Usually, I love a good mystery, a ghost story, and a romance. However, I couldn't do the ghost love triangle. It seemed too much like just trying to put all the stereotypical YA book elements into one disjointed story. I was sad that I didn't like it more.

Bad Girl Gone
Temple Mathews
St. Martin’s Griffin, August 2017
ISBN 978-1-250-05881-2
Hardcover

From the publisher—

Sixteen year-old Echo Stone awakens in a cold sweat in a dark room, having no idea where she is or how she got there. But she soon finds out she’s in Middle House, an orphanage filled with mysteriously troubled kids.

There’s just one problem: she’s not an orphan. Her parents are very much alive.

She explains this to everyone, but no one will listen. After befriending a sympathetic (and handsome) boy, Echo is able to escape Middle House and rush home, only to discover it sealed off by crime scene tape and covered in the evidence of a terrible and violent crime. As Echo grapples with this world-shattering information, she spots her parents driving by and rushes to flag them down. Standing in the middle of street, waving her arms to get their attention, her parents’ car drives right through her.

She was right. Her parents are alive―but she’s not.

She’s a ghost, just like all the other denizens of Middle House. Desperate to somehow get her life back and reconnect with her still-alive boyfriend, Echo embarks on a quest to solve her own murder. As the list of suspects grows, the quest evolves into a journey of self-discovery in which she learns she wasn’t quite the girl she thought she was. In a twist of fate, she’s presented with one last chance to reclaim her life and must make a decision which will either haunt her or bless her forever.­­­­

The premise of a dead person having to solve her own murder is not new but, to me, it’s intriguing and I really looked forward to seeing what Mr. Mathews would do with the idea. For the most part, I thought it was entertaining if not quite fabulous.

OK, so Echo is a ghost and is in an orphanage of sorts with a bunch of other dead kids, all murdered, and they need to solve their murders before they can move on. Some have superpowers that help them do this and Echo’s is kind of weird but ultimately useful. Along with investigating her demise, Echo will learn quite a lot about herself and how her opinions about her living self don’t exactly square with others’ views. That’s a good thing because, well, Echo isn’t the most likeable girl I’ve encountered.

This story would have been 50% better without the silly, awkward love triangle. Young adult fiction is rife with love triangles—hormones, I guess—but, as much as I dislike them, at least they’re usually normal, meaning all parties are breathing. Here we have two ghosts and a living boy. Uh-uh, doesn’t work and is not appealing. For the most part, I just sort of skimmed over the romantic parts as much as I could

Bottomline, I think the writing is a bit juvenile even with some rough language (or maybe because of it) and the story had promise that wasn’t quite delivered but I still enjoyed it to a degree. Certainly, Bad Girl Gone was not a waste of my time but I hope Mr. Mathews’ next YA novel will fit a little better in this genre.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, August 2017.

One of those books that is easy to read and good for a rainy day or when you don't feel good but still want something in your hand and to occupy your mind.

I love the cover of this one and I think the premise was unique and brilliant. Those are the two reasons why I decided to read this book. I enjoyed the first chapters especially when Echo didn’t know she was a ghost. I kept wondering how she will find out and the aftermath of that discovery. The first chapters were poignant. My heart broke for her as she came to terms with the fact that she was dead.

Another thing that I enjoyed was the ghost haunting. I thought that was creepy and fascinating. I was spooked and since then, I keep wondering if there are spirits hanging around us. Perhaps, there is one right now standing over my shoulder as I write this review…spooky! I liked the ghost adventures especially when they tackled bullies and the bad guys.

However, I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I thought I would. I thought there would be some mystery around who killed Echo but I found the reveal to be quite underwhelming. For once, I wished my guess was right since I had someone else in mind. I don’t think that Echo was likeable and I don’t like love triangles even if they involve the living and the dead. Another issue that I had with the story was a plot-line about the mistress at Echo’s institution. I still don’t know what was going on with that angle. In the end, I liked the premise and parts of the books but didn’t enjoy this as much as I thought I would.

I had a hard time getting into this book. I thought that I was going to love this book after reading the synopsis but after getting so far into it I just couldn't do it.

*3.5 out of 5 stars*

Bad Girl Gone by Temple Mathews is the story of Echo Stone's life, death, and (sort of almost) afterlife. 

Personally, the book felt a bit jumpy, particularly the beginning, but that may have been on purpose, considering Echo wakes up in an unfamiliar and creepy place (Middle House) with no idea how she got there. Luckily, it doesn't really take her that long to learn where she is and start searching for the reason of how she got there. 

Echo's character is a bit angsty, naive and somewhat selfish. Attributes I'd not really like in real life, but as a character in a book it works by giving us a starting point to see some growth and change within 200+ pages. Her flaws add realistic depth to her character. The general concept of the story is interesting and provides a new back drop to the age old question of where people go/move on, or not, after dying. 

Bad Girl Gone, does not really get too deep, but gives us an increasingly introspective view from the main character which is influenced by her past relationship with Andy, her still alive boyfriend and Cole, a ghost, who is at Middle House with her. These two relationships give a push-and-pull dynamic to her growth as a character which works for a book that is about a ghost who is stuck in the middle of moving on.

Overall Bad Girl Gone works for what it is, a fairly direct, somewhat mysterious, fast-paced read. It doesn't try to be more than what it is and that is okay. I'd recommend for anyone looking for a light and entertaining read. 

(I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book I received for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my open and honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.)

I admit. I felt very love/hate with this one. For the first three chapters or so I really didn't understand why this girl was in the worst house imaginable (forgive me, I downloaded this about 3 months before reading and forgot the blurb) and went into this thoroughly annoyed. Keeping the character in the dark without her being able to learn anything, just to keep us in the dark irked me. I spent those 3 chapters going why the kids were made to work and punished in the horrible place, and what she'd done to earn that fate.

THEN when we get to main plot it picks up. Temple's writing is great, I really do enjoy it. She brings out character and feeling, which was why I felt claustrophobic for Echo but it was also so vivid I had to skip a few pages because I am very claustrophobic in real life. That sort of atmosphere transferred.

I still don't get why the kids were thrown into a house of punishment at the start. No matter their behaviour in life, what sort of punishment is that? But the rest of the story picked up enough for me to keep interested, if not skimming a few.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review Bad Girl Gone by Temple Mathews. Echo wakes up in a strange place and she's having a difficult time getting her bearings. It's too dark to make out much and as she's feeling around she touches something stringy like hair. She realizes she's not in her bedroom or even her home. She hears creepy laughing and screaming and what she thinks might be a cutting tool. She's spooked and terrified and she's told by a scary nurse/nun that she's now in Middle House. The other residents are young people also and Echo assumes that Middle House is an orphanage but the truth freaks her out even more. She learns to accept being a Middle House resident and gains friendship and help from the others as she discovers why and how she was brought to Middle House. The beginning of the book led my mind one direction and the continuation led it to a completely different direction. I don't want to give the mystery away because it's the reason I kept reading. Reminiscent of Everlost by Neal Shusterman, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs and a tiny bit of The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. Bad Girl Gone is a supernatural romance surrounded in mystery, 4 stars.

This was a different kind of ghost story and very different from what I expected. From the title I expected Echo to be a really bad girl, and she wasn’t really. She wasn’t exactly nice, but I wouldn’t have categorized her as bad either. What she did that got her killed, might be seen as bad, but I think she was just naive and manipulated into a situation that she later regretted. Apart from all that the book was an enjoyable read.

The theme of the book centers around this group of kid ghosts who have all been murdered. They need to solve their murders and get revenge or get the perpetrators arrested for their crimes before they can move on. The group that befriends echo is an interesting group. Cole is the first one to really try to help her and becomes a love interest maybe a little too fast. Echo left a boyfriend behind when she was killed that she was ‘in love’ with. She finds herself torn between them, but eventually realizes that she can’t still have Andy anymore and turns to Cole. There have been a lot of reviews where people diss on the romance triangle and that it should have been left out of the story, but I found it sort of sweet, and it didn’t bother me that much. It did sort of bother me that Andy was easily lead to move on past her death. That seemed a little to contrived, her parents as well seemed to move on too quick.

I was able to figure out who had killed her pretty quickly although the why eluded me until it was revealed. I was still fun following this little band of ghosts around and watching them figure it all out. All of them have some type of special ability such as being able to move objects, which made their hauntings more exciting. Having it set in Kirkland, WA was also a fun twist. I recognized some of the places mentioned, but I think some may have been made up.

Overall this was a fun read for me. It seems to be one of those books that people have either hated or loved by the looks of the ratings on Goodreads. I’m falling somewhere in the middle. It had some issues, but it was still a fun read that kept me turning the pages and wanting to see how it all ended. It ended on a positive note with a possible opening for it to be a series, which could be fun.

The writing in this one just made the book hard to get through. Parts of it were great but others parts just felt cheesy and fake. I think this one would work out as a movie for the Disney Channel as it had that feel. The story itself was fairly interesting but the characters felt just a little flat to me as well.

Not my type of book, I tried to start it but just couldn't get into anything about this book!

Sixteen year old Eileen “Echo” Stone awakens in an unknown dark room with no memory of how she got there. Trying to find out what is going on Echo finds herself surrounded by other strange kids and a surly woman that seems to run the place. Echo is told she is at Middle House, an orphanage for troubled kids and immediately argues that her parents are alive and that there has to be some kind of mistake.

With the help of a fellow resident of Middle House Echo makes her way out and to her home which is surrounded by crime scene tape and finds a gruesome bloody scene. Fearing that something has happened to her parents Echo is devastated until she see their familiar car and chases after them only to have the car pass right through her leading Echo to find that she is the actual ghost and Middle House is the in between place she will stay until she finds out who murdered her.

I have been noticing some really low reviews on Bad Girl Gone which had me a bit worried but also extremely curious picking this one up. What I found though was a pretty fun ride with Echo and company that while it’s not great literature it’s what I think it’s meant to be, a cutesy afterlife young adult mystery. I even found Echo’s descriptions of her fellow ghosts a bit Beetlejuice like if anyone recalls that waiting room scene with how they died.

The biggest complaint I’m reading about this one is the love triangle involved in the story and possibly because of being warned ahead of time by a fellow blogger I didn’t find it that horrible to be included. Echo had a real life boyfriend she can’t let go, makes a connection with fellow dead kid hence the love triangle… she’s sixteen, sixteen year olds are fickle and in love too easily so I would just say if something like that will bother people then skip this one otherwise give it a fair shot.

As far as the rest of the story, the mystery of Echo’s death as she checked off her suspects was decent enough for a young adult read. The idea behind the whole story is a bit recycled as far as the dead looking for closure with this one being they need revenge on the murderers to move on… that in itself could be argued as being realistic since for instance some killers murder more than one so how would it work if one victim got their revenge and another didn’t?

In the end though if you don’t think too hard about what seems to be meant as simply a fun, light look into the young adult afterlife and simply take it with a few laughs here and there you might just enjoy this one. I’d personally rate this one at 3.5 stars… light entertainment but still enjoyable overall.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

The description of Bad Girl Gone by Temple Mathews is what initially drew me in. A girl, who does not remember dying, figures out she is dead and has to figure out why and how? This was unlike any book I had ever read or even thought of reading, but it sounded interesting. My murder/mystery loving self wanted to know what happen.

The story follows Echo, who wakes up in a strange orphanage like place, with a bunch of weird kids and circumstances. My first impression was confusion, but for once this didn't bother me because I felt like that was the point. Echo was confused, therefore we were confused. From there I absolutely loved the camaraderie around the group coming together and trying to solve the murders of their lives. The group was like the island of misfit toys, where all these different types of people with different walks of life and personalities are able to come together and help each other out.

On top of this youthful bonding and life lessons that author Mathews weaved into the story, we also have a murder to be solved. I did guess who was guilty as soon as they crossed my path as a reader, but it didn't ruin the rest of the story. The story flowed nicely and kept me interested all the way to the very end. I enjoyed the small glimpses back into Echo's life before she died and seeing what led her to where she was now. It was a full circle kind of story, which is not something a lot of authors do. It's a chunk of their life, but not beginning, middle, end. Temple Mathews is a writer to keep your eyes on. Bad Girl Gone has everything a young adult wants in a book, but also enjoyable for adults who want to read.

I will definitely be checking out more from Temple Mathews in the future.

Thank you for allowing me to read this early release so I can review. This book was worth the time just needed a bit more "something" to make it stand out

This was a solid coming of age (after dying, of course) novel that most teen girls will eat up. Echo was a normal teen with her life supposedly on the right track when she wakes up and finds that it is all over. She had the perfect boyfriend, the perfect family, and the perfect life in general. Echo strives to find who it was that murdered her and why. And she has found the perfect band of other murdered teens to help her out.
Echo learns that her life wasn’t exactly how she remembered it and that, if she could, she would change her previous actions. Her character gains depth and changes throughout the novel, growing into a more mature woman that understands how her choices affected other around her.
It was a great plot, set up, and group of characters that kept the story moving and will hook readers quickly. I would have liked to see more of the other kids get their murders solved and maybe more of a solid romance than one that seemed forced. Looking forward to seeing this jump off the shelf.

I received an advance reader copy (from Netgalley) in exchange for a fair review. Thanks to St. Martins and the author for a chance to review this.

I really, really, wanted to like this. as it really seemed like something I'd enjoy but I found myself being bored about halfway through. I finished but there was too much focus on the love triangle and not enough on the mystery/spooky.

This ended up being a very uneventful read for me. The premise felt really cool: a girl finds herself in a creepy orphanage, realises it’s actually a kind of purgatory for murdered kids, and tries to find out who killed her so that she can move on. The beginning was intriguing, especially since, like other ghosts in the orphanage, Echo first has to piece together memories of her death—reliving the trauma at once would be too shocking—, and investigating why you’re in an orphanage when last you knew your parents were definitely alive, well, that’s tricky.

The problem lied mainly in how all this was executed. Not particularly thrilling, for starters. Echo has a couple of culprits in mind, so she and the other kids go to ‘haunt’ them and see if they’re going to wield under pressure, or are actually innocent, but… it wasn’t anything scary or memorable, more like pranks, not like the really creepy kind of haunting you could get when adding children/teenagers to the mix (in general, I find kid ghosts scarier than adult ones). The mystery itself—finding the murdered—wasn’t exciting either, nor were the murderer’s reactions. Perhaps this was partly due to Echo’s power as a ghost: entering living people’s bodies in order to perceive their thoughts. The investigation part, in turn, was more about vaguely picking a maybe-potential culprit, scaring them, popping in their mind, then be gone. Then the story. And then Echo’s past as a ‘bad girl’ was revealed, and it turned out it wasn’t so much bad as introduced without much taste.

Definitely cringeworthy was the drama-addled romance. Echo’s living boyfriend, Andy, is all about moping and wanting to kill himself over her death, and… well, call me hard-hearted and callous, but you’re 16 and that kind of relationship is by far NOT the first one you’re going to experience in life, so pegging everything on it always feels contrived to me. Then there’s cute ghost boy Cole, who’s not about murdering the hypotenuse (thanks goodness), yet was strange, considering Andy is not aware of his presence, and so the triangle is… incomplete? (Its attempts at becoming a square later didn’t help either.) Also contains examples of stupid Twue Wuv/The One/soulmate 4evah/Doormat Extraordinaire. Such as Echo being so happy that her corpse was dressed in her favourite dress at her funeral… Favourite because her boyfriend Andy liked it. I still have no idea if Echo herself liked the pattern or colour or whatever. In any case, these are the kind of tropes I dislike in novels in general, and in YA even more. Why always make it look like couple love is the ultimate end, as if nobody (whether girl or boy) couldn’t have a good life in different ways?

In fact, I was more interested in the orphanage’s headmistress (whose back story plays a part for a chapter or so) and other inmates, all with their own murders to solve. These I would’ve liked to see interact more than just as Echo’s sidekicks. But we don’t get to learn much about them, apart from how they died. Too bad.

Conclusion: Nope.

I loved this book although I found it kind of hard to get into it at first but once I was in I was hooked I loved the plot and the style of writing I look forward to more from temple Matthews x