Not gonna lie, I usually don't read thrillers with supernatural but this book blew me away. Never expected to love this book as much as I did. It was amazing and couldn't put it down once I started. The writing was amazing and the story will keep you guessing.

Thank you Netgalley, the author and publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Big thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC



Becca and Heather were the best of friends. Bonded together with jagged halves of a heart necklace, nothing could come between them. Together with their other, lesser, friends, Gia and Rachel, they formed the Dead Girls Club. The Dead Girls Club centered around the macabre, the grotesque, stories of Ted Bundy and other serial murderers. One meeting Becca shares the story of the Red Lady. The Red Lady was brutally murdered by her fellow village people hundreds of years ago for being a witch. She took her revenge on the town by killing them all one by one via filling their mouths full of dirt. As the story unfolds it takes a life of it's own. All of the girls think they are being haunted by this Red Lady, a fear so deep that it gets Becca killed.


Many years later Heather is an adult and is still trying to recover from that time of her life. As a child psychologist she tries to atone for her childhood mistakes by helping other troubled kids. However, one day at work Heather receives a package of the opposite heart piece her and Becca used to faithfully wear. Someone got that off of Becca that night, and someone is now targeting Heather.


I saw the cover of this and knew this was something I had to read! I have read a lot of thrillers lately and I like them to have that little supernatural twist. Where you don't know if maybe this is a ghost story or not. This book definitely went in different directions than I thought it was going to go in. The story of Becca is very sad, the trauma she endured as a child and how it manifests itself into the Red Lady can be hard to read at times. Throughout the whole novel you're pretty sure you know what happens to Becca, but the last couple pages throw a wrench into that. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good thriller, but a more refreshing one than what's out there right now.


Rate: 4/5

Fiction

Author: Damien Angelica Walters

The Dead Girls Club is a supernatural thriller full of nostalgia. It flashes back and forth between the present moment with Heather, as her past catches up with her, and flashbacks to moments shared with her best friends she was 12. It brings back memories of sleep overs and sneaking out after dark, telling ghost stories in the dark, and playing games like Bloody Mary or Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board.

The author nailed the character of 12 year old girls, the fights, the love between them, the back and forth chatter. She had me remembering things I hadn’t thought of in ages. Overall I liked most of the characters and felt they were pretty fleshed out. I did grow frustrated at times at Heather’s inability to communicate with her husband and friends, as well as her increasingly erratic behavior, but it makes sense in the context.

The writing style felt very heavily stream of consciousness, which isn’t always my thing and grew a little tiresome here from time to time. Otherwise the writing and dialogue were fine.

The pacing is never feels slow, (I’d actually describe it as quick) but the actual action doesn’t really ramp up until the very end. It’s more. Of a slow burn, strange things happening throughout, each becoming more brazen and mysterious. I often found it hard to put it down, no matter which storyline I was following. The spooky parts are sufficiently creepy, but it doesn’t veer too far into horror territory.

The ending is not predictable (I sure didn’t guess it, I don’t think anyone else will either) but it also isn’t surprising, I don’t want to say it’s been done before, but I feel like things like it have been done before. There was no definitive OMG I can’t believe it! Moment.

Overall a solid entry into the thriller genre with mass appeal. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an electronic copy for review.

🎶 “Cause this is thriller...thriller night....”🎶

Now that you’re trying to get that out of your head...this actually was a pretty awesome thriller novel. It had so much of what I look for in a good thriller- murder, unexplainable elements, interesting relationship dynamics- all the good stuff.

So the narration jumps back and forth between Heather then and Heather now. From the childhood Heather we get the story of The Dead Girls Club, which is really a group of four friends who meet to talk about true crime, murders, ghosts...you know, the usual childhood conversations. 😂😂 The girls also become fascinated and fixated on the story of The Red Lady. They perform a ritual to conjure up the spirit of this long dead lady which would be downright scary as a child. We also learn that Heather’s best friend Becca comes from an abusive home, which I think may account for her need to escape into these stories. A tragedy occurs within this group of friends, which I won’t give away. The childhood Heather was my favorite narrator- very relatable and “real.”

Adult Heather is being stalked, and is on a hunt to find the culprit. Someone is sending her items and reminders of her childhood with the group of friends. Some of the memories are ones that she doesn’t want to relive. I found myself guessing as to who Heather’s present-day tormentor could be.

🖤🖤🖤🖤I really liked this book, and it was a hard one to put down. I would give it 4/5 hearts simply because I would have liked to have seen more development of The Red Lady, and I enjoyed the childhood story more than the adult Heather’s story.

This is a very creepy, very suspenseful murder mystery. The story is told in different timelines. The first is 1991 teenage girls while the second is 30 years later...

My thanks to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for this advanced readers copy. Release date for this book is set for December 2019.

A decent psychological thriller. I liked Heather and the author pulled me in to her head effectively. She also represented the dynamics of a group of tween girls with eerie precision. She kept me guessing till the end with whether the paranormal was real and even made me wonder if Heather might be the culprit and the victim.

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

It's 1991 and Heather, her best friend Becca and their two other friends are obsessed with serial killers, and all things macabre. 
Becca is the storyteller of the group and comes up with some seriously scary tales. But the one keeps coming back. The Red Lady. Once a witch murdered by her own town while not one of her friends speaks up for her. Revenge quickly follows with the entire town dying.
Becca believes the story and even makes a believer out of Rachel and Gia, the other girls in the Dead Girls Club. But Heather is sure there is no such thing. Until something happens and she begins to doubt herself and Becca.

With Becca believing all she needs is her best friends help her to prove the Red Lady is real, Heather swears to help her. And then Becca is dead and Heather will never be the same.

Fast forward 30 years and strange things are happening. Heather is sure she is being followed. When half of a BFF necklace shows up in the mail, Heather is sure of one thing. Someone knows what she did. Someone knows she killed her best friend and now they are coming for her.

This was a ghost story in the best way! A group of young girls, obsessed with Stephen King and Ted Bundy equally, mess with magic and a long-dead witch when the real horror is much closer and alive than they know.

I love a good ghost tale! And this one I read in 3 hours even eating dinner while reading. I had to know what was real and what wasn't. And I never saw that ending coming at all! I suspected everyone and all for good reasons, but wow, that ending!

NetGalley/December 10th, 2019 by Crooked Lane Books

I thought I was going to like this more than I did. The story was well written. The main character was not someone I could care about which made the story less enjoyable. The teen friendship was believable. This story is still a good read if you want something to read that you don’t really have to think about.

Excellent, fast paced psychological thriller. Kept me guessing until the very scary twisted end. Two young girls who have a fascination with the macabre start a club with two other young girls. As the four girls start learning the story of The Red Lady, strange things begin happening to all of them. If you are a fan of horror and mystery novels then this book is for you. Left me completely creeped out for several days. Highly recommend!

I was given an advanced copy of The Dead Girls Club in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley, author & publisher for the chance to read this book!

Thoughts:
This book was super creepy. I seriously had to stop reading it in the middle of the night as I was freaked out a bit.

Great premise & I loved the THEN & NOW concept as well. The THEN was so entertaining and kept me riveted. The NOW had some issues for me. Overall I really enjoyed Heather and Becca’s story and the preteen issues they had to overcome. The ending didn’t go exactly how I would have liked but I was surprised and happy with it!

If you want a ghostly, preteen best friend story with a tad of urban legend thrown in - this is a book for you!

I give it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars overall!
Dig in and get creeped out- !

*ARC provided by the Publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*
Imagine the start of a horror film aimed at teenagers. There are four friends who share scary stories (Stephen King/urban legends) and serial killers. They have come across the story of the Red Lady and are obsessed with it. They believe that she's real. This belief got one of the girls, Becca killed.
This is 30 years later and Heather has put the Red Lady and everything behind her. Heather is the one that kills Becca, but she is the only one who knows. Someone remembers what happens and wants Heather to pay for that night though.
I think it was fun in the same way watching a predictable horror film or reading Agatha Christie is. It's not reinventing the wheel, but it's enjoyable and fun. It feels a bit like a paint by number horror movie with the plot points, flashbacks and the belief in an entity. With some drama akin to teen dramas thrown in.
The writing was fast paced and intriguing. The relationships between the children was relatable and believable. The girls hanging out and doing rituals seems so relatable to things children do at that age. I was reading Stephen King and was obsessed with serial killers and horror at that age, so I enjoyed that aspect. I think some of this was inspired by the Slender Man controversy. The creativity of Red Lady was good, it fit right in with the many urban legends and rituals I've read on the Internet over the years. It had some aspects of them, but was different enough to stand on its own. I'm now waiting to see creepy pastas on this.
3.5/5
I liked it. If you like mysteries and horrors, you'll have fun with this novel. If your looking for something to read at the pool or beach grab this one, as its an easy read! I don't think this book is asking for more than just being a fun read, which was exactly what I was in the mood for.

I quite enjoyed this book. I kept hearing good things so when I saw it available to request a galley of I jumped on it and was rewarded for my vigor.
The book is creepy, with a fun mystery to unravel running adjacent to a potentially supernatural tale. I feel like the point of inspiration is clear here - - the Slender Man stabbing - - and it did a great job of playing with that idea in a smart, eerie way.

I am a huge thriller reader, but this fell short. I expected to enjoy it as I am interested in the idea of urban legends, etc. but no luck. Not very realistic and didn’t find the characters engaging.

This thriller overall really impressed me. The supernatural element had me completely caught up in the story that I found myself missing a lot of the clues that I normally would've seen a lot sooner.

The main character was incredibly frustrating and I could just see her spiralling through the whole story and I had to keep reading just to see what happened next.

The dual timelines was interesting and though I felt at times that the "Then" chapters really didn't add a whole lot to the story it did help tie everything together.

Some of the writing was quite juvenile sounding, obvious metaphors and similes sprinkled far too often for my liking and that's a big part of the reason I gave it four stars. It was just grating and it kind of just pulled me out of the story too much.

This book had me hooked from the first page to the very last!

The story of 4 friends, aged 12 and 13, who were 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.

The book goes back and forth between present time - which is 30 years later - and the past, and it does this very fluidly. The transition between now and then is practically seamless which makes it easy to stay focused on the plot. I honestly did not figure out the twist until the very end - but what was fun is that I would think I knew and then something I read would change my mind. The end wrapped everything up but not too tightly because I still can't stop thinking about everything that happened.

Definitely could not put it down from the very beginning to the end!

While this book isn't for everyone, I found myself enjoying the escape from reality. Yes, sometimes it was absurd, but I still thought it was fun. I'll definitely be ordering a copy for my library because I know it will find readership here. Thank you so much!!

This one was a little up and down for me. It felt disjointed, off kilter, and the pacing wasn't lackluster. My rating teetered between a 2 and a 3 but the story picked up at the end. I can usually predict or see a twist coming but these blindsided me, I had no idea. The writing was somewhat generic. I had a hard time detecting the main character's emotion as she seemed vapid in moments of non suspense, and therefore I was not sympathetic. This book falls into the mediocre realm of thriller and mystery reads, although I do give props for those unforeseeable twists.
A solid 3 out of 5 stars in the end.

The Dead Girls Club by Damien Walters is a force to reckon with. Written about a young girl who at one time was part of a club. Not the normal club that you would expect but a more macabre sort of club. I was able to go back to my childhood and remember the times I sat around with friends trying to scare them with my stories of ghosts and goblins. We meet a girl named Becca. You may find Becca a little on the haste side and probably not someone you would want to hang around but she has a past and that past is vile. Becca’s friend Heather believes that she has seen the witch that was in the stories they told as young girls. No one really believed her until she was dead. This novel had me on my feet all night reading to find out what happened next. I could not put it down. The writer certainly has a way to keep your attention and allow you to become part of the story. You almost feel as though you are one of the characters. This is a great 5+ star novel to read.


Thank you to netgalley as well as the author for allowing me to read this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Engaging but sometimes bordering on preposterous. Not a ghost story as hyped, with an ultimately disappointing ending.

This book will keep you guessing until the end with some very unexpected curveballs. As a psychologist, Heather should have been more prepared than just about anyone for her past to invade her present but it still almost destroyed her and everyone around her. Watching her completely unravel as she tries to solve the mystery was compelling and heartbreaking. Her world is imploding and she is powerless to stop it because she is consumed by paranoia and memories of what happened to Becca. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good mystery.