no one way to cope -- it's so individualized -- but there are still maladaptive ways to do it. And, eventually, those maladaptive behaviors will cause more problems and grief, both for you and those around you.

So, this is a different book. I'm glad that it's out there for readers because I think it's really going to connect with people. While I didn't lose my sister from an accident at a young age, it was still sudden and so unexpected. Sometimes, I still struggle to work through my grief in healthy ways. And this book was a great reminder as to why I should keep healthy. My behaviors impact many other people than just myself.

I've never read anything quite like Resurrection girls. I absolutely adored this title. I love The unexplained magic sprinkled about and all the great representation in this book. This book really does such a great job of depicting what it feels like to grieve the loss of someone who died so young. It also shows the negative possibilities of not really dealing with your grief such as what Olivia and her whole family go through. After the death her little brother, Olivia and her parents are kind of in a messed up autopilot and I think that is very real for a lot of people and once you get into that it's hard to pull yourself out. I love how the book deals with that and obviously I loved the way Olivia and Kara never had to speak of what they identified as sexually or their feelings for each other really they just felt what they felt and that was good enough. I would 100 % recommend this to friend. I am going to make a YouTube video about it which will be uploaded on Monday, October 7th. I am going to just link my YouTube channel down below.

I feel like there were some things about this book I liked, but much of it did not resonate with me--not because it's not well-written. It's a good book. The themes of LGBTQ+ relationships in formative teenage years was a highlight, although I'm not sure if I agree with the author's execution of it in all aspects. I felt like the description promised one thing and what I got in the end was not what I was expecting, so it did not live up to my desires as a reader for what I wanted it to be.

The protagonist oscillated throughout the book as being angry and dialled to 10 while at other terms being demure and unsure of herself, which makes sense given her psychological profile. Anyone who has been through the loss of a younger sibling, particular this young, and in such horrific circumstances that are too familiar to any family. Someone like that is not going to be about rainbows and sunshine. Her fascination with a new neighbour, Kara, promises to be destructive or lead to no good, and this novel has that in spades.

I liked the creepy grandmother figure and was expecting more from that. I also felt that I expected more of a big reveal from Kara's mother, Rhea. The ending just sort of... happened but it felt like the energy of the rising action and mounting climax should have delivered something bigger. I found the subject matter to be problematic big time as anything concerning teenage girls and death row convicts is just not something I feel should mix, particularly from moral and ethical standpoints. Other reviewers may not share these views, but I found them quite off-putting.

Not my cup of tea, unfortunately.

Ava Morgyn deals with a variety of issues in this unexpectedly dark, tragedy-filled novel.

The novel explores a myriad of themes, from the mundane, to the heart-wrenching, to the supernatural.

At the beginning, Resurrection Girls threw me back to teenage-hood. The writing was reminiscent of emergent Young Adult books which, veterans will remember, was very much trying to distinguish itself from Teen Fiction.

The voice of the novel is young, like these novels of the past. It made me feel as though younger, teenage audiences were the primary target. Until the darker themes emerged.

The novel is filled with tragedy. Morgyn doesn't hold back when depicting the behind-the-curtain side of life -- the death, the trauma and the various unhealthy ways many try to cope. There are heart-wrenching, potentially triggering scenes scattered within the jokey, wild lives of three teens.

The characters are individually interesting. There is an ambiguity to them all in one way or another. It's refreshing, if a little awkward in a second-hand-embarrassment kind of way. Resurrection Girls reminds us what it's like to be a teenager, after all.

I think Morgyn has done well in showing three very different young people, and how their seemingly polar opposite lives inevitably bring them together. The jock, the geek, and the wild punk girl share an understanding of the hidden sides of life. They compete for attention and acceptance, with dramatic outcomes.

Kara is a whirlwind that tears apart Olivia's life. But it isn't as awful as it sounds -- it's exactly what Olivia needs. The death of her brother has buried her in her misery. Communication has broken down amongst her family, and the mysterious, vibrant and reckless girl across the road teaches her how to feel again.

Not that Kara always goes about it in the right way.

The main complaint I have with the novel is the pacing. It began slowly with extravagant description that was all too aware of itself. Once the scene was finally set, it trundled into building up Olivia's life, past and present. And still there was very little action of note. It wasn't until the final third that things really got going.

Roughly, the last ten chapters were where the magic happened. The action reached its apex, and one catalytic moment set Olivia's world into a flurry of revelation and devastation. This, I adored. I only wish it had come sooner.

Resurrection Girls is a surprisingly dark novel that brings to life the realities of familial tragedy. It incorporated elements of the supernatural that could perhaps resonate with readers who sympathise with Olivia's situation.

It's a full-on read with lots of drama (once it gets going), suspense, and heightened emotion. I think it's worth pushing through the first half to experience the gem of the ending.

I would have liked the story to get going faster, and for the characters to be a little more fleshed out.

Once the action got going, it ran. I was morbidly fascinated and absorbed, but I wish I had felt this all the way through.

This review will be published 05/10/2019