Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher for the eArc. Not a bad written book but it wasn't for me. A quick read, full of supernatural book about a girl Becca who had died when the girls were younger. Which Heather is at fault. They had made up a club to tell stories about murders and other crimes. Heather ends up getting random messages and signs that point to that day so long ago. And is trying to figure out who is behind them.

This horror/thriller was amazing! Present day Heather is a child psychologist that one day receives a necklace that used to belong to her best friend Becca, who she killed 30 years ago. This starts a series of very scary instances, and I could not put the book down. Recommended for those who like a good horror with supernatural elements.

Read this as an eARC from Netgalley.

I have a confession to make, between the time I requested to read this on Netgalley and I pulled it up on my Kindle to read, I had completely forgotten anything about this book. I was not even certain of the genre before I started to read it. This turned out to be a really good turn of events as it allowed me to delve into this book with very little preconception.

The Dead Girls Club tells two stories in parallel, centered on our main character, Heather, but also largely about her best childhood friend, Becca. We are introduced to Heather in the now where she is a child psychologist with a private practice. The story begins when Heather receives a package from an anonymous sender that brings back memories of a horrible act she did as a child. Heather goes down a spiral of obsession trying to figure out who is taunting her with the knowledge of her past.

The other story line focuses on Heather with her three friends during the summer when they were twelve years old. They become fascinated by a supernatural story spun by Becca that is akin to tales we told as kids of spooks like Bloody Mary and current kids tell of Slenderman. This earlier storyline seems to draw a lot from the story about the two girls who murdered a friend because of the Slenderman story (which is meta-narratively mentioned in this book).

The most fascinating part of this book is Heather's growing obsession with trying to discover who her tormentor is. At first I was a little thrown off by some of her suddenly irrational actions, but realized that they were signs of her growing unease and lack of control. The book also teases us about the supernatural aspects present in either story.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this thriller.

I really liked this book! It was a spooky, and suspenseful book! The book starts in present tense, and goes back in time to 1991 , when Heather Cole and a few other friends were in a club, called the Dead Girls Club. The kids were fascinated with serial killers, and a witch that was killed many years ago, called the Red Lady . And then one of the girls, Becca dies. Fast Forward 30 yrs later, Heather receives something in the mail that brings back all the memories and secrets she had been carrying around for so long.
I was flipping the pages to the ending. If you like thrilling books, you will enjoy this one.

The books releases in Nov 2019

Thanks @Netgalley @CrookedLaneBooks #TheDeadGirlsClub for giving me the chance to read this book.

Really, all I ever want out of a book is for it to be so damn good that I am raaaaccing through the pages trying to get to the end. This book fit that bill and then some. Is it supernatural? Is it a thriller? Is it a horror novel? Maybe, yes, and yes. Rebecca regales her 3 friends, one of which - Heather - is her best, with tales of the macabre. They love horror stories and scary stuff, but one night Rebecca starts telling tales about the Red Lady. Living in an abusive home, Rebecca is looking for any kind of outlet for that pain, and she pours it all into this story. One thing leads to another, and Becca ends up dead, with Heather at the other end of the knife. But it was the Red Lady's fault. She was real and she demanded the sacrifice if Becca's life was ever going to get better.

Now, decades later, Becca is dead and Heather is holding the necklace that should have disappeared with her friends body. Somebody knows, and is determined to inflict psychological trauma on our protagonist. The rest of the book is a game of is she, isn't she? Interspersed with page turning tension to figure out exactly what is and isn't real in this game of cat and mouse.

Excellent novel, original plot and fascinating characters with a little bombshell tacked on at the end. Great book.

I was a little disappointed in the twist of this story. While it kept my attention throughout it seemed a little predictable and somewhat familiar. It's definitely unique and well written. I enjoyed this gothic nostalgic read and am looking forward to reading more by this author.

Heather killed her childhood friend Becca, and she's been suffering ever since. So when mysterious things start happening, she knows someone has found out about her deep, dark secret, but who? Becca was her best friend who loved to tell stories. So when Becca weaves a story about the revengeful Red Lady, Heather is scared, not that she would admit it. All these years later she thought she's moved on, but someone hasn't, and they're slowly breaking down Heather's fragile walls.

For all Heather's bouts of missing time and actions that she doesn't remember doing, I thought she had disassociative identity disorder, so imagine my surprise when she didn't, because I really thought the ending was going to go a different way because of that belief.

As far as a main character, I really didn't like Heather, I thought she was weak, and while she did have a reason to be scared, I thought her reactions were over the top. Also, I lost track of how many times Walters felt the need to point out how many times Heather picked and tore at her cuticles, the author could have taken out 10 incidences, and it still would have been too many times.

Aside from what I don't like about the book, there are a lot of things to like. The Dead Girls Club in itself is a fun concept and something I think kids would totally do. The story was well-written aside from the cuticle thing, and I thought the characters were well thought out. There was a good, steady pace in the book that kept you turning pages to find out what has happened. I'm not one for half-stars because you can't place them, but I do think The Dead Girls Club isn't quite a 3, but not yet a 4, so 3.5 stars it is.

A solidly good mystery. A lot of it seemed fairly predictable, but then there were some things that came my way that I wasn't sure on, so it kept my attention, even though the very end I had already figured out from the first few chapters. Sometimes that makes a book worse. In this case it didn't hurt it. 3 stars, solidly good spooky, mystery.

A creepy ghost story . Heather Cole receives half of a best friend necklace that belonged to her best friend Becca.thirty years after Becca’s death . Alternating between present time and past when the girls formed a club to study all things macabre including the horrific red lady . . Scary , twisty and creepy this novel is beyond disturbing

This was an unsettling read about four young girls that tempt their supernatural thoughts. The “leader” of the group of girls, Becca, has issues of her own that ignite her own version of the “red lady”. Becca has all of the traits of a troubled teen. It has twists and turns that question what is real and what is not and surrounds a murder.

Thank you Netgalley for a copy of this intriguing novel.

The Dead Girls Club was not really what I expected. The book flips back and forth between the past and the present. The main characters, Heather is the person telling the story.

As a young girl, she and three of her friends were members of a little club, The Dead Girls Club, where they discussed serial killers. In their morbid fascination of violent death, Heather's best friend introduces them to the Red Lady, the one story that will alter their lives.

The Red Lady helps those who need it but at a price. Heathers best friend, Becca, puts all of her faith into the Red Lady which causes her death. Now Heather is being haunted by her past and the Red Lady.

I read this book in two days. There were a lot of twists and I appreciated that the book moved along smoothly. I do wish at the end that we got some additional information about all the characters. Otherwise is a good suspense read!

Do you enjoy ghost stories, mysteries and suspense? If so, The Dead Girls Club may be a good book for you. Heather Cole is a happily married psychologist, living a good life in Annapolis, Maryland. That is, until her past comes back to haunt her. When she was 12, her best friend died, and the stories this friend, Becca told, when "The Dead Girls Club" met in an empty house that her Mom was the realtor for, stayed alive, even though she did not. Are ghost stories real? Three of the four girls from the Dead Girls Club thought so. Will you? Read this twisting, windy tale and and let us know what you think!

I cannot say much more about the plot of the story, as it would be way to easy to give spoilers! The story grabs the readers attention, and while there are lots of questions along the way, most of them are answered before the tale is done. This may not have been my favorite book of 2019, but I certainly was interested, and found it a quick read as I needed to see what happened. So much so, that I found myself reading it from my kindle on my phone when walking to the bathroom during my workday, as I could not leave it until my day came to an end. It was a creative original story, and well worth the time spent reading it. So, when you are looking to feel like you did when you were a kid in front of a campfire, during elementary, pick this book up and give it a spin!

The premise of this is great. 4 preteen girls form a creepy little club they call the Dead Girls Club. They meet in an empty house and talk about the usual suspects: murderers, death, ghost stories. I totally would have been in this club! The ringleader is Becca, who becomes obsessed with the tale of the Red Lady: a witch who met a horrible death hundreds of years ago and exacted her revenge on everyone who wronged her. Becca starts summoning her and things get weird.
The story is told in alternating past and present chapters, from the perspective of Heather, Becca’s best friend.

The book was good, but not great. I really liked the writing, and the story was fleshed out with well developed characters, but for some reason I found the ending unsatisfying. I can’t quite put my finger on why. I give this 3 stars, and I will definitely check out whatever Walters writes next.

A well paced hybrid between a ghost story and a mystery centered around a woman who killed her best friend as a child. The story line shifts between the present, where Heather, who now works as a therapist has received a memento from the past which drives her to dig into the events of the past, and the past, when the crime occurred. The past story line held my attention a bit more than the current one, since the girls sort of reminded me of myself and my childhood friends. The present story line would have been a little more engaging if Older Heather was more likeable. Some of the stuff she does is just silly (i.e. thinking her husband wont find out about the attorney visit…come on!). Another comment: I feel like twisty endings are completely played out in 2017. Can we please stop trying to capitalize off of Gone Girl and try something new already?

ARC provided from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Dead Girls Club, is a mystery entwined with an urban legend. It has gasping, hair raising goosebump moments that leave you wanting more.
It's a little slow to star but once it gets going you won't be able to put it down.

Interesting story about friendships of 12 year old girls After one disappears everyone’s life changes. I was surprised by the ending, so it definitely had me captivated.

This book tells a story from present to the past, where we get the glimpses here and there about what transpired between two friends.

Heather Cole, a child psychologist, received an envelope at work only to discover it is a necklace belonging back in another place in time. Half a heart with letters, and Heather knows it's the type of necklace the one wears half and the other half is worn by a friend...best friend to be exact. This necklace shakes Heather because it looks like the same one that belonged to her best friend, Becca, who is dead.

Becca, Heather, Gia, and Rachel all hung out together. While Heather and Becca were best friends, often doing things without the other two. Becca's mother was in real estate, and Becca takes a key to a listing that is empty. It is there that the four friends, develop a secret group called The Dead Girls Club.

Becca enjoys telling tales and feeds her friends a horror story about The Red Lady. Over time, the story seems to take on a life of its own. Becca becomes obsessed with it, making claims the Red Lady is real. When Heather doesn't agree wholeheartedly, it causes a rift in her and Becca's friendship.

Now, thirty years later, someone is sending Heather mementos from the past that appear to be Becca's. Someone is stirring up the past. Heather starts to look into Gia and Rachel, because it was just the four of them that knew of The Red Lady, and they were the ones that belonged to The Dead Girls Club. Heather has a secret of her own, and in trying to uncover who is stalking her, it'll take a toll on her marriage and friendships.

After all, The Red Lady is just a made up story, right?

This book kept me glued to the pages. We know up front, something happened, but it's through the unveiling of the story that adds a shocking unexpected twist. It centers around that one special friendship that means so much, and what one will do for their BFF.

I received an ARC from NetGalley via Crooked Lane Books and I voluntarily reviewed this book.

Parts of this story I really liked, such as the opening story that started it all off when the girls were just kids and the whole Red Lady thing got started; and parts of this story I didn't care for, and that was basically when the story switched to when Heather was an adult psychologist. I felt like she acted way out of proportion to what was happening. She could have made a number of more realistic choices for the situation she was in, instead she acted like a complete nut job going off the deep end.

I was also expecting more of a paranormal element to the story then what actually played out and there were some questions left unanswered which is huge pet-peeve of mine.

Heather is a child psychologist, who from the outside appears to have her life together, but on the inside, is haunted by her own childhood. When Heather receives a package from an anonymous sender, her past and her present collide and her life becomes unhinged. She starts to become suspicious of those around her, she starts to make foolish decisions, and she ultimately puts herself in danger, all while trying to overcome the trauma of her past.
This story is intriguing and suspenseful. It leaves you guessing with its twists and turns . Damien Angelica Walters writes in a way that pulls you into the story, so you are feeling the horror that is The Red Lady, while comparing it to the abuse inflicted on Becca. I enjoyed the whodunnit aspect of the story, as I had many theories and was ultimately surprised.
Thanks to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for the advanced copy of the book. The opinions are my own.

Heather is an interesting character. She’s a married, child psychologist who refuses, based on her traumatic childhood, to have children herself. She seems to have a supportive husband and good marriage, when things start to happen. And she starts to lose her mind.
I got the feeling that even though she seemed balanced and fine as an adult, that it was all being held together by paperclips and rubberbands. We know at the beginning of the book that she legit killed her best friend. And that she didn’t get caught. And that she has kept this secret her whole life. We don’t know how she did it or why, but seriously, no matter what, that is going to mess someone up for life. Unless they are a complete psycho.
So is she a psycho or a complete mental case? Walters does a great job switching between Heather’s childhood and the present day, slowing revealing the story that led to the even that changed Heather’s life forever. As the reader I found myself questioning what was real and what was mental illness.
I really don’t want to reveal too much of the plot here. But if you liked Stand By Me, or IT, or just plain have nostalgia for the days when we would tell scary stories around a campfire–or a well in the backyard, check this one out.
Special thanks to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for an advanced e-galley in exchange for my honest review. This one releases on December 10.This review will be published on my blog, Women in Trouble Book Blog on November 12, 2019.