Heather Cole receives a half of a heart necklace, Her friend Becca had the other half but she died years ago. Who has sent this necklace to her? Heather thinks it is one of the other two girls from the Dead Girls Club, a club that read books about killers. She gets paranoid and thinks someone is after her.
This book is a psychological thriller. Well worth a read.

It appears that this is Damien Angelica Walters third novel and she has stories in a bunch of anthologies. I will be reading more of her short stories, and maybe go back to read her other novels because The Dead Girls Club was excellent.

The book flips back and forth between Then and Now, and since there is only two timelines, it is not difficult to know what is going on. Not like some Suspense or Thriller books that have so many different timelines that it takes a few pages of reading the new chapter before you figure out or remember what is going on. I greatly appreciated the simplicity since it didn’t pull me out of the story.

Walters does an amazing job capturing the essence of young girls, almost as if she was one once. ;) All the angst and drama, and how one day you’re best friends and the next day you hate that person was written to perfection. It was as if she transported me back to my teenage years. And although we didn’t tell ghost stories, at most sleepovers we would watch horror movies, play Light as a Feather, or freak each other out by chanting Bloody Mary into the bathroom mirror. So I felt even more of a kinship with Heather, Becca, Gia, and Rachel. She really shined in her portrayal of how girls act when they get together.

And although Heather declares at the beginning of The Dead Girls Club that she killed Becca, the way Walters writes has you questioning if Heather is losing time and sending herself the threats, if she’s being gaslighted by her husband and friends, if the Red Lady really is coming after her, or at one point, I was wondering if Heather was in an insane asylum and imagining all of the events that were happening in the current time. This is the other reason that this book was so good to read, I was constantly questioning what was going on, just like Heather. In so many Suspense and Thrillers I have part of it figured out early on, if not all of it, but not so with The Dead Girls Club.

This story is told on two timelines, 1991 and the present day. Back then, we learn about the childhood that shaped the woman Heather has become today. Oddly enough this book dredged up some old memories for me, or maybe it's not that strange. Maybe we all had that one childhood besty who turned catty and left us out, or talked behind our back once puberty hit. Perhaps we all had a friend who we would rather visit when their parent wasn't home to make us feel uneasy. On the other side of the coin maybe you were that friend, and surely you had your reasons if that were the case. Back then Heather and Becca were 2 such friends. Inseparable until they weren't. Girls from very different backgrounds who loved each other like sisters. Friends for life until Heather killed her. Today Heather is a psychologist, working with troubled kids, though she has always kept her own dark childhood secret. Until now. Someone knows what happened all those years ago. Is it a supernatural being come to life from a story? Or is it something no less sinister but far more human that wants to make heather pay? You'll have to read to find out.

I was hooked when I saw this book compared to A Head Full of Ghosts, and thankfully it did not disappoint.. mostly.

The Dead Girls Club is a fast paced thriller that didn't quite make it into the horror genre, although I enjoyed the stories the girls told about the Red Lady and how she tied into the story. It flowed well from start to finish, and at no point did I find it slow, something that I struggle with in many thrillers. It helped that it started out with a bang as Heather gets her dead friend's necklace in the mail.

My issue is mostly with the MC and her dramatics. Her disgusting nail chewing habit made me cringe and she often seemed like she was becoming unhinged with her ridiculous reactions, so I really did not enjoy her future self chapters.

But all in all a great read for those cold winter nights.

The Dead Girls Club is the first book I have read by Damien Angelica Walters. It is part psychological thriller, mixed with a bit of mystery and a touch of horror. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The details that make the main character, Heather, come to life are so carefully crafted that I personally felt many of her emotions. At times I found myself holding my breath hoping her decisions to do something that she might get in trouble for worked out. Considering the possibility she killed her childhood best friend, you would think she isn't a likable character, but I did like her.

I love how the author really twisted my thinking this way and that, and finished the book in a way that went along with the story,

I received the copy through netgalley.
this was a interesting read,!
I will be interested to see if she writes any more. I love a good mystery/thriller.

The Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters is a psychological thriller tinged with a hint of the supernatural that is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat. It features a very effective dual time line that follows Heather Cole and her friends both as children and then later as adults. The first time line follows Heather and her friends as they create a club called The Dead Girls Club, where they would secretly meet to discuss and share stories about serial killers and other morbid topics. A favorite topic of theirs, and especially of Heather’s best friend Becca, was the Red Lady, the spirit of a witch who was murdered centuries ago. Becca spends so many hours telling elaborate stories about the Red Lady that she and the other girls become convinced that the Red Lady is real. Their belief takes a tragic turn when Becca turns up dead. As the second timeline shows, what happened to Becca the night of her death has remained a secret for nearly 30 years until someone starts sending a now grown up Heather subtle hints that they know what really happened that night and that they plan to make her pay for it. My favorite part about this novel is the Red Lady. I loved the stories about her and how she comes across as an urban legend. She definitely adds an ultra-creepy supernatural layer to what is otherwise a pretty straightforward psychological thriller as this unknown person basically stalks Heather with these threats of exposure. For me though, Heather was actually the weakest part of the story. I really enjoyed her character in the child timeline, but found her frustrating and infuriating in the adult timeline. Her paranoia about being tied to Becca’s death leads her to make some downright awful decisions, which made her not as likable as I prefer my protagonists to be. Even though I didn’t find Heather to be overly likable, I still thought The Dead Girls Club was a very solid read. The author does a wonderful job of creating plenty of suspense in both timelines and I was engaged from start to finish (and, of course, looking over my shoulder to make sure the Red Lady wasn’t lurking behind me). If you like a good creepy thriller with a supernatural twist, The Dead Girls Club is a great choice. 3.5 STARS

So this was ok. I wasn't left feeling either excited or disappointed. Just ok. I felt the characters weren't formed enough. The story moved in a way I didn't enjoy. I was hoping for more horror then it offered. Overall just an ok read. I might read another book by the author if I like the plot but I wont rush to anything.

'The Dead Girls Club' is told in alternating present/past chapters, from the point of view of Heather. She has a 30-year old secret about the death of her then-best-friend, Becca. When Heather receives half of a friendship necklace in the mail, she knows that her past has caught up to her. Heather's world--her job, marriage, and relationships--starts to crumble as she tries to discover who knows about what happened so long ago.

When they were children, Heather, Becca and their friends liked to tell each other scary stories. However, Becca claims that the story about the 'Red Lady' is actually true, and that she can make her presence known. Is it just a scary story? Can the Red Lady really reveal herself to them--and what will happen if she does?

There is an interesting blend of mystery and supernatural, and the author keeps us guessing about the characters' guilt and motivations. The parts of the book about the Red Lady and how the girls scared each other were quite atmospheric and creepy. I also thought Heather's spiral into fear and desperation was quite believable.

Overall a solid mystery/thriller that kept me guessing until the end.

This a dark one! There is some violence against children so if that’s not your thing, skip it.
When Heather Cole and her three best friends were young, they were obsessed with dark and twisted stories of the Red Lady. When that obsession leads to the death of Becca, the friendship between Heather and the remaining girls, Gia and Rachel, falls apart. Now, decades later, pieces of that fateful night are showing up in Heather’s life. Shaken to her core, Heather must find out who knows about what happened that night without losing her marriage, her family, and possibly, her own mind.
The Dead Girls Club is a twisting psychological thriller that is hard to discuss without giving away all the good stuff. We get flashbacks to the childhood of Heather and her friends and it was hard to read how bad it was for Becca. Suffering from abuse and neglect, Becca looked for any way to escape from her alcoholic mother. It’s easy to see why the girls became obsessed with the Red Lady, a mythological figure who would grant wishes to those who tried to communicate with her and were willing to pay her price.
Heather is convinced that she killed Becca and is desperate to keep the secret from everyone. With no one to confide in, she quickly spirals into conspiracy theories and paranoia. Throughout so much of the book I just wanted her to confide in someone! Anyone! She couldn’t even speak to her own mother about it.
Dark and complex, The Dead Girls Club will keep you guessing until the very end.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions, and mistakes, are my own.

I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for my advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

The good: The Red Lady was amazing. I loved how creepy, evil, and unpredictable she was. I loved the actual Dead Girls Club and their obsession with serial killers, the paranormal, and the weird. I enjoyed the group dynamic that happens amongst teenage girls. It felt real and authentic.

The bad: The 'now' and 'then' format felt contrived. The 'then' stories were so much better, so much more unique, and so much more engaging; that I found myself almost skimming the 'now' chapters. I so wanted more of the Red Lady and the Dead Girls Club!!!!! Honestly, the whole book should've been about that. The synopsis promised a supernatural and eerie atmosphere and instead provided a lackluster thriller at best. It's truly disappointing that the story essentially lacked any horror motifs.

The ugly: Adult Heather Cole was dreadful. She was boring and entitled. The 'now' happenings were almost as unbelievable as Heather's reactions to it. And the ending was just ..... a disaster. The overarching trope is utterly overdone. The twists and turns were chaotic. The adult side characters were one dimensional and often useless to push the plot forward. And don't even get me started on Heather's mom! I am not giving anything away but her involvement in the entire storyline is outrageous and so far fetched, the author may as well have introduced a unicorn that came flying down to earth, sprinkle a bunch of confetti to make everything nice again and it would've had the same credibility.

This book was crazy.

Heather has a secret, which you already know she killed Becca.  That's not what this is about.  Let's start from the beginning.  The chapters alternate between Then and Now which I love.

                                                                                  THEN

Heather, Becca and two other friends started the Dead Girls Club.  An exclusive club where they obsess over serial killers and murder.  It's at a meeting that Becca tells the story about the Red Lady.  Now that's all she talks about.

Becca's character was hard to like.  She was a mean girl who would only be your friend if you did what she wanted.  She was obsessed with the Red Lady, and wanted everyone else to be too.  When Heather refused to be a Red Lady groupie, she was ousted.  Of course Heather was crushed.  She and Becca had just bought a Best Friends Forever Necklace.  Also Becca's home life wasn't good, so she spent a lot of time at Heather's house.  That ended after Heather refused to believe.  Now Becca is dead.

                                                                                       NOW

Years later as a child psychologist, Heather received an envelope with Becca's half of the BFF necklace.  Is Becca really dead?  I went back and forth on this one.  Someone is messing with Heather, but who is it?  Whoever it is, they want her to pay and they won't stop until they find out the truth of what happened that night.

Heather's mom and husband begin to worry about her as she becomes more and more paranoid.  Why can't the past just stay buried?

I thought the author did a good job of building suspense around who is messing with Heather.  I had a million thoughts running through my head while reading this, but none of them were right.  You'll have to read it for yourself to find out if Becca is really dead.  That's what kept me going.  I wanted answers.

Heather is a child psychologist with a nasty nasty secret that's just come back to haunt her in the form of half a friendship bracelet- the bracelet she shared with Becca- who she killed all those years ago. Now she's devolving completely as she franticly tries to figure out what happening. Heather is not a likable protagonist in so many ways- starting with the fact that she let Becca's mom go to prison for the murder, and ending with how she treats (rather ignores) her patients. Told in dual time frame this is meant to bring you to a reveal of the Red Lady. You might guess what happened but that's ok. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Not exactly a supernatural thriller but more about teen girls and an act which reverberated into the present.

The Dead Girls Club is a solid and engaging psychological thriller infused with light horror elements and a coming-of-age narrative that provides a rich backdrop to the modern-day events unraveling around Dr. Heather Cole. However, as readable and interesting as it is — and rest assured, Damien Angelica Walters kept me highly engaged with each page — it never quite manages to become more than the sum of its parts.

Thirty years ago, Heather and her friends were members of the Dead Girls Club, obsessing over serial killers and telling each other horror stories, some true, like the crimes of Ted Bundy, and others fictional. And others still, like the story of the Red Lady, a dead and vengeful witch, seem false despite Becca’s insistence that it is real. Now, Heather is being haunted, and perhaps even hunted, by her past. Old, forgotten things from her childhood are being sent to her in the mail, like Becca’s half of their broken heart-shaped Best Friends Forever necklace. Somebody — or something — knows about Becca’s death, and they know that Heather killed her.

Walters is a damn good writer, and you can sense the artists she’s drawn inspiration from over the course of developing her own voice. At times, The Dead Girls Club echoes the coming-of-age horrors of Stephen King’s IT, and makes some self-aware, but never self-indulgent, references of that magnum opus. It’s even structurally similar to King’s earlier work, with the narrative jumping between past and present. As a youngster, Heather is a huge Stephen King fan, and I sense there’s a certain amount of biographical inferences being made here, but Walters has her own voice and style, and the story here is uniquely its own. Unlike IT, The Dead Girls Club offers only a few slim horrors, and its questionable just how much of those scares are legitimate versus imagined. We know, for instance, that Pennywise is a real and dangerous entity within the pages of IT.. The Red Lady isn’t so obvious, and it’s questionable how much of her is a product of these girl’s imaginations or a true terror to be feared. The story Becca relays about the Red Lady is credible and captivating, as is the attention Walters pays to Heather’s coming-of-age narrative.

Coming-of-age boy’s stories are literally a dime a dozen, but there’s been a complete dearth of similarly styled feminist horror fiction. There are moments within this book that I sincerely doubt a man could have ever written, or would even have thought of writing. Take, for example, a small moment when the girls are gathered in their secret basement hideaway, discussing their periods and how their dirty pads smell like raw hamburger. It’s an element of authenticity that I suspect would escape many male authors, as is the discussion adult Heather has with her friends regarding a recent crime and how women’s worlds are shaped and influenced by violence. This book is as good as any to help support the argument toward reading widely and diversely, because there are several elements, passages, and perspectives herein that are uniquely feminist and that would otherwise go unwritten by the majority of male authors.

While I enjoyed The Dead Girls Club, I also can’t help but feel that the various plot devices and story elements never quite gel in satisfying ways. Walters has some truly great ideas here, but they work better in premise than execution. She creates here a thriller with some supernatural overtones and promises, but I kept wanting the story to fixate on one or the other. There’s a certain toying aspect here where we’re given the horrors of childhood of Then, versus the psychological complexity of adulthood in the Now. Heather, as an adult, has abandoned her love of horror as a result of her actions as a youth and the murder of her best friend, and she fears that her past will rear its ugly head once again. Over the course of the book she unravels, and in pretty quick order as her paranoia and fear gets the better of her. Interspersed with this bit of self-destruction are flashbacks to her childhood, which largely focus on her relationship with Becca and stories about the Red Lady as her friends are caught up in their isolated mass hysteria. Walters keeps flipping between either side of the fence, leaving readers to wonder if this is horror or thriller. It’s an imbalanced and not entirely satisfying both. Personally, I found the coming-of-age portion far more interesting than the adult chase for answers, although the latter did have its share of suspense. I should note, however, that my first love is horror, and I am biased toward that genre, so I really did want there to be more focus on Heather’s early years where the potential for horror was at its greatest, and for it to more completely satisfy and fill that gap for feminist coming-of-age horror. While I also enjoy thrillers, they have to be something really unique to win me over. Unfortunately, here it felt a bit too commercial and mainstream, even though it has some nice twists along the way.

Ultimately, I feel really conflicted over this read, and I wonder how much of that was deliberate on Walters’s part. There is a certain measure of discombobulation between what I expected and what I received. Although it sounded exactly like the book I wanted, it didn’t quite deliver in the ways I’d hoped for or focus on the elements I personally found most interesting and intriguing. Still, I can’t call it a failure and I certainly do have to acknowledge that I did like what I read, even if in the end it wasn’t quite what I wanted. One thing that I do know, for sure, is that between reading The Dead Girls Club and her short story collection, Cry Your Way Home, I definitely want and need to read more stories from Damien Angelica Walters.

The title and the cover are perfect to suck you in. The story was great and made me feel like I was there with Heather and Becca to experience everything they did. The characters were likable and relatable as well as great at pulling emotions. However, it just seemed lacking in some areas for me. I will still recommend it and I did enjoy it, but it was a little lighter than I expected.

I loved this book and became heavily invested in Becca's and Heather's friendship early on. The shift between past and present allows the reader to understand the motivation behind present day Heather's behaviors and choices. The ending was well executed and left me stunned. I will definitely read more books by this author!

Thoroughly enjoyed this - it was so creepy and suspenseful and just exactly what I was looking for.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books - you always seem to have my favorite books - for a free digital galley via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Dead Girls Club
by Damien Angelica Walters

Hardcover, 583 pages
Expected publication: December 10th 2019 by Crooked Lane Books




Goodreads synopsis:
A supernatural thriller in the vein of A Head Full of Ghosts about two young girls, a scary story that becomes far too real, and the tragic--and terrifying--consequences that follow one of them into adulthood.

Red Lady, Red Lady, show us your face...

In 1991, Heather Cole and her friends were members of the Dead Girls Club. Obsessed with the macabre, the girls exchanged stories about serial killers and imaginary monsters, like the Red Lady, the spirit of a vengeful witch killed centuries before. Heather knew the stories were just that, until her best friend Becca began insisting the Red Lady was real--and she could prove it.

That belief got Becca killed.

It's been nearly thirty years, but Heather has never told anyone what really happened that night--that Becca was right and the Red Lady was real. She's done her best to put that fateful summer, Becca, and the Red Lady, behind her. Until a familiar necklace arrives in the mail, a necklace Heather hasn't seen since the night Becca died.

The night Heather killed her.

Now, someone else knows what she did...and they're determined to make Heather pay.

***

3 Stars

Overall, this was a good book. Decent. I liked it. It had great bones and structure. It was the characters I had more trouble with. Mostly the main character since she is in our faces most of the time.

The thriller part of this book was amazing. It has you hooked the entire way through but I couldn’t connect with the main character. She seemed very young to me. Too young for who the grown up version of Heather had become. I felt like young Heather was masquerading as her older self the entire way though the book. Because of that, I wasn’t totally invested in the circumstances.

This book contains a lot of flashbacks and and lot of jumping backward and forward in time. It focuses on how Heather’s life was in the past and then how that past experience is impacting her now. If you aren’t paying attention to which version of Heather is “on screen” in a scene, I can see this book becoming really confusing. I am not a big fan of horror but I guess this book could be grouped in that category somewhat. I felt like this was more of a suspenseful, psychological thriller, though.

If you like thrillers, definitely take this review with a grain of salt. Check it out for yourself.

I received this as an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) in return for an honest review. I thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this title.

This book should have totally worked for me- love the title and the premise! That said- it didn't go in the direction I thought it would and I didn't enjoy it as much as I had expected to. The story started off strong and I loved the set up- the psychologist receives something in the mail that totally traumatizes her. I tend not to love flashbacks and the balance was distracting. Heather's repetitive thoughts were cloying and and quickly burned me out. I thought it was interesting- but all told I'm not as enthusiastic as I'd expected.

This book was okay. I loved the 90's feel and the plot was intriguing. The back and forth kept me entertained and I really loved the young Heather and the adrenaline seeking personality she had with her best friend, Becca. What I didn't enjoy was Heather's personality as an adult. She's all over the place, I couldn't find any rhyme or reason to some of her actions, and I couldn't connect with her character at all.

Overall, I enjoyed this book enough to finish it through, but there were just some things that kept bugging me. It's sorta thrilling and keeps you wanting more plot-wise, but it really took some time to get over adult Heather's personality.