No! No! Hell No! Take my 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 just for the beautiful cover and go somewhere else! I need to find another gothic, disturbing book for sake of my darkest taste!

Intriguing, chilling cover: Check!

Capturing, interesting, riveting blurb: Check!

Being a die-hard fan of magical realism and creepy, spooky stories: Check!

Introduction of Olivia’s story, drowned little brother, absent mother, drug induced ghostly mother and a new neighbors’ moving to next door (creepy grandma, creepier daughter, creepiest granddaughter, witchy women from three generation): Check!

But SOMETHING went wrong! I’m correcting EVERYTHING SEEMED WRONG! As I resumed my reading question marks on my mind getting bigger, bolder and they finally turned into thought balloons screaming at me: “DNF this one! It’s not good for your intellectual soul and taste of creepy thrillers!”

Writing style of this book: DATTTT Failed!

Number of likable characters: DATTT None!

Slapping urge to worse characters: DATTT!! Author already killed my itching instinct so I hit to the gym for
punching my trainers!!!

Ending of the story: DATTT! Not satisfying!

SUMMARY: Nanananana! FULL FRUSTRATION AND DISAPPOINTMENT!

Of course I liked to read more works of this author because the plot was good but progression and development didn’t work for me this time!

Thanks to Netgalley and AW Teen for sharing this intriguing ARC COPY with me in exchange my honest review.

I picked this book up looking for fun horror/suspense read for fall and I definitely got it.

What I didn't Like: I will say it there were quite a few pacing moments that made it awkward(like one time jump that made it seem like weeks had passed when only about three days had passed) and some of the interactions between the characters was a little awkward. I was unsure of how I felt about Kara. At times she was a great friend for Olivia but at others she was threatening her into things she didn't want to do and kept mentioning that she could take Prescott away any time she wanted. Also Prescott? I liked him a lot at first....and then he declared his feelings for Olivia right before almost having sex with Kara.

What I did like: There are some powerful moments in here when they're talking about Robbie's death. I almost thought during those moments this novel was more fit to be contemporary than horror but then there was a lot of events at the end that changed my mind about that. The beginning was great. Those first descriptions were awesome.

It was the end that kinda left me but at the same time was satisfying enough that I didn't want to say the book was terrible because it wasn't. The descriptions are really good and you can clearly see how everyone is reacting to Robbie's death. Overall, it was pretty good.

Quick Star Rating: 4/5 stars

I do want to warn people this book talks heavy about death of a child, serial killers and how they harmed victims, depression, drug abuse, overdosing, etc. 

So this book right here has left me seriously stumped on how to even review it. It's really a darker story about grief and how everyone deals with it differently and the stages. There's a magical realism in this novel that was very interesting at first, but left me kind of confused at the end honestly. 

Kara is the person who guides Olivia through her grief and pulls her back into her old life some with Prescott another figure from Olivia's past. While Kara herself is such an odd character with her interests, she turns out to be the healing beacon for Olivia. It's important to say that while the book deals a lot with grief/depression it does shine down that we still have hope and love inside us even in the darker times. 

I really liked how it felt like a real journey that someone could go through with Olivia and Kara. What I didn't grasp well in this book was Kara's family curse. I like the premise behind it and the added spooky factor to make it all come together. It sadly left me more confused though I really would of liked a bit more explanation or journey with the girls focusing on Kara some. 

If you want a good read that shows griefs process, friendship and coming to terms with life & death, I do recommend adding it to your tbr!

Olivia Foster lives in a house filled with ghosts. Her baby brother drowned in the pool three years ago, and she and her parents have been locked in that moment. She barely functions, spending her time wandering around a dark and depressing house when other normal 16-year-old girls would be driving around, hanging out with friends, and having fun. Her mother is in a constant drug stupor. Her dad goes to work and disappears for hours after. It seems as if nothing will ever change. Then the Hallases move in next door. Three generation of women, including Kara, a girl Olivia's age but absolutely nothing like Olivia. Kara is full of life and barely controlled energy. She is edgy and just a little frightening. She latches on to Olivia and drags her into a whirlwind that is both alluring and terrifying. Kara is playing a dangerous game. She pen pals serial killers on death row, enticing them to write to her and send her mementos. Olivia becomes involved in this morbid writing exercise, and together they become the Resurrection Girls. But there are some things that you do not want to resurrect, and Kara takes Olivia dangerously close to that point and forces Olivia to make decisions she is not prepared to make. A well-written novel of suspense, mystery, and just a touch of the macabre. I found it difficult to put down as the story spun out to it's most unexpected ending. Firmly YA thanks to topic and language choices, sexual situations, and recreational drug use. Thanks to the publisher and NetGally for a pre-publication copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

"I was death's sister.

She was murder's daughter."

I'm not...sure how to write about this book. It was weird. It was really weird. It has a bit of a morbid premise, to be complete fair. In a nutshell, this book is about Olivia, whose 3-year-old brother died three years ago. Her family has never recovered and are shells of their previous selves. Then a girl and her family move in across the street. She's a bit weird, a bit too knowing, and gives no shits, as they say. Olivia (a name that doesn't match the MC's personality at all, but whatever) becomes enthralled and even though she literally never has a good time with Kara when they are together, she keeps seeking out her presence. Weird things happen, Kara somehow makes Olivia come out of the shell she'd been living in, they start writing really personal letters to serial killers and rapists on death row. You know, your average YA book.

I don't really have any major problems with the writing. It's a bit basic, but not distractingly so. It's just kind of there- although there is this one part when Olivia is watching Kara from across the street into another house and she starts describing her eyeliner, which is ridiculous, but anyway. The structure of the book moves at many different speeds, which is a bit confusing at times. It feels pretty slow at the beginning as Olivia's backstory and tragic family history is being told. She doesn't even meet Kara until a couple of chapters in. Even when they do meet, it feels like they are just living, hanging out, day by day. And the plot about the letters doesn't even come in until a significant way into the book. But then when it does, the plot races. All of a sudden, Olivia is doing all of these things she wasn't doing a week ago. It's been three years since her brother died, but then she meets this girl and can suddenly do everything again. Say his name. Go swimming. Sit in her backyard. And it's not even like she's doing this of her own accord - Kara is simply telling her to do it. She's intoxicated by this girl's presence. And then there's Prescott, the boy next door who used to be Olivia's best friend, but then her brother died and he got hot and now things are awkward. But Kara walks in and suddenly they're hanging out again. It's a weird progression of events, because we are led to assume that Olivia is going to try and pursue Prescott (by Kara's encouragement) and that Prescott is interested (just as he was three years ago, before he got hot and before Olivia's brother's death), but he's also suggesting he's into Kara?? And then there are parts that suggest Olivia is in love in Kara too. Honestly, I think she is. Even though there's no indication or suggestion of this earlier on (other than a mention of lesbian cheerleaders).

I don't really like Kara, to be honest. She's manipulative, and frankly quite creepy. She's intrusive, and acts like everything is hers to have and to take and to experience. She walks into Olivia's life and thinks she has a right to all this information. She somehow knows about Robby. She essentially forces Olivia through emotional manipulation to tell her how it happened. It's almost like a weird Stockholm syndrome-y thing? Except then there are these moments when Olivia shows hesitation about the death row letters, and Kara says she can stop doing it if she wants. I wish it was written in a way as if Kara was trying to show Olivia that it doesn't matter what kind of tragic past she has, she still wants to be friends. But it's more like because they are friends, she deserves to know, but also somehow has authority to give Olivia advice?? And it's just not her place?? And walking in on Olivia's relationship with Prescott and making it weird and confusing. It's like she's invading all these facets of Olivia's life without regard. I'm just...really hesitant to believe that Kara is supposed to be this carefree character who understands people's inner turmoils and doesn't care about their past. And her mysteriousness regarding her father and her family's "curse" was a bit dramatic and made it difficult to take her seriously beyond her just being a melodramatic teenager? And what was the significance of having her hook up with Prescott when the whole book was leaning towards having him and Olivia together?

I'm not really sure what genre this is supposed to be. It's YA, it's contemporary, it's maybe science fiction? Fantasy? It's eventually revealed that when Olivia went to rescue her brother, she saw a presence take his soul and called it death. She also talks a lot about the man who hanged himself in Kara's house, and how he is potentially haunting her (and possibly killed her brother, for some unknowing reason). And then there's Kara's family's curse. Is she immortal? Is she undead? Are they witches? Magical? I don't know?? Pretty early on Olivia makes a connection between Kara and her death row inmate correspondence, and assumes that the reason her father is no longer in the picture is because he's in prison for murder, and that's why Kara is so enthralled. And we are led to believe that is true. But then Kara talks about how there are no men in her family period, and then we get that really weird ending where Kara gives birth to what I think is supposed to be death's child, because that creepy presence that Olivia mentions seeing is there when Kara has her child/offspring. I mean, I'm not saying that wouldn't make a good story of some sort, but it was presented in a really confusing way here with little to no foreshadowing whatsoever. I just found myself quite a bit lost at the end, not really understanding what was happening.

I haven't even mentioned the weird side plot about Olivia's father and mother and Robby's things, or Olivia stealing her mother's pills, or even really gone into depth about the serial killer thing, to be honest (although, how much detail was really necessary when describing these fictional murders, Ava, I am a bit concerned for you). But oddly enough, I don't know how much of it I would change. Maybe a bit about Kara, or the weird scene with Prescott at the end, or add a bit more foreshadowing about Kara's deathchild or something. But I think if this is your kind of book (it's more on the outskirts of mine), I think it's a perfect read for the Halloween season which is great timing considering it comes out October 1. I did finish it, after all, which is worth something. And it does have something to say about grief and how grief materialises in different forms for different people. If only Kara didn't stick her nose where it doesn't really belong.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an odd and very dissatisfying book. The cover is spooky and beautiful and lured me in, but I am highly disappointed. The Resurrection Girls follows Olivia who is basically a shell of who she used to be since her little brother drowned in their backyard pool. Olivia’s parents both are grief stricken even years later and the whole family is just a thousand fractured pieces of what it used to be. A family moves in across the street on Olivia’s brother’s death date and she befriends the new neighbor’s daughter Kara.

Honestly, I am pretty ticked with this whole book, the synopsis is so promising and writing to people on death row? Sounds pretty different and intriguing, but that was like 15% of what this book was about. I still don’t really know what I just read.

Let’s start off with Kara and her family. Meeting the new neighbors was a weird encounter and I was excited to see where the “magic” would lead us, because the family is a little off and it sounds like they have a little magic in their blood, but I have no idea what their magic is or where it came from. They are just a strange family, who I do not care about in the least. Kara is one of the worst characters I have read, she just does not care about Olivia’s grief at all. She just wants Olivia to move on, which easier said than done. Another huge turn off was Kara notices how Olivia has some feelings for her neighbor and childhood best friend and then flirts with him? Uh what? I just wanted to punch Kara honestly from the moment she met Olivia.

Next, we have the letters going to the men on death row. Was it weird? Yes. Was I anticipating such a fantastic and unique book focused on these letters? Yes. I did not get that, instead I got about 20 pages altogether talking about these letters and that was it, I feel like these letters had absolutely nothing to do with the story. I am confused as to why the synopsis of this book focuses on them, when they had so little to do with the actual plot of this book.

Lastly, we have Olivia’s mom and dad who honestly, I understood and cared for the most. They lost their son in a horrific accident and they are both dealing with grief. The mother is addicted to pain pills, and is drugged up 95% of the time to deal with the grief and the dad is never home. I actually wish this had more to do with Olivia’s family overcoming their grief and depression and being a family again, because those parts I had emotion and wanted them all to get better.

All in all, this was not for me and I don’t know if I read it the wrong way or I didn’t get what the message of this book was supposed to be, but it just was not for me. I just thought this was such a bizarre book and I don’t really know what the point of it was, nor do I know what the ending even was.

Wow. This was an exquisitely executed exploration of the facets of grief, and a reminder that Death hovers tangibly on the edges of our hectic lives.

Olivia's life has been in a holding pattern for three years. Waking or sleeping, she stumbles through the motions, feigning invisibility. She tiptoes in the emotional wreckage of her family.

Kara is the golden gypsy of a girl who moves in across the street. Her subtle daring, vagabond spirit and fierce independence fascinate and compel Olive. She draws the two of them into a world of unspeakable violence, appalling choices and ancient curses.

Prescott and Olivia were inseparable until tragedy drove a wedge between them.

The prose is both lyrical and precise. The plot is full of hidden layers that unfold unpredictably and unerringly. The characters are enigmatic, multi-faceted and unforgettable.

The sparkling genius of this book will haunt you long after its end.

Resurrection Girls was a really interesting book and not really like anything I’ve read before. The blurb doesn’t really do it justice – it seemed like it was going to be a dark book with a bit of a paranormal or thriller aspect. But that’s not the case. The subjects discussed in the book are certainly dark and heavy, but there’s really no mystery or paranormal to be had.

Olivia Foster is drowning in guilt after the death of her younger brother three years ago. Her parents are barely functioning, and Olivia is drifting through life. That is until a new family moves in across the street. Kara Hallas is the spark that Olivia needed to break out of her solitary life.


As Olivia and Kara begin to spend time together, they begin to write letters to men on death row and sign it as the Resurrection Girls. Their neighbor (and Olivia’s long time crush) Prescott gets roped in to their group and soon the trio begins to spend a lot of time together. There’s a charged dynamic between the three of them and it constantly feels like they are balancing on the end of a board together, always close to ruining the balance and crashing apart.

And while there’s no paranormal occurrences, there’s a kind of magical realism surrounding the Hallas women.

If you’re looking for a book that will thrill you or feature things that go bump in the night, this isn’t it. There’s a lot of focus on grief and what it takes to heal from horrible tragedies. Overall, once I understood better what this was, I really enjoyed it. Olive, Kara and Prescott were great main characters, especially Olivia. I truly felt for her and her family situation and was rooting for her the whole time.

TW: Discussion of death, death of a child, drug use/overdose, drug addiction, depression and sex

Magical realism mixed with grief and a dose of darkness, but ultimately not the read for me.

Atmosphere: ★★★★
Pacing: ★★★
Writing: ★★

Resurrection Girls is a study in grief and how it removes its subject from reality. With a dash of dark atmosphere mixed in.

Olivia Foster watches her life pass by with ambivalence. Her younger brother drowned several years ago, and the Foster family has never been the same since. Her dad is absent, her mother is addicted to prescription drugs, and Olivia tells the story of her life to herself as a way to stay grounded.

On the anniversary of her brother's death, a new family moves in across the street. It's a grandmother, a mother, and her daughter—and there is something off about them. Olivia finds herself drawn in to their secrets and sway, and finds herself getting closer and closer to the daughter, Kara. Kara is entrancing. She shoplifts, she entices Olivia's old crush, and she pokes Olivia into a sense of life.

A little bit ghostly, a little bit surreal, and a whole lot of grief exploration, Resurrection Girls was an interesting read. Personally, I found the writing to be its biggest drawback—I kept finding myself stumbling over the writing and sentence flow. This might simply be a difference in writing preferences, or it could have been an attempt to convey Olivia's sense of displacement in her world. Either way, it didn't work for me.

I also wanted more from the story. Each chapter left me with more questions than answers, and when coupled with the writing style, I ended Resurrection Girls with a sense of puzzled frustration as opposed to completion. I'll also admit to skimming a few of the chapters in the first half as they didn't seem interesting or relevant to the larger plot.

I would be interested to read the next novel by Ava Morgyn, but ultimately would have to give this one a pass. Darn you, spooky and beautiful cover!

Thank you to NetGalley and Albert Whitman & Company for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The cover and the synopsis of this book completely drew me in. It’s a book that focuses on grief and how much life is affected after it. Ava Morgyn has an amazing way with words and I found myself unable to put this book down, reading it in one sitting.

This book follows Olivia and her process of dealing with the lost of her little brother. It’s an emotional journey and one I found myself tearing up at. Olivia is a very relatable character and I liked watching her character develop throughout the book.

This book had a lot of potential. With dealing with such a heavy-handed topic and including a hint of magical realism I thought that I was going to find a new favourite book of 2019. However, this book just did not hit the mark.

Whilst this is a beautifully written book I found myself wanting more from it. You meet this new family and get no full backstory about their lives. I wanted to know more about what makes them different and I feel like this was widely overlooked.

The end was also incredibly rushed. I felt like I had blinked and we were right at the end and there was no real conclusion. I still don’t know they true reason behind Kara writing letters to men on death row. There was just a lot of unanswered questions for a standalone novel.

This book was very average for me and honestly I’m disappointed I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hyped it in my head. However, I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more of Ava Morgyn’s books in the future.

Disclaimer: I was provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

So, the title and cover of Resurrection Girls instantly intrigued me. A creepy story? Some witches? I had to find out.

Unfortunately, this book didn't live up to any of my expectations. The backstory of our main character is tragic. She lost her three year old brother three years prior and all of her family are experiencing complicated grieving, with many behaviors that exhibit a variety of coping mechanisms, most of them unhealthy. While I'm not a fan of this book, I still am a fan of the inclusion of this tragedy and the responses to it.

New neighbors move in and they instantly seem a little "off." Unfortunately, we never get answers as to why they are a little different and we never find out why the slightly supernatural things that happen happen.

The letter writing storyline either didn't have much to do with the plot or were so glossed over that I felt like they didn't have much to do with the plot. The romance felt out of place, as did the ending. Ultimately, I see what this book was trying to do, but it was just a major miss for me.

As an adult, YA books can be tricky to review. While we may remember well the urgent angst of high school drama, it's hard as a seasoned adult not to read it without strenuous eye-rolling. The romances, also, tend to be so, well, YA.

This one's a little different. It's primarily about grief. There's a note by the author at the end that indicates her own experience of child loss and that led me to investigate her personal story a little further. Unfortunately, that leads to empathy, of which I have much for her loss, and thus skews my review in a more favorable direction. As a mother, I can't bear the sheer scope of her loss. And I admire her so much for writing it down and getting it all out there.

I think, overall, this is a decent, very YA, book. Those tend not to go too high up in my ratings. The reasons why, for this one, are:

1. I understand grief and loss. I've also suffered from some pretty serious medical issues much of my life. I get wanting to mask your sorrow with a bunch of chemicals. HOWEVER, I absolutely cannot believe any doctor, especially in a city as well-known for its medical community as Houston is, would knowingly prescribe as many antidepressants and sleeping pills as in this story to a grieving mother. And those top-tier pain pills? Why? She isn't a cancer patient. No way. Certainly not for 3 years. There are laws now to try and prevent just such abuse. I get there're people out there who do and there's ways to beat any system, but it's too much and too incredible. Any doctor would shred the prescription pad and send these people to therapy.

2. I was born and raised in Houston and live here still. Location was one of the things that drew me to this book. Aside from a few street names (indeed existing), the only way the author describes our city is as hellishly hot. Which it is, alot. However, it is so much more than that. Random grass fires DO happen, but I hate to think that's the only impression a reader will get here. I have to have some loyalty, especially given the growth, culture and variety this city has to offer.

3. The women across the street. I want more behind their story. Who? Why? I need a full-term pregnancy of less than a week explained, please. It's what killed the Twilight series for me.

So, I'm not trying to bash this book. I think there's potential. Just not enough here to take it beyond the average rating for me personally.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.I

Actual Rating: 3 stars
Format: digital ARC
Source: Netgalley
Current ebook price: $8.99
Opinion of Price: Not a bad price for the average YA reader
My Cost: $0.00

Resurrection Girls has an interesting, spooky premise - a teen girl whose brother tragically passed away becomes entranced by a mysterious girl, Kara, who moves in with her mother and grandmother across the street. Olivia, our protagonist (kinda), progressively becomes more and more engaged in self-destructive behavior, including participating in communication with serial killers on death row as a part of the Resurrection Girls. She begins to confront her parents who struggle with her little brother's death, and eventually is pushed to take action to try to change her life. Oddly, we have a bit of supernatural action tossed in, but not until over 3/4 of the book has been spent.

So much of this book had potential, but shoving it all into one book felt both at the same time slow (many repetitions of how Olivia's parents are grieving, multiple bad dreams with very obvious foreshadowing) and very fast (no explanation provided for Kara's outcome and family, sudden changes of Olivia as a character and how she would react). Supernatural associations are brushed on and could be so much more fully fleshed out, but it makes for fun encounters when it pops up.

The depiction of grief and active grieving rang true. It is so hard to write about a teenager observing her parents and Olivia felt at times like she both understood too much and understood nothing at all. Walking the balance and making Olivia feel relatable makes it very hard to become absorbed into the character, but I admire the author's attempt.

The last thirty pages of this book are a whirlwind. If you make it that far, hold onto your hat. You're in for a wild ride. Resurrection Girls is a just fine standalone mostly contemporary with itty bitty amount of supernatural flavor.

**My thanks to NetGalley for e-ARC access for this title.**

I loved the premise of this book and thought the characters were all so beautifully broken. I enjoyed falling deeper into this grief-filled world and seeing the MC come alive. I was left wanting more from the ending. It seemed very sudden and I just needed a little bit more explanation. Even with that, I think the book is very well done and has something for lots of people to connect to.

In Resurrection Girls, we visit the Foster family and their all encompassing grief. A shake up of Kara and her matriarchal family moving in starts to awaken Olivia from her stupor. The Hallas women push Olivia head first into processing her trauma. This book made me sob and cut me to my soul. The emotions were palpable throughout the entirety. I wish the magical elements had been a bit more prominent as they don't really come up till the last act, but considering how much I enjoyed this book the compliant feels nit picky at best. I can not wait to see what other stories Ava Morgyn tells.

This book was so raw. I was not expecting that! I think that’s what sets this book aside from every other book out there. I absolutely loved it, but it could be triggering for other individuals.
I will definitely be purchasing this and recommend this.

"Resurrection Girls" is a heartbreaking tale about a family grieving the loss of their son and brother, and what led them to spiral out of control. The author was able to write the realism of death and what transpires after the fact, and that left me wanting more. To behonest I think I would've enjoyed the novel more if it was primarily focused on Olivia and and Kara (as a minor character obviously because she did irk me more times than I could count) story, and Prescott out of the equation. Otherwise a worthwhile read.

A beautiful but heartbreaking book about grief and loss, Resurrection Girls by Ava Morgyn is a work of art. It chronicles the story of Olivia Foster, a young girl who is dealing with the loss of her little brother, who died three years ago. in a tragic accident. Ever since she has struggled with her grief, and the guilt she feels because she was supposed to be watching him, as well as watched her family fall apart as her mother disappears into a drug fuelled haze and her father spends an ever increasing amount of time working.. When new neighbours move into the house across the road, Olivia finds herself strangely drawn to the family which consists of three generations of women, a single mother, her daughter Kara and a mysterious and aged grandmother. At first it seems like her new friendship with Kara may bring Olivia out of her sadness, but soon it seems like all may not be as it appears with the Hallas family, and they may have a darkness of their own,
With a hint of magical realism and some truly beautiful writing, this is an impressive debut that suggests immense promise for the author in the future. I loved the characters, particularly Olivia, and it is a testament to the authors skill that even when some of the characters are unlikeable , I was able to feel empathy for their situations and understand their actions. The descriptions of grief and loss throughout the book are so spot on that they brought me to tears. I did feel that the ending was slightly rushed , which is a shame , but not enough to spoil my enjoyment and appreciation of the book as a whole.

This book stabbed me right in the heart. It's about family, the aftertaste of loss, and grief so palpable, it was overwhelming. BUT in the midst of all the heavy feels was a kernel of love. A mix of horror, tragedy, and magical realism, it was surprisingly poignant.

And I highly recommend it to anyone with the courage to face the sorrows (and sometimes, flickers of joy) in life.

I put this off for awhile, the hideous cover pushing me away every time I tried to pick it up. I shouldn't have.