I've been wanting to read this book since I first heard about it, so a big thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Urban Legends are such an engrained part of our culture, from Bloody Mary to Slenderman. Those stories pique our curiosities about the darkness and help solidify our greatest fears.
Every small town has a story, and Hithechurch's is Stitch Faced Sue. Susan Cartwright was the daughter of a lighthouse keeper who helped her father intentionally wreck boats so they could loot them. When one band of pirates survives, Susan narrowly escapes slaughter by pretending to be a scarecrow.
Of course, that's not the way Charlie tells it. In her story, Stitch Faced Sue meets a gruesome, bloody end and haunts the shore to seek vengeance for all those who are wronged. Yes-Charlie definitely has a wild imagination and a bad habit of lying. When she meets Emily, a quiet girl with an angry father and bruises on her arms, Charlie's incredible fabrication of Stitch Faced Sue catches up with her and the story takes a dark and tragic turn. Because Emily, let's just say she has revenge on her mind and a mean streak that she hides well.

Thirty years later, what Charlie and Emily did can still be felt in Hithechurch. Especially when another girl goes missing.
With Emily writing a tell-all and putting much of the blame on Charlie, Charlies decides to go back to Hithechurch. There, she learns about the missing girl but also unearths information about many other girls who have gone missing in the area since the 60s. Are the disappearances linked to Stitch Faced Sue? Charlie is determined to find out and, in doing so, clear her name. But Stitch Faced Sue isn't the only dark presence in Hithechurch. Charlie has enemies on all sides and is putting herself in unspeakable danger.

This story has three timelines: Presents, 1988 and one starting in the 50s.
I was expecting to be fully creeped out by this book, and I was! But it was largely due of the 50s narrative because, strangely enough, Stitch Faced Sue wasn't the star of the show here. I'm not going into too much detail regarding the 50s narrative as to not spoil the story, but dang! That part of the story freaked me right on out and (I'm pretty sure) is going to give me nightmares. It intersected with the main storyline in a meaningful and sinister way that left me with chills.
As far the rest of the story...It was okay. Honestly, the present and 80s narratives were pretty drawn out and boring (which is why I gave this book 3 stars). The last half of the book could have been written a bit tighter, and I felt like the ending was too rushed. That being said, there's still a lot of gruesomeness in this book, and I do recommend giving it a read if you're into urban legends/folklore.

Charlie and her niece Katie are on Holiday in Hithechurch, England. The village is full of folklore and women going missing in the area. .
This was an eerie read that held my attention. Thanks NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this ARC!

Interesting and well written I just personally couldn’t get into the story. Just a little slow and unbelievable at some points. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This book will keep you on your toes and second guessing yourself from start to finish. Jen Williams has a way of telling a creepy story that will keep you up at night.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy of this book.

This book is told over three different timelines.

Charlie and Emily meet up in the summer as kids. Having a tough time they decide to try and get ‘stitch face Sue’ a ghostly figure to act out revenge for them.

Sarah is on holiday in the same town but present day. She is trying to find something from her childhood, but is interested in the disappearance of present day girls and investigates under the pretence of writing a book.

Harry is a talented boy, with a promising future as a surgeon. Who is he in the present day?

I enjoyed this book but I did feel the mystery room too long to reveal.

Thank you Crooked Lane Books for the opportunity to read and review this book!
I gave this book a 3.5/5.
The writing was superb, the twists were great, and the ending was wild. My only criticism is that it did move a little slowly, and could definitely be described as a slow burn. While I am typically not a fan of slow burns, this novel had just enough details scattered around to keep me hooked and needing to know the ending. The dual timelines did a wonderful job at slowly unraveling the mystery and keeping me guessing until the end. Overall, very glad that I read it!

Games for Dead Girls by Jen Williams is a mystery/thriller with some folklore thrown in.

This novel has a lot going on in terms of story lines, and it’s just a bit too much. It’s very telling that my interest wavered quite a bit throughout this novel, but mostly in the first half. It takes just a bit too long for things to really get going. There’s a difference between tension and needing to cut some things out. The three different timelines didn’t help, and I’m normally a big fan of multiple timelines in books. It’s just didn’t work here because it slowed everything down too much.

The ending felt anticlimactic because my interest just wasn’t there anymore. I give it two stars for the effort. I’ll definitely try this author again because there’s a lot of promise here with a better editing strategy.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When Charlie was eleven, she created a monster…

For Charlie and her niece Katie, it’s supposed to be a quiet holiday in the peaceful, out of the way seaside town of Hithechurch, England. Charlie is researching a book on the folklore of the area, and the gloomy sea and dangerous caves seem to offer up plenty of material, while Katie is just there to run wild and get some fresh air. 

But Charlie’s research reveals a deeper, darker secret, one that uncovers her own, carefully hidden past. Because young women are going missing again: a teenage girl snatched from the beach in broad daylight, and before that, other girls through the decades have vanished from the area, their families left with no answers and no bodies to bury.

Charlie’s creation was a thing of felt, straw, fury, and a rusty pair of scissors in the dark. It couldn’t be her monster. Could it? Charlie is set on discovering the truth about the girls’ disappearances, but she’s about to encounter a force of pure, obsessive malevolence that threatens to destroy anything in its path.

Really enjoyable read totally recommend
Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books
I just reviewed Games for Dead Girls by Jen Williams. #GamesforDeadGirls #NetGalley

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC copy of this book to read and review. All of these thoughts are my own!

I’m a huge crime/thriller book junkie, so when I saw this I just had to request it.

The book wasn’t bad but I just…wanted more I guess. It sort of lost my attention when switching between 3 different time lines. It wasn’t hard to keep up with the timelines but I did find it a bit irritating. It did have a good creepy vibe to it, so that part I did enjoy a lot. It also didn’t drag on like most books do, so finishing it without getting bored also wasn’t an issue. I didn’t really get into it until halfway through but I would recommend this to others. Some people love multiple time lines; I don’t lol.

3 stars!

Reviewed for NetGalley:

Missing girls in a small town, my interest quickly piqued.

However, the multiple timelines lost me and my patience.

I loved this book- it was so creepy and well-written. The story centers on Charlie and goes back and forth from when she was a pre-teen to current time as an adult. In the prior timeline, Charlie meets a friend named Emily and they conspire to conjure up a ghost based on local folklore to rid Emily of her abusive father. In the latter timeline, Charlie is back in the same location digging into the past when a girl goes missing; she finds out at the same time that her former friend Emily is writing a tell-all book about how things went very bad that summer when they were kids.

This book was downright scary at parts- the author did a great job in creating the right atmosphere and getting the reader to immerse themselves in how Charlie was feeling. Charlie herself was a mostly likeable character and the things that she did when they were kids felt really authentic. I felt for her even when she was making terrible decisions and felt her fear and uncertainty like it was my own. There are also a few really big twists in the book that I didn't see coming at all (which is rare for me!), and I loved the way that the author explained all the various happenings and tied up the loose ends so all of the different pieces of the narrative fit together perfectly.

Overall, I was thrilled to have read this book and have already recommended it to others. Looking forward to seeing what this author comes up with next. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was just ok for me. The mystery kinda dragged on for a good majority of the book. There was three different timelines which I’m not a fan of and the ending was anticlimactic.

In a tiny seaside town in England eleven year old Charlie meets Emily. They pair team up to try to get rid of Emily’s abusive father by summoning the spirit of Stitch Face Sue. Stitch Face Sue was one of the towns local legends and Emily becomes obsessed with her. When their pleas to the spirit appear to be working, they bring along another girl but everything goes wrong and the girl is killed.

In the present Charlie returns to the small town to research the local folklore. Almost immediately she is distracted by reports of local girls going missing. In addition, her ex best friend Emily just released a memoir about what happened to them as kids. This enrages Charlie and she is determined to find the evidence that will back up her side of the story.

Games For Dead Girls is available April 18,2023


Thank you to netgalley and crookedlanebooks for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

This was so well done.... it threw an absolute curveball about halfway in- something I absolutely wasn't expecting. I couldn't wait to get to the end, yet was sad to finish this one at the same time. Definitely worth reading.

Thank you Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ok, wow, this book was amazing! Such a unique plot. I absolutely loved how the author incorporated urban legends and macabre secrets. This is a quick-paced novel, filled with twists, adventure, and imaginative plot lines.

The book involves three different timelines. However, it is easy to follow and these different timelines really make the book.

I recommend this one for anyone who is a fan of thrillers but is also looking for a little something extra, like spookiness and urban legends.

I wasn't sure about this one at first; it was so slow. But I'm glad I stuck with it. It turned out to be deliciously macabre. A haunted small town unravelling and the POV's decisions that led to it all. Great read.

Games for Dead Girls features multiple timelines, a creepy small town, and both human and inhuman monsters. This one takes a minute to get up to speed, but I thought the payoff was worth it and that all of the exposition enhanced the plot. And even after sitting on this review for a few days, I'm still thinking about Williams' characters and which choices ultimately led to the horrors that haunt the town. I love love love a host of complex characters making both good decisions and decisions that make me want to scream whyyyyy 😭

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for providing a digital copy of Games for Dead Girls in exchange for an honest review. Games for Dead Girls will hit shelves April 18, 2023!

Hmm… creepy creature folkloric stories, missing girls, a small town with dark secrets are the best themes I never get tired to dive into without thinking! But there are some executional issues about this book. There are 3 different timelines with three interesting storylines but those stories’ progressions are extremely slow and their convergence takes too much time. You already lose your patience and you also lose your interest! You don’t want to know what will happen next because as you reach to the half you realize nothing juicy, earth shattering, mind bending happens. The town’s history and folklore take unnecessarily too much part of the chapters so this book turns into something flat, boring. You push yourself too hard to reach the finish line. Unfortunately that’s exactly what happened to me!
The book opens with Charlie and 10 years old niece Katie’s storyline. They moved into trailer for a special holiday out-of-the-way seaside town of Hithechurch, England. Charlie is researching a book on the folklore of the area, and the gloomy sea and dangerous caves as her niece aimlessly enjoys the seaside. But we sense Charlie has other agenda, introducing herself with other name, dying her hair not to be recognized. And the storyline is Charlie’s past where she finds her dear friend, starting attending the rituals to summon the spirit of Stitch Face Sue: a folkloric creature! And third line is about the doctor whose cognitive skills got affected after an accident, ends up with a pretty woman who accidentally falls and damages her face which also affects her self esteem.

Eventually those storylines get intercepted but as I told before I already lost my concentration and I did my best to finish the execution.

Overall: it’s solid, flat three starred read for me. There’s so much potential and I wish the author didn’t open up so many storylines because it was like juggling too many balls and dropping them all. It wasn’t bad reading experience but I expected so much more. I’m still curious to read more works of the author.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

Games for Dead Girls sadly falls short of the ideas it is trying to create and feels more like a parody that drags on and never seems to find the plot or footing it needs for it to succeed.

Jen Williams has great ideas but never seems to execute on them in this book but the biggest strength I can give her is the way that she creates setting and how the town feels real but the people who live there never seem to fit in.

The characters are the biggest hurdle for me in this book because I never seemed to connect with them or feel that the decisions that they made were earned or real and that always hurts when I read a book with a great framework for the story but falls apart when it comes to characters. I never felt anything for Charlie or Katie because I felt that they were more blank slates then characters.

Overall I wish I had loved Games for Dead Girls but sadly I feel that Williams falls flat on this story

And now…..

Back to my regularly scheduled dramatic rants on my love for blood, guts, gore, twist, shrills and of course some sleepless nights.

Well, lookey on over here for a book that checks off every box on my twisty little soul sucking list.

Drumroll please…..

Games For Dead Girls

This book fed my soul . It’s beyond disturbing, twisted, dark and has given me nightmares since I read it. This is my go to book suggestion for anyone who asks for the most traumatic book I have ever read . This is one of those books everyone says they can handle and then the minute they conclude they find their hands shaking in fear . I won’t lie to you. There was no “walks around the neighborhood” after this one .

So although you may call yourself a psychological thriller lover please proceed with caution, this is not the book for anyone looking for a boy meets girl and maybe gets annoyed and disappears for a bit kind of thing .

Enjoy my little soul suckers….

5 stars

I will give this book a solid 3.5 stars out of 5. Good creep factor which set the tone for my Halloween weekend. I liked the characters, especially our main protagonist. Parts of the story dragged, especially in the beginning but once it picked up, I was hooked. Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane books for the opportunity to preview this uncorrected proof in exchange for my honest review.