Cover Image: Good Girls Die First

Good Girls Die First

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Member Reviews

I love young adult mystery thrillers. This one had a lot of twists and turns I didn’t see coming, and I loved the mysterious aspect.

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Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I put this book off for far too long and am so glad I finally picked it up. I enjoyed the characters in this book (though there were too many of them) and I enjoyed the contemporary-style element of them revealing their secrets and poor life choices.

Sadly I really don't think the blurb/description of this book does this book justice? I went in expecting a thriller with a serial killer, or teenager gone rogue, hunting down the group. However it was actually a paranormal book, and the fact that I wasn't expecting this, and wanted a 'legitimate' explanation, really dampened my rating.

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A bit too strange for my tastes. Very supernatural, reminiscent of Steven King. The setting is strong but the characters are thin.

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This is a story about secrets.

I wanted to love this one, and I did like the creepy theme park element. I liked, but didn’t love everything else. The characters, with the exception of the protagonist, felt empty.. and the end wasn’t what I hoped for. I’m sure this will be a hit for lots of YA horror readers!

Thank to so much @netgalley & @sourcebooks for the eArc!

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I really enjoyed the “locked room” type trope of this book! I definitely didn’t expect the supernatural aspect and overall I really liked this one!

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Who doesn't get chills when you find yourself in a fictional, terrifying abandoned amusement park? This book was equal parts intrigue and fear. It was delightful and fast-paced. I couldn't wait to find out who makes it.

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Book was too chaotic a read. The characters were not memorable and there were too many to build any strong connections as a reader. I liked that the story started with the main plot, but then nothing ended up happening in the first 25% of the book.

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This was such an interesting novel. It kept me on my toes and I was hooked throughout. Not the best of the genre but it was still entertaining enough that I would recommend it to people who need something light and easy to breeze through.

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A creepy, entertaining read that had me curious as to who would try to get a group of teens to meet in an abandoned amusement park and why? Totally creepy vibes, right? An enjoyable read that I would recommend to others.

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Excuse me!!! Who gave this book the right to be this good! I love a good thriller/mystery/murder situation and this book gave me all that! I was hooked right from the beginning and finished ready very quickly because I just needed to get to the end! This plot line has been a little over done but I think the author managed to make it work. Honestly I can’t say no to a thriller and I enjoyed it!

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Good Girls Die First has the perfect blend of secrets, murder mystery, and a twinge of the paranormal.

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Thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the digital galley of this book.

This book was the first one I chose for my solo pop up readathon a couple of weekends ago, and boy did it kick things off with a bang. Ten teenagers, each with a secret, are lured to an abandoned island that once served as a carnival near their town. It burned down years ago, but now they’ve all gathered for, what? A party? A competition? There can be only one, but one what? As they are picked off for their secrets, one by one, a sinister plot from an old entity emerges, and whatever it wants, it needs one of them.

I. Loved. This. Book. I read the 300+ pages in just about twenty-four hours. Though I was sold at abandoned, creepy carnival, once I got into it, I couldn’t stop. I had to know more about the island, its history, and if these characters would survive the old one’s twisted games.

It’s a roller coaster ride from start to finish. I definitely recommend it, and I recommend starting it when you can finish it pretty quickly, because you’re not going to want to put it down. Plus, how awesome is that cover?

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This book was terrible. Very rarely will I DNF a book. The writing was bad and the plot was tacky in the worst way.

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I tried reading this book, but I couldn’t get my brain to get through the first couple chapters. I wish I enjoyed it, but the pace felt too slow for me to want to try. Maybe if I have a physical copy of the book, this might be better. I will try at a later date to read a physical copy.

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I can definitely see myself buying a copy for my classroom library, but unfortunately it just wasn’t for me. I wasn’t completely invested in the characters or plot. Entertaining, just not my style

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Unfortunately this one didn't work for me at all. I didn't like any of the characters. None of them were relatable or even really enjoyable to read. They all felt really one dimension. I wanted more depth and more of a focus on the characters arc. The plot sounded super interesting but the execution fell flat and went completely off the rails toward the end. This one just wasn't for me at all.

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I started this story expecting it to be a YA thriller in line with the whole I know what you did last summer kinda thing, a group of teens who have bad secrets and are brought together to expose the horrific misdeed they did that caused someone's (alleged) death. Yeah, no, that was not this book at all. Instead this was most certainly a creepy, kinda scary horror story, where not a lot made sense and neither the main character or the reader knew what was going on.

This felt a lot like IT (the movie, I have not read the book). Sure the plot was a little different but the whole sinister vibe was very similar to the new IT movies, with the creep factor and the smiling, possible demon man showing up, the teenagers and agenda. The author was great at scary imagery and setting up scenes to give you goosebumps, so I would say the horror aspect was well done.

Overall the plot had too many holes for my liking. I had a hard time following along since things jumped around at times and made zero sense in general- but if you like unreliable narrators, here is your book because nobody was reliable. Also the ending was incredibly unsatisfying, there was zero resolution, it just basically ended, making me regret reading this standalone story to begin with. I am sure someone else will probably love this, but it was not a book for me.

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I received an advanced copy from the publisher via Netgalley for an honest review.
I was very excited when I heard about this novel, it was presented and marketed as a mix between I Know What You Did Last Summer and the amazing book One Of Us Is Lying! Those do not fit the definition of how this novel is, and I mean that in the worse kind of way. I gave it two stars because I was actually able to finish it.

(SPOILER-ISH ALERT)

More like, clearly this author loves Stephen King (as I do) and just made a modern, less character building, re-telling and way worse re-telling of It. This novel felt like all the characters were on a weird acid trip and stuff was not adding up at all, not making sense. And to explain this phenomenon, the author says 'Whispers is messing with us' no, more it feels like you do not actually know how to write a cohesive novel. This novel was SO EASY to put down and I read multiple other books. The reason why I was willing to finish this is because my bestie and I both got it from Netgalley and were doing a buddy read, in addition to the fact that I wanted to finish the novels on my Reading shelf before the year ended. Just a big, boring disappointment with an even more outrageous and non-sensical ending.

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The tag line was spot on, "Mind games. Murder. Mayhem. How far would you go to survive the night?" The novel follows multiple friends over the course of multiple nights as they try to stay alive and keep their secrets. The creepiness factor was definitely there. I mean I couldn't even read in bed at night cause I would freak myself out. With that being said the story line did get a little cockamamie towards the end - when Whispers, the evil bad guy in the mirrors, was able to manipulate inanimate objects to hurt them. I wouldn't use this novel as a piece in my curriculum, but I wiuld recommend it to my students. I definitely think it would hold their attention.

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If you liked Stephen King’s It, and wonder what would happen if Pennywise got a bunch of teenagers on a deserted island, then this is the book for you. I don’t think it’s quite at the level of King’s book, but it does make for an interesting read. The character development got interesting at certain points but a horror novel doesn’t really lend itself to deep character development, I guess? The setting was phenomenal and the descriptions brought the creepy, abandoned amusement park on an old pier to life. I hadn’t realised, when I picked up the book, that there was a paranormal element to the book, and the ensuing confusion was kind of fun, quite honestly. I wasn’t horrified as much as puzzled and on the edge of my seat, always wondering what was going on, who was going to die next and how. I couldn’t put it down as it was an easy read—and as mentioned above, I am trying to make my Goodreads goal for this year!

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