Solid historical fiction with a feminist vibe, also a “Grease” element. Set in the early 1960s in Houston, a group of “bad girls” are the main characters, set against the “socs” (here, the “tea-sippers”), especially after one of the rich boys assaults Evie. Diane (the Sandy-type character) comes to Evie’s rescue but now they share a deadly secret. The strong female friendships and loyalty are the highlight of this book, along with the history lessons of what girl’s options were for their futures in this time period. Mathieu does a great job with the message that girls should believe each other, defend each other, stick together, and share their truths. Evie wants more out of life than a husband and children, and learns it’s better to be a “bad” girl who realizes her own potential and that loyal friends come from unlikely places.

I received a free copy from NetGalley. In 60s Texas good=rich and bad=poor, so when a rich girl does something bad, the main character has her whole world drawn into question. Really more of a tale of friendship and loyalty, secrets and choices, it was interesting.

Full disclosure, I’ve never read The Outsiders, so I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from Bad Girls Never Say Die, a gender-bent retelling of it.

In Bad Girls Never Say Die, Evie, a self-proclaimed “bad girl,” and Diane, a girl from the wealthy part of town, cross paths on one fateful night and become unlikely friends. The biggest strength of Bad Girls Never Say Die is its depiction of female friendship. I thought Evie and Diane were both likable characters, and I enjoyed watching their friendship grow.

While I liked its characters, Bad Girls Never Say Die is a bit slow plot-wise. I would have appreciated a few more turns to the story. Additionally, some of the book’s themes felt a little heavy-handed.

Overall, however, I thought Bad Girls Never Say Die was sweet retelling that was enjoyable even if I am unfamiliar with the source material.

3.5/5

This was a quick read and pretty much exactly as advertise as a feminist reimaging of The Outsiders. Mostly, I enjoyed it. However, I was really hoping for some queer representation. And that ending....ugh.

It's really hard to update a classic work. This gender-swapped Outsiders story keeps the class warfare and tragic romance elements, but doesn't do much to transform the story for a 2021 audience. Alas, it's enjoyable enough, with female friendships at its heart, but I expected more from the author of Moxie, which I loved.

This book is a perfect mashup of Grease, meets the Outsiders, meets mystery for the #metoo era. Jennifer Mathieu hooked me with the powerful feminist themes in MOXIE and BAD GIRLS NEVER SAY DIE does not disappoint. Filled with well-rounded characters, Evie, the youngest of the bad-girl group takes a staring role. She finds her voice and accepts her strengths while dealing with the fallout from an interrupted sexual assault. Her unexpected savior becomes an unlikely friend. While the language and tone felt pitch-perfect, sometimes Diane's heart-woes felt tedious (ala Sandra Dee). Other than that, I loved this book!

I really enjoyed this book! It is like a mix of The Outsiders and Grease, a gender-bent version which just makes it even better!

This story follows Evelyn, or Evie as she likes to be called, who is friends with the “bad girls”. She runs with the “bad girl” crowd that her mom refers to them as, but she does because they accept her. They don’t look down on her, and treat her equally, despite her young age. Amongst the kids, there are the “bad” kids, and the “tea sippers”, basically the poorer kids and the rich kids. One evening, Evie is almost assaulted by one of the upper class boys, but is saved by Diane, a girl who once was a part of the upper class, or a “tea sipper” by desperate measures. After the incident, they each have to keep this secret of what happened to that boy, or be arrested. Which they attempt to keep until someone innocent is accused and they have to decide what to do. Tell the truth, or not.

I love Evie. What she almost went through, and how she copes with it afterward is heartbreaking and yet so admirable how she handles it. Her relationship with her best friends, Connie, Sunny, and Juanita, is just lovely. They’re like a found family, always sticking up for each other and protecting each other no matter what. When Diane is introduced, Evie changes so much as a person. Diane really shows Evie she can be a nice person, and yet still be “tuff”; she can still cry, and yet be a “tuff” person. It’s amazing to see how they all transform as friends, and all become so much closer in order to save each other and protect each other.

This book was an emotional read, especially towards the end. It really focused on friends and family, and those bonds you make with them and what you are willing to do to protect those bonds and those people you love. The book broke my heart, but it also made me feel good and really appreciate the friends and family I have. I highly recommend this book, especially if you love The Outsiders, or Grease, or just a unique retelling or twist on an original story. Thank you to the publisher, the author, and NetGalley for a free digital copy. All thoughts are my own, and I left this review voluntarily.

"Running wild is a way to forget what put our hearts through so much pain in the first place."

The Outsiders meets Grease with a dash of The Goonies. Don’t forget your rocky road ice cream!

The Outsiders is a book that always stuck with me. It was the only mandatory school reading that I was actually excited about and still love to read to this day. So the synopsis for this jumped right out at me. Did you say girl gang? Sign me up!

To take a classic and make it your own without ruining its reputation takes a lot of courage and hard work. So I applaud Jennifer for taking that approach but this wasn't what I was hoping for. I wanted something different and unique. What she does here is mashes two movies and a book that are very popular and changes the gender of the lead characters.

So we get The Outsiders with the street-tough girl gang, we get Grease after a boy from the wrong side of the tracks falls for a girl from the high-class area, and let's not forget about the Goonies with Never Say Die. I thought this was supposed to be original? I felt as if I was reliving what I have already experienced but with no singing and dancing. *Pfft!* Lame!

Now before you send the villagers for my head, hear me out. I love the earlier works by this Author and Moxie is one of my favorites. What her earlier works have are creativity and uniqueness. They made you feel a certain way and got your emotions involved. This wasn't like that at all. It's Groundhog Day without the dancing gopher.

Bad Girls Never Say Die was not the book for me and it wasn't what I hoped it would be. It was too much like a lot of other popular items of pop culture and I just wasn't having it. I wanted to love this one so bad because who doesn't want to read about badass females taking over? I'm very proud of Jennifer for taking that leap with a classic but it was a no for me.

4.5/5 stars

I didn't fully know what to expect from this book, especially as I never read The Outsiders, which it's a bit of a take on. But I was immediately pulled into the story of Evie and the rest of the "bad girls" of Houston in the 1960s. They are painted as "bad" by society but that's just because they're girls trying to live life on their own terms - their own love, their own makeup, their own likes and dislikes.

The girls - Evie, Connie, Sunny, and Juanita - all have a lot of heart and attitude and are so much more than just the way they're depicted and viewed by the world. And Diane was a brilliant character, I absolutely adored her.

This book took several twists and turns, none of which I saw coming. It was a reading experience that left me constantly on tenterhooks tbh. It made me want to keep coming back again and again for more!

Overall, I highly recommend this book. Very good!

Evie and her friends are bad girls. They wear too much makeup, laugh too loudly, skip school, run around with boys, and they protect their own. So when a good girl (a recent transplant from the right side of town) saves Evie from something terrible one night at the drive-in, Evie and her friends have to reevaluate everything they think they know about life, loyalty, and keeping secrets.

Mathieu's female driven re-imagining of the Outsiders gave me Crybaby-meets-Outsiders-meets-Pink Ladies vibes and I was here for it. It took the things that people love about The Outsiders and re-examines those storylines from a female perspective. Mathieu also sheds light on a little disclosed part of American History-the institutionalizing of young, unwed girls who find themselves pregnant and the forced adoption of numerous children.

Evie, Connie, Juanita, Sunny, and Diane are characters worth meeting and this is a book worth reading.

I really liked her previous work and thought this was a good follow up. It kept my attention had interesting characters and was an easy read. I think it would be a good one to take on vacation.

Mathieu clearly has an ear for the teenage vernacular (probably because she's stayed in the classroom). Her voices always sound authentic. She also must listen to her students really well because she understands their fears and insecurities too.

In Bad Girls Never Say Die, she gets to the conflict right away but is able to sustain the emotional turmoil throughout the novel. I was dubious about the sixties as the setting for a YA novel, but the themes are timeless and my students will definitely relate to her characters. I'd love to have students read this alongside The Outsiders and ask them to consider the class and race issues both books raise.

I'm always down for a good gender-swapped version of one of my favorites. At first, I thought this one was written a bit too simplistically, but it moved me to tears just like the original did when I was 12.

What an interesting idea to have a gender flipping retelling of the classic the outsiders. I could clearly see the parallels and highly recommend this book. I received this book as an advanced reader copy from net galley in exchange for an honest review.

Solid feminist take on The Outsiders.
Set in the 1960s in Houston, Evie was a “bad girl” who came across a River Oaks good girl who happened to save her life in a bad girl kind of way. As Evie takes you on the journey with Diane (the good girl), you also meet her crew and how they live their day to day. You are engrossed in the understanding of life on that side of the tracks, but you also learn the dark side to a River Oaks girl - you learn the lengths the rich parents will take to portray the “perfect” life and how quickly they will write off their own.

I can’t wait to recommend as soon as our kids finish The Outsiders during their 7th grade year and those who loved it and are now 8th graders - this will be their next read.

This is a gender-flipped retelling of The Outsiders, a book that is so popular with students still today. Set in the mid-1960's, Evie is a "bad girl" from the wrong side of town. She has a great group of girlfriends that stick together through thick and thin, so when Evie is attacked one evening at the drive-in and Diane, a once popular girl steps in to save her Evie and her group of friends take her in as one of their own. Diane's story may surprise everyone though. Is she really so different than they are? What will the group do to protect Diane? I loved this book by Jennifer Mathieu. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this take on the Outsiders staring young women instead of young men. While many of the situations are similar, the strong female-led take makes the book (even as historical fiction) timely and fresh.

I will be recommending this book to my middle school readers.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.
Evie, the protagonist and bad girl, was an interesting character. I liked that she straddled both sides of the friendships she was in. The classic good girl gone bad, but turned good again really made her a like-able character. I felt myself rooting for her throughout the story. Her innocence and genuine nurturing personality was a nice addition to the text and helped to make her friends (the bad girls) more like-able as well. I found Evie and Diane's friendship very forced & somewhat bland, especially because they were pushed together in a traumatic event. It was hard to believe that they really would be friends, and that Evie's friends would accept Diane in such a natural way.

I wanted to love this book so much, but I was not as excited about it after reading as I had hoped. I was initially drawn to the idea of a female retelling of The Outsiders, but I found it very slow paced and predictable. I wish the characters had more depth to them as well. Based on the description, I had hoped it would be more of a thriller or have some added mystery too it, but I did not find that as a I read.

While I really enjoyed Moxie, Bad Girls Never Say Die was just okay for me. Maybe it had something to do with the gender stereotyping Grease vibe and I could tell where the story was going. While I love Grease the movie, I just didn’t love this story. If you enjoy Grease-esque stories with a murder, you will enjoy this story.
Content warning of sexual assault.

HMMM I like the concept of "gender-swapped Outsiders" and I liked Evie as a narrator a lot but the pacing felt a little off and it felt a bit like...knowing? I guess it's the difference between historical fiction about the 60s and a work of contemporary fiction set in the 60s and written in the 60s, but something about it just didn't quite click with me.

Also similarly to the og Outsiders it kept feeling like one of the big secrets in play should be somebody's repressed queer desire but that never really came up. Still, it was engaging and I think fans of the Outsiders and/or the 60s in general will enjoy it.