I thought this book was a quick and overall engaging read, though I couldn't relate to the main character and I was left with unanswered questions. The story centers on Ren, who comes back to her hometown to teach high school after a 10+ year hiatus. Ren's sister Margo was murdered and Ren is still struggling to move on with her life, but when she meets a fellow teacher who reminds her of her own personal trauma, things kind of go off the rails.

Ren is unlikable but I think she is supposed to be. I really struggled with many of the decisions she made, starting with even returning to her hometown where she did not feel welcome, and then alternately sneaky and forthcoming about who she really was (plus, she wasn't gone that long and was involved in a huge scandal so you think she would have been easily remembered). She also continued to show signs of isolation and trauma (not to mention unhealthy family dynamics) throughout the book which were never really explained. Was she getting help? What kind of closure was she actually looking for? I don't know. While I enjoyed the pacing of the book, it felt a tad unrealistic to me and even when Ren did the right things, I felt like she did them the wrong way. I enjoyed the ending because it caught me off guard, though I can see why others didn't like it.

Overall, it was an interesting story but the lack of characterization into the protagonist kept me from enjoying it more. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was one hell of a page turner! I was invested throughout!! 🙌

I do have to say the pace slowed a bit in the middle. While intentionally not a very likable character, I could understand why Ren was who she was. Still not sure how I feel about the ending though! 😅

Thank you to NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press, and Marlee Bush for the opportunity to read the eARC in exchange for my honest review! ❤️

Overall, the writing style, plot, the pacing, and the characters was all enjoyable and engaging. In fact, if it wasn’t for the way the main character chooses to respond to the plot twist at the end… I’d probably had given it more stars. I guess the author thought she was a being cheeky? I mean, I guess it makes sense knowing the main character is so morally ambiguous, but really?? I just sat there like… 😟 wait… what, now? The ending really rubbed me the wrong way and made me uncomfortable especially since the whole premise is about the main character finding justice for victims.

This book is definitely an odd one with quirks and random things happening. It isn’t boring that’s for sure! I thought it was kind of strange she sees and talks to her dead sister the entire book and we never get an explanation or anything?? 🤷‍♀️ I felt like a lot of things were left unexplained with loose ends. Not the best ending. I would recommend the author choose an alternate ending and to tie up some of the questions with some answers.

CW: s*x with minors (teacher/student relationships), description of losing virginity (fluids described), murder and violence, death of a 17 year old (her sister) and the grief for herself and her parents, emotional trauma, seeing ghosts

This was my first Marlee Bush book and I can’t wait to dive into her backlog! Ren is a bit of a hot mess (understandably so) but who can blame her when her dead sister is basically stalking her at all times?

I did guess a couple of the twists but some of them still got me! It was a little challenging to keep up with all the side characters at times but nonetheless I still really enjoyed this book.

4/5 ⭐️

Thank you to Marlee Bush, Poisoned Pen Press, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I tried, I really did. But unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. I did not like Ren. After a tragedy and the death of her sister. She moves back years later and expects people not to know it's her? I mean, how man people do you know with the name Ren?

I really struggled with this book from the get go. I don’t think it had anything which I haven’t seen before and I could not relate to Ren at all; I found her very unlikeable. The back and forth with Margo didn’t really add anything for me and I felt like I was constantly waiting for the story to begin. By the end I was completely uninvested and I was disappointed with the twist.

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

UPCOMING THRILLER MUST READ ALERT ✨ 🔪🩸

Whispers of Dead Girls by Marlee Bush will haunt you—in the best way.

Dark, atmospheric, and absolutely gripping, this debut pulls you into a chilling story of grief, guilt, and the ghosts we carry. I was fully hooked—and the ending? Shocking.

Thank you to NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press, and Marlee Bush for the eARC.

Release date: 05.27.25
Trust me—add this to your TBR before it finds you first.

I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It was a beautifully- written and tragic story with twists that I never saw coming. I dont typically love the coming-of-age retells, but found this one very enjoyable as the author shifted the present and past timelines seamlessl.y

"Whispers of Dead Girls" doesn’t just knock on your door — it breaks into your emotional safe and whispers unspeakable things to your inner child. Marlee Bush serves up small-town horror, sisterhood trauma, and just enough true-crime energy to make you want to Google every teacher you’ve ever had. It’s the kind of story that drags you back to high school and then sets fire to the gym.

Ren Taylor is back in her hometown for reasons that can only be described as emotionally masochistic. She’s teaching biology at her old high school — the same cursed institution where her sister Margo was murdered a decade earlier. Cute, right? And because this town has zero chill and apparently no HR department, Ren’s forced to walk the same halls where her entire life imploded, only now she’s got a front-row seat to a new generation of secrets… and maybe another predator hiding behind a charming smile and a staff badge.

Enter Bryson Lewis. Physics teacher. Too hot. Too charming. Too suspicious. The moment Ren catches him flirting with a student who’s giving major Margo energy, her internal alarm bells start screeching — and this book goes from academic melancholy to full-on psychological thriller in, like, five pages. Ren is NOT okay. The town is definitely not okay. And we haven’t even gotten to the part where her dead sister’s voice starts haunting her like a moral compass with boundary issues.

Here’s the thing: Ren is not a plucky girl detective. She is not hashtag strong-female-character. She is broken in the way people get when justice fails them and everyone tells them to move on. She makes terrible decisions. She crosses ethical lines like she’s playing hopscotch in Hell. But she’s also trying, desperately, to protect the girls who still have a chance. And that’s what keeps you glued to her spiral, even as you want to scream, “GO TO THERAPY, GIRL, PLEASE.”

The tension? Absolutely feral. Every scene feels like someone’s about to cry, confess, or get murdered. The town is small enough that everyone knows each other’s shame, but big enough that no one talks about it. Secrets are currency, and Ren’s digging into debts no one wants to collect. You’ll think you’ve figured it out. You haven’t. And when the twist hits? You’ll just sit there blinking like someone unplugged your brain.

It’s not perfect — some chapters wander, and occasionally you can feel the plot mechanics grinding under the surface — but when this book lands, it hits hard. I’ll be real: I really didn’t like Ren. She’s deeply unlikable, not in a “complicated antiheroine” way but in a “ma’am, why are you like this?” way. She spirals, self-sabotages, and barrels into confrontation like she’s speedrunning a burnout. And yeah, that might be intentional, but it doesn’t make her any easier to root for. The final stretch, though? Pure chaos, grief, rage, and just a little vindication… but don’t expect neat bows or feel-good speeches. This story isn’t here to make you feel better. It’s here to show you what it costs to care.

"Whispers of Dead Girls" is raw, unsettling, and gorgeously messed up. It doesn’t ask if you’re ready — it just hands you the shovel and dares you to start digging. 3.5 stars — a twisty, slightly unhinged ride I’m glad I took, even if I needed a breather after.

Whodunity Award: For Solving a Murder While Being Haunted by Your Sister’s Ghost and Your Own Guilt

Big thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for letting me spiral through this one in advance — emotionally unstable but forever grateful.

Thanks to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the eARC!

Bush did a fantastic job of creating an eerie atmosphere. The entire book felt like a hazy, foggy dream. I can confidently say that at no point did I guess the next twist, but I was able to tell certain people were untrustworthy.
Bush had a lot of interesting things to say about revenge and misogyny, about who is good and who is bad, and what it means to overlook people. I was also impressed by how the pacing of the book and how much I wanted to find out what was going on despite not liking a single character.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. This one read more like a YA novel. That being said, it was fast paced with short chapters and a unique plot.

4.5 ⭐️ Advanced Reader Review!

Ren Taylor is back where she started in life: in her hometown having just accepted a job to teach at the local high school. It’s hard being back in the town where her sister was killed, and Ren can’t stop seeing her everywhere. It’s even hard to escape the scandal that still surrounds her sister’s death.

Before the school year starts, Ren meets a fellow teacher, Bryson Lewis. He’s handsome and charismatic, and all his students love him. But Ren knows men like him…the more she watches him, the more suspicious she becomes. When Ren notices Bryson’s close relationship with one of his students, she becomes concerned that history is going to repeat itself. This time, Ren is taking matters into her own hands.

My thoughts: I flew through this book! I would wake up thinking about this book, and go to sleep thinking about this book. I was totally invested in the story and the characters. I loved the “good for her” aspect to this story. That being said, this is a super heavy topic, very important to take seriously. I think the author did just that. Nothing about the teacher/student relationship felt romanticized; it felt real. (Please check content warnings before reading)

The story moved at a nice pace, and the setting was very small town in the South. There is a bit of a supernatural element to the story, but it doesn’t take over the story by any means.

My only critique of the book was that the beginning moved a bit too fast for me. I’m not sure if we ever got an explanation on why Ren moved back. Other than that, I loved this book!! 4.5 stars.

I recently saw this upcoming thriller shared several times on social media, so I was thrilled when I was sent an ARC of it! This was a solid and well written thriller!

This story starts with Ren returning to her hometown to teach high school after being away for 10 years. She was hoping the town had forgotten about her and the murder of her sister, but they hadn’t! Ren is triggered when meeting the teacher across the hall Bryson and it brings up memories surrounding the events of her sisters death. As she sees Bryson getting close to a student, Ren is determined to not let history repeat itself, even if her dark secrets must come to the surface.

This story was wild with Ren hanging out with her sister in ghost form! While parts of the story were not super believable, I found myself hooked into the story and read it very quickly! I was shocked at the turn Marlee Bush took the story in the last 20% and it was not one of the theories I had running as I read the story.

Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Whispers of Dead Girls by Marlee Bush is a psychological thriller set in the eerie echo chamber of past trauma—literally. Ren Taylor returns to her old high school, a place steeped in tragedy for her: it’s where her sister Margo died years earlier under suspicious circumstances. Why would anyone go back to the scene of such personal devastation, you ask? Good question—and one several characters ask too. But Ren has her reasons, even if they’re murky, obsessive, and just a little bit haunted.

And I mean haunted. Margot’s ghost is very much present, providing commentary, warnings, and sisterly sarcasm throughout. There’s something really compelling about the way their bond continues after death—though Ren doesn’t always listen, which felt oddly out of sync with their past closeness. Their dynamic raised questions for me, especially considering Ren’s deep reverence for her sister when she was alive.

When a student from another school goes missing and another is seen leaving charismatic teacher Bryson Lewis’s classroom in distress, Ren spirals into full investigative mode—driven, intense, and absolutely consumed. Her connection to another teacher from the past, Mr. Henry, adds extra layers to the plot, as well as to Ren’s damaged worldview. Bryson is charming, the students love him, and the red flags are immediate for Ren. While the plot has some intriguing elements and a few solid twists, I found many of the beats predictable, and the atmosphere, which could have elevated this story, felt disappointingly flat. The high school itself, the town, the setting—all of it read as vaguely sketched rather than fully realised, which made it hard to feel immersed in Ren’s world.

Ren herself is a complicated character, and while I appreciate a morally grey, psychologically scarred protagonist, I found it difficult to emotionally connect with her. Her trauma defines every aspect of her, but there’s little contrast or growth that gives her arc momentum. It left me feeling like I was observing her from a distance rather than being pulled into her head—an issue when the entire story hinges on her perspective.

Still, for a debut, Bush’s writing shows promise. The pacing is solid, the sisterly dynamic has depth, and the bones of a good psychological thriller are all here. With a bit more atmosphere and nuance, this could’ve been a four-star read. As it stands, it’s a respectable three stars from me—and I’ll be curious to see what Bush writes next.

📚 ARC BOOK REVIEW 📚

Whispers Of Dead Girls By Marlee Bush
Publication Date: May 27, 2025
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

📚MY RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you SO MUCH to my sweet friend Carrie Shields for gifting this #gifted book to me and to Poisoned Pen Press for gifting this #gifted ARC to Carrie! ❤️ Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review too!

📚MY REVIEW:

Last year, I absolutely devoured Marlee Bush's debut, When She Was Me, so I couldn't wait to get my hands on her upcoming thriller, Whispers of Dead Girls. So it was everything when my sweet friend Carrie offered to send me an ARC of it. And let me tell you: I am fully convinced that Marlee Bush is a MASTER at bringing out the darker side of sister relationships in really suspenseful and twisty atmospheric thrillers. I'm also convinced she may have had a sister who locked her in a closet for long periods of time when she was a child, but that's a whole other conversation for a different day. 😉

After being away for ten years, Ren returns to her hometown and takes a job teaching at her old high school. She hoped maybe the town had forgotten about her past, but no such luck: her murdered teenage sister Margo is still immortalized all over town and the scandal that came along with Margo's tragic death still surrounds Ren in rumors. When Ren meets handsome fellow teacher, Bryson, she's triggered by memories of her past and she can't help being suspicious of him. Ren notices Bryson's close relationship with Olivia, a high school student who reminds her so much of Margo, and Ren feels compelled to try to rewrite the past by doing things differently this time around.

Heads up: the underlying current of #metoo vibes is really strong in this story, so if that's a trigger for you, it'll be good to be aware. Bush took this heavy subject and somehow managed to write an atmospheric small-town suspense with a mystery so thick that that part of the story almost fell to the background. Almost. Ren is a wildly unhinged character, and since she's constantly hanging out with and talking to the ghost of her dead sister, you're never really sure if she's accurately reading a situation or if she's a few cards short of a full deck. But I didn't care. I cheered her badass self on, even while I simultaneously wanted to close my eyes and pretend I didn't see what she was about to do. She's a loveable character, without a doubt, and the more I learned about her past, the more difficult it was to root against her.

While this book required some suspending of my disbelief, the suspense and the plotlines kept me turning every page as quickly as I could until this puzzle was solved. Is there anything more unhinged than an unreliable main character trying to right the wrongs of the past and rewrite her teenage traumas, all while her dead sister's ghost rides shotgun with her feet on the dash? Nope, there sure isn't. The suspension of disbelief is completely worth it, as Bush delivers a knockout punch of twists and unexpected turns in this wildly captivating read. Out May 27th.

#WhispersOfDeadGirls #MarleeBush #PoisonedPenPress #NetGalley #NetGalleyReviews #ARCs #thrillerreads #thrilleraddict #thrillerlover #booklover #bookreviews #bookrecs #bookrecommendations

Thank you so much @poisonedpenpress for the gifted E-ARC and the opportunity to read and review!

This was a solid thriller! Ren moves back to her hometown and takes a teaching position at her old high school. She is sort of an unreliable narrator with a chip on her shoulder. Her sister was killed when they were in high school and she carries that with her and blames herself. We don’t really know what happens but when we find out it was definitely unexpected.

Because she blames herself she is hyperaware of a girl that is seemingly being taken advantage of by a fellow teacher. She is hellbent on helping this girl because she couldn’t help her sister. What transpires is a troubling story and a twist ai didn’t see coming!

Thank you Poisoned Pen Press & Marlee Bush for this read!

I literally binged this book and could hardly stop! Our protagonist Ren leads us on a chase to find out what has really happened when girls have gone missing / gotten killed in the area. A combination of a classic thriller with a supernatural twist, this book really does give more than one shock along the way!

The author managed to make me question the truth of our narrator and others and the ending was definitely unexpected!

If you are after an addictive thriller with a supernatural twist and an unexpected ending -- this book is for you!

Out 27th May!!

Wow this was a page turner with so many twists kept me guessing till the end. Well written and entertaining did not see the end twist coming and will definitely be reading more from Marlee Bush this was a 3.5/4 read for me. I want to thank NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was solid!

It felt very Gillian Flynn with a dash of the supernatural thrown in. To be transparent, I have only read Sharp Objects by Ms. Flynn, and I didn't like it very much, but that's the best comparison I can offer.

I enjoyed the sense of dread pervading the story. It added a palpable tension and claustrophobia that was enjoyable. I liked the small town setting/high school teacher MC combo because it gave Ren more of a reason to be so passionate about helping the girls at her school. I also enjoyed the back and forth between Ren and the apparition of Margo.

However I thought there was a little too much brooding from Ren and not enough actually happening. I felt the flashbacks were done confusingly. And the ending was a let down - too sudden and not very satisfying.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

"Life is the only thing more painful than death." Ren has a taste for blood. She lost her sister years ago to a man, who like many, slip through the cracks and prey on young girls. She's returned home to teach at the school where it all happened and finds that a very similar scenario seems to be playing out with an overly friendly teacher. Ren is haunted by her past but channels this pain into a crusade of justice to protect the girls that are left.

Marlee Bush captures exactly what it feels like to be young, vulnerable and wanting to be seen. As well as the ugly side of life, another charming and dangerous man.

Overall, a highly bingeable and addicting read! Whispers of Dead Girls comes out 5/27/25!