After I read The Liar’s Daughter, I was very much interested in other books written by Megan Cooley Petersen. Dead Girls Talking is a mid level young adult and reminds me of something I would have read in high school. Or even late middle school. The story opens with Bett, a young girl left behind rehashing the events of her childhood, when her father murdered her mother and left her alive. As he is currently prison, she’s haunted by the start of new killings, leaving her wondering, did he actually do it?

The book was just okay to me, pacing and development felt very even. I just wished Bett had been written a less like a bully and a mean girl. I don’t know if I fully believe in the story; we unfortunately live in a society of mass murder so it was harder to believe the story of a man who killed two people would get so much attention that the attention affected the MC so much, with crime podcasts and even house tours. What I liked was the growing friendship and dynamic between Bett and Eugenia, with Eugenia definitely being the stronger character. The story played out as I thought it would but the writing style and flow still made it an enjoyable and easy read. A good young adult option if you like true crime podcasts.

If you’re looking to get into this author’s work, I would suggest starting with The Liar’s Daughter first.

Really good book. I was instantly hooked and couldn’t put it down. Such an easy, fun, exciting, thrilling read. Highly recommend reading this one!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a review copy!

Unfortunately, this book did fall a bit flat for me. The cover and description seemed right up my alley but I did feel disappointed by the execution. The characters felt flat and I really couldn’t connect much with them, and the writing didn’t have much tension. However, there were some great twists and I didn’t seem a lot of the ending coming!

This was OK, murder mystery in a small town nothing too shocking. I didn't see the end coming, which is definitely a plus for this type of book.

Growing up with a father who is a murderer infamous for killing her mother, Bettina has had a rough ride despite her privilege.

But when events conspire to make her actually question whether in fact her father was ever actually guilty of this crime, the only person willing to help her is the local mortician's daughter, who wears her goth identity on her sleeve and carries a few burdens of her own when it comes to social expectations...

This is a razor sharp and darkly humorous story. It also touches on some very serious issues, but they're incorporated into the narrative so cleverly, that you may not even fully realise the underlying emotions driving this very readable story.

*I received a copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this opportunity*

Bettina Jane Holland has a lot on her plate. Not only has she lost her friend group (if only Natalie would admit she was wrong, <I>maybe</I> they could patch things up), finals are looming, her Harvard interview is next week, and she's just decided she wants to no longer visit her incarcerated father. It's not easy living in a town haunted by the brutal murder of your mother, especially when you were the key witness that put your father into jail-- and to say Bettina is struggling would be an understatement. However, when a copycat murderer starts plucking women from the small town of Wolf Ridge, Bettina has to grapple with the questioning everything she thought she knew about her father.

I wanted to love this book so much. It has everything-- the beautiful cover, the intriguing premise, the rich girl and goth girl duo, the <I>intrigue</I>. But unfortunately, DEAD GIRLS TALKING fell flat for me.

Bettina was insufferable as a character. It would have been one thing if she'd grown during the course of the story, but she's still the same vapid, self-centered girl at the end as she was at the start. Sure, having your world crumbling around you might put some things into perspective, but there wasn't any self-reflection or meaningful growth that led me (the reader) to think the experience made Bettina a better person. Also, there wasn't much to her from the beginning but her generational wealth and her trauma. <spoiler>At the end, she declares she's interested in pursuing acting instead of law. What??? The only hint we get she's interested in drama is an assignment to memorize a monologue that she didn't end up doing?</spoiler> I have no idea. what Bettina's identity will look like after the end of this story, and honestly, I don't think she does either.

And if it wasn't hard enough to get over the main character, the plot really wasn't that great either. Everything fell into Bettina and Eugina's laps-- and, sure, let's play devil's advocate and assume the police are THAT incompetent and uninterested, but I have a really hard time believing that two teenage girls managed to solve a decades-old crime by asking four/five people some questions. And the ending, while a fun twist, felt unexpected and unbelievable (and not in a fun way). <spoiler>I have a hard time believing Bettina's narcissistic
father would allow himself to rot in jail for 10+ years when Lydia could have very easily continued killing from the very beginning to prove his innocence? There was no reason for him to take the fall for that long, and really no reason to start up again after all that time. Additionally, I hated that there wasn't any conclusion on her father-- how is he allowed to walk free and Bettina shrugs it off and says "He'll get caught eventually, I guess". Girl. Your father orchestrated a murder spree and he knows you know, and you're fine with just hanging with your aunt and grandparents?</spoiler>

Overall, if I was a teenager looking for a quick thriller, this would fit the bill. However, with so many other fantastic books in the genre, I can't say this would be my first pick.

to say im disappointed in this is a understatement. first i would like to say is i was very excited about this. when I first seen the cover i knew i had to read it, then i read the description and was over the moon. lately I’ve been into young adult murder mysteries/ thrillers (I’ve recently read a ya series and fell in love with it) so i knew what i was getting myself into when reading this (or so i thought)

I understand young adult is targeted towards a younger audience but i myself as an adult in her early 20’s I enjoy a good young adult book from time to time.

Now I had a couple problems with this book.

first the writing style (yes I understand it’s ya) felt really mediocre even for the genre, when I say this I mean one page it’ll be good and then out of nowhere they throw in words that could’ve been replaced with a simpler word rather than a big complicated word whereas a younger audience would get confused by it. (even I found myself confused😭)

Second there was a scene towards the beginning where the main character was having a sexual encounter with someone and it didn’t feel right to read it in a young adult novel. The scene wasn’t very explicit but it still felt like it was too much for it to be in this.

Third: this is very fast paced. Don’t get me wrong I love a good fast paced book here and there but I felt like we just got thrown into this with no buildup or anything. One page there’s a body and the next she’s making friends with the other main character and trying to discover the killer.

Fourth: honestly all the characters felt like they were just there 🧍🏻‍♀️and what I mean by that is that they didn’t feel real, they felt undeveloped and had no emotions or anything. The mc’s “love interest” was boring and felt he was just there to add nothing to this story except being a “mysterious bad boy” who is interested in the mc’s mothers death.
The second mc Eugina was literally the best character and still she gave us nothing 😀. Her relationship with the mc Bettina was so random? I understand being in high school and not knowing some of your classmates even though you’ve been going to the same school for years but how they became friends was thrown at me out of nowhere.
In the beginning Eugina is giving and presentation in class and Bettina makes a comment basically bullying her and the class laughs and next thing you know Bettina is inviting her to a party and boom they form a friendship and start looking into the murders because you know Eugina is the morticians daughter 😀

There’s also many plot holes in the story that we never get an answer too and the story felt unfinished.

I could keep going on and on about this book and everything I didn’t like about it but I will spoil the story.
Maybe it’s because im older and the genre isn’t targeted towards me and that’s why I didn’t like it? I hope anyone who does pick this up in the future enjoys its more than I did.

thank you netgalley and the publisher for sending me a free copy in exchange for an honest review!!

2.75

For someone who doesn’t read a lot of mysteries, it all comes down to one reason: I’m picky with them. A lot of mysteries have disappointed me because the twist isn’t good or it’s just not believable at all. Dead Girls Talking didn’t really disappoint me, but it did not wow me either. I’ve read better, and I’ve read worse. However, one thing I liked about this book was the pacing. Even though the mystery itself wasn’t that interesting for me, I could not put this book down because it was so easy to read.

Dead Girls Talking is about Bettina’s father who has been arrested for killing her mom. However, lately, there have been numerous killings in the town of Wolf Ridge similar to the killing of her mom. It all comes down to one question: Did her father really kill her mom?

In this novel, we follow two characters: Bett, the daughter of the serial killer, and Eugenia, the mortician’s daughter. Together, they try to solve the town’s mystery.

One issue I had with this book is that the characters are so undeveloped. They felt so one-dimensional. Even Bett herself was one-dimensioned. That’s one of my biggest pet peeves in mysteries because you’re trying to find out who the killer is. The ‘twist would be unbelievable’ if your characters are one-dimensional. Because if so, you just wrote the killer for the shock and not because of the plot.

The plot twists were poorly done. The theories were thrown around just as it is and weren’t dug into as deep as I wanted them to be. There were extreme guesses and there were no real backup sources for them. Like, I guess it’s good to expect the unknown, but it kind of went down to: there’s no source, just trust me, bro.

Now, onto the things that I liked, I really like plot, and it felt like the plot was really well thought of. Everything was there for a reason, which I really loved. As I mentioned earlier, I really liked the pacing of the novel. It’s what every mystery book should be. Quick, gritty, and unputdownable.

This was a nice ya murder mistery, what I liked the most was the way the writer describes the trauma the main charachter is going through, after all this was the main focus of the story, and the friendship between Bett and Eugenia. They were cute together, maybe it could have been more developed but I like that we see their differences and how they compensate each other so well.
Talking about the murders' exaplanation, it was okay, not so predictable but a little unrealistic for me.
Last but not least , the cover is amazing!

I loved this book. It is a worthy successor to A Good Girl's Guide to Murder that looks at the true crime industry from a completely new perspective. Both Bett and Eugenia are wonderfully written characters that are as well-rounded as the plot.

Thank you Holiday House and Netgalley for providing this arc!

The first thing that draws me to this book is the cover! I really love the art is gorgeous!

Now to the plot. Bettina's father killed her mother years ago and currently in jail. But there has been mutiple killings around the town that is similar to her mother's

That leaves the question, is her father the real killer?

I quite like the pacing and the character development of Bett and Euginia. I really like Euginia ngl!

Overall i enjoyed this book!

This is a very solid YA horror/thriller, though sometimes the characterization didn't quite click with me. (But I'm not remotely the proper demographic, so that's probably as it should be). This micro-genre trend of teen girls whose fathers are convicted serial killers is certainly something.

I really tried to love this one I was sure this one was one I would love right away. But it fell flat for me and I could not get into it at all. I unfortunately had to DNF this one.

✰✰ 1/2
It was a quick mystery to read in my spare time. In terms of characters, I liked Eugenia better than Bettina, so I wish we got her POV too.
For the book itself, I did like the bits that critiqued the true crime community, as well as the short chapters. However, I expected more of a horror/thriller vibe, and characters that were more developed.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

We are all a mystery. The quiet town of wolf ridge was tainted by the smiley face killer once. He took everything from local Bett, her mother and her father in one swipe. Her father is still imprisoned for the murders he committed when the town is once again haunted by the smiley face killer. Bett and local Wednesday Addams Eugenia begin their hunt for justice. I loved the mystery of the book and it had me guessing until the very end. Pick up this book today and begin your hunt for the killer

★★★.75

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝑾𝒐𝒍𝒇 𝑹𝒊𝒅𝒈𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒔 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒚 𝑭𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝑲𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒓. 𝑩𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒂 𝑯𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒔 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸!

I haven’t read a mystery in so long so this was definitely a fun little read!

This story follows two teenage girls as they try to solve the murders going on in their small town. Bettina was just a child when her father murdered her mother. It’s all people ever talk about. But when another body shows up a decade after her father was put in prison with the exact same m.o. doubts begin to swirl in Bettina’s head. Is this a copycat murder or was the wrong person put in prison?

I had fun reading this! I found myself being very immersed into the story all the way throughout. I really enjoyed Eugenia’s character. She’s always been outcast because her family are the town morticians. She was very kind to Bettina even though Bettina was always so mean.

I’ve read my fair share of unlikeable fmc’s & Bettina is definitely one of them. It’s understandable that she’s a prickly character due everything she’s been through in life. I can’t imagine how difficult it was growing up in essentially a fish bowl for everyone to look into & comment on her most traumatic experience. But she was so extremely rude to everyone around her. Everyone was always at the end of her sharp tongue. Also the way she discovered every dead body?!?! Talk about horrible luck lol

The ending also felt rushed in a way to me. I feel like everything hit the fan in the last few pages. There was a slight twist that I honestly didn’t expect which I liked!

thanks to netgalley and holiday house for the arc!

simply giving it 5 stars because of my enjoyment of this book, i read it in 2 days and i was hooked from the very first page
it was addicting and i couldn’t keep my eyes away from it i just needed to read it !
i didn’t expect the twist at all and i normally can tell who the killer is on thrillers so that’s really good! even though the explanation felt a little vague it did the bother me much!
i loved the characters in this book especially Eugenia ( she’s so me) she was really refreshing to read and i lover her humor and personality, Bett was a little hard to love at the start but i ended up loving her too i really liked her character development. Xavier’s character did bother mer i guess i just don’t like men, i just didn’t like him at all and i thought he was only there so Bett’s grandpa could give her shit about ‘boys’ i also did not like her grandpa but her grandma was so sweet and reminded me so much of my own.

“But a woman has been murdered. Melissa's face crowds my dreams, the taunting words the killer left on her face carved deep. Sometimes, she's my mother, and she looks up at me and asks me to help her. But no matter how hard I try, I can't stop the blood that floods the forest floor, carrying me away in a surging wave.”

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I picked up this book mainly because I was drawn to its cover. And being a cozy mystery fan, the storyline seemed right up my alley. With it being a short read, I figured it would zip along at a good pace, which it pretty much did.

But honestly, despite the promising premise, the story just didn't grab me like I hoped. There were a few things that left me feeling meh, starting with the characters. Bettina, the daughter of the infamous Smiley Face Killer, who's locked up for offing her mom and another woman, should be someone you feel for. Besides being a puke machine, her character feels kinda flat, and being a jerk for the sake of it. And it's not just her – most of the characters, including her own grandparents, feel underdeveloped. Even Eugenia, who could've been a badass character, ends up just being labeled as the weirdo. Instead of diving deep into their personalities, we're stuck with descriptions of their hair and hairstyles. With all the trauma the MC went through as a kid, there was so much potential for depth and development there.

Then there's the plot. I couldn't help but notice some similarities to another book I read recently, "A Good Girl's Guide to Murder." But here they felt a bit too obvious. Some things happen out of the blue without much explanation, like Bettina suddenly becoming friends with Eugenia after bullying her before and believing she ranks lower than her in the social hierarchy. It just doesn't add up. Plot twists were either missing or poorly done, and I saw the killer reveal coming from a mile away, which kinda spoiled the fun. It's like the story tries too hard to throw you off the scent, but it's too obvious. The theories thrown around feel half-baked, and the characters make wild guesses without much to back them up.

Overall, it's an okay read, but it falls flat. I think there's potential here, but it needs a major revamp. The characters need more depth, and the plot could use some fine-tuning for consistency and subtlety. Sure, some parts are well-written, showing the author's talent, but it's not consistent throughout.

⚠️ Content Warnings
Murder - Vomit - Drinking

✨ 2/5 stars

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a free copy in exchange for an honest and fair review!!

I enjoyed the plot and thought behind this book but did find it to be slow and choppy at certain times and that did man it make it slightly drag to read. The mystery was good and intriguing an actually held up throughout the story and it took me longer than I thought to figure it out!

Overall I give this 3 stars !

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

This is so intense. I feel like im in a rollercoaster of emotions, they had me ups and downs with chills and goosebumps and shock and curiosity. The storyline, the plot, the concept, the characters, everything is almost perfect except for the ending, i feel unsatisfied, like something is missing, like maybe it should've been more than this, but okay.