This one just wasn't for me. It seemed all over the place and at times confusing. I did appreciate the true gore that went along with some of the horror and in depth that you don't always see in horror books. The idea of a serial killer family and returning to the family land for answers was so intriguing but the story just felt messy and I didn't like any of the characters.

i could talk about this book for hours. it was beautifully complex and insanely fascinating. beginning with a character who’s been through more than is even imaginable but still manages to be so painfully relatable was a perfect place to start. temple is bold and brave and definitely not a heart-on-her-sleeve, open book kind of character. i love that we had to delve in a little deeper with her.

i loved the supernatural elements. the psychological shitshow of having her family be possessed by corpses, and how it was written to absolute perfection. it made it unbearably disturbing but i’ve never turned pages faster.

i’m so upset that this was the author's debut, because there’s nothing i want more than to binge read everything they’ve ever written. this is truly an absolute masterpiece and a writer i’m putting on my radar going forward.

"...Ellis writes as if the pages are scenes from an A24 horror film, flooded with diversity."

Never judge a book by its cover, unless you happen to stumble upon this glorious YA horror novel. From the moment you start chapter one, you instantly get sucked into the protagonists chaotic life as she is shown digging up where her supposed dead mother's body has been buried. The questions will barricade your brain until you develop more into the story.

Temple is the daughter of the notorious North Point Killer but she rather stay out of mind and out of view from the other girls from the queer horror camp she has attended because of her father. He embedded in her mind that her mother's body is hidden somewhere in the camp and she sets out to find it.

Instead, what she finds is a bloodbath of bodies, maniacal ghosts, severed family ties and loads of gore. Perfect combination of horror for fans of Friday the 13th and Talk To Me. As a first time reader of Ellis, I went into this blindly. Thinking because it was a YA horror novel, that it would hold back OK language and descriptions of gore but I was wrong. It had all that, representation of color and sexuality, as well as a built-up friendship towards the end.

Highly anticipating the next release from Sami Ellis and will personally recommend this for those that like a little blood with their ghost stories.

DNF at 21%. I was having problems getting completely invested in the story and the storyline was a little too choppy for my liking. I had high hopes for it give the synopsis, but sadly this one didn't work for me.

I DNF’d this at 28%

Every single characters tone/attitude just annoyed me. Big CW character vibes which isn’t my cup of tea at all.

The MC consistently gave off “not like other girls” vibes then I literally read the sentence “Temple, unfortunately, is not like other girls” and decided I was done with this book.

There’s definitely an audience for this but I’m not it.

Wow I need more books like this. I love the gore and the grit of this one so much so that I want more. We follow Temple, whose father just happens to be a convicted serial killer. Que dramatic horror film music. Temple is trying to find the body of her mother, who she is convinced her father did not kill, even though he admitted to it. The search for her mother’s “body” leads her back to what was her families land and home. Also where her father buried his victims. Only issue is the land in part has been sold and is used as a queer camp for girls. Temple now has to disguise herself as a camp counselor in hopes of figuring out where her mother’s”body “ is. Temple and the campers are not prepared for what they find and what finds them, Girls are missing and being killed. Will anyone survive? Temple may be connected more to these than she realizes.

Omg I loved the way this story turn and turn and turned. I was both surprised and in love with it. Though I found at time I did get lost. I made sure to get back in line so I could be ready for who/what is in the forest. Sami I can’t wait to read what else you write.

I was excited by the premise of this book, but I found the reading experience ... confusing? Perhaps that balance of giving and holding back info from the reader wasn't quite struck, or perhaps I just didn't connect with the writing style. There was definitely something not working for me personally with the pacing though.

I'm not sure how to rate this for a teen audience as I sense they might be even more confused by the plot, but I do appreciate what the author is attempting do and the fantastic rep. Some good genre subversion too!

I loved the setting of the horror camp! It's definitely a place I would have loved to have gone, well without all the actual murder and stuff.
Temple is by her own admission unlikeable, and I think that it suits her just fine. She has been through some things that not many people would be able to connect with and it left her with a hard shell to keep others away.
She decides to attend the horror camp when her father admits that her mother's body is on that land. Land that belonged to Temple's family and where she grew up. She figures it's a way to be there and be able to snoop/ dig around without getting arrested or something. And let's just say it doesn't take long for things to start getting spooky, even before they find the body in the woods.
This story is dark and gritty, it took some crazy twists and turns that I didn't see coming and I loved all of it! It gave creepy/ haunted forest vibes as the bodies of her father's victims were found on the property... well most of them. And took me on a wild ride from start to finish. I will definitely be checking out anything else this author writes

Oh my god?! I had absolutely no idea what to expect but this blew me away and I am thoroughly emotionally exhausted because what a wild ride!

I loved the setting of this queer, horror-loving girls camp and this felt like a fun ode to classic horror films! I absolutely ate it up and I think most horror film buffs will too!

This made me want to read SE’s other work, and I can’t wait for more people to read this!

Slasher!
Queer!
Black!
Camp!

So many incredible things to say about Dead Girls Walking, but I think what sticks out most for me is just how much fun I had reading it. It gives so many of the slasher tropes set at a camp, yes, but it explores new areas as well. Sometimes some scenes read a little less straight-forward (kind of like a dream or Evil Dead or something along those lines) but you just have to go with it and trust in the payoff. Because the payoff is definitely there and totally worth it! I can't wait to see more from Sami Ellis in the future!

I found this one quite hard to get into due to there being SO many characters. I couldn’t keep up with who was who & the writing felt quite disjointed.

I enjoyed the old school horror vibes, the atmosphere was great but I had zero clue what was going on half the time.

An intriguing premise that just didn’t deliver.

Our main protagonist Temple Baker has a tragic background. She is the daughter of a murdered woman, and she knows who the killer is, because it happens to be her own father. What she doesn’t know is where he buried her mother’s remains. Other than it’s somewhere at a summer camp for gay young women who suddenly start turning up dead and may be victims of a copy cat killer. Yikes. So dark, so much trauma, it’s like being a camp councilor at Crystal Lake with Jason Vorhees on the loose! A fun, dark, scary read with plenty of action and lots of dramatic build up.

The premise of this is super tantalizing, as someone who loves slasher movies and has a very soft spot for the FRIDAY THE 13TH series. When you name drop that series in a promotional description, I'm going to pay attention. And while I get the comparison due to the camp setting, DEAD GIRLS WALKING reads a bit more like EVIL DEAD in some ways, and in other ways didn't quite live up to what I was hoping it would be. There are plenty of goods to address, however. I liked Temple as a main character, not because she' particularly likable but because I felt like she was very real in how she has put so much armor and vitriol up to protect her. because of her trauma and family history. I also really loved that Ellis has taken a historically very white and straight sub-genre (let's be real, slashers during their heyday were very much straight white kids getting butchered AND saving the day) and has tweaked it to be a story for queer Black girls in a way that works super well. But I did have some issues with all of the elements, as well as how the pacing felt uneven at times. Things would drag, then they would shift into high gear and go REALLY fast to the point that I was almost having a hard time keeping track of everything. I also would have liked a bit more exploration of the lore and the family histories.

I would definitely recommend this book to young adult horror fans who like splatter and slasher tales.

4.5 stars
What a wild ride!

Temple is the daughter of a serial killer, and she goes back to the farm where she grew up which is now a horror camp for queer, Black girls. Temple isn't there for camp; she's trying to find answers about her mom who disappeared 5 years ago.

This is such an intense story! Temple isn't very likable, but she grew up that way. The twist was an interesting take, and there were small bits of humor throughout. My only big complaint is how many characters there were, which made it hard to keep track of who was who for the first half. Horror is by far not my primary genre, but I really enjoyed this.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC! I wanted to like this book, I really did. But the storyline was confusing between all the flashbacks and the current story. The characters weren’t very likable or well-developed.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

This was haunting and really had a way of digging under your skin. I love horror but I'm not really rattled or scared by horror anymore. This however...truly unsettled me in the best way for a horror fan. It was so different and refreshing and a lot of that comes from the atmosphere Ellis weaves throughout the story. I think it takes the theme of generational trauma and flips it on its head in a refreshing way. There were some bits that were a little confusing and moments where I didn't feel some characters were as fleshed out as they could be, but overall, Dead Girls Walking is a riveting horror story unlike anything I've really read before. Will definitely be watching Sami Ellis with a close eye!

I’m the farthest thing from a being an authority on horror. I’ve watched maybe 3 scary movies in my life, but I have a general understanding of horror elements. For me, as a baby horror amateur, this story hit the mark. Dead Girls Walking is filled with murders, bloody scenes, eerie voices, weird sounds, possessed bodies, ghosts, and zombies.

Temple, the mc, is the daughter of an infamous serial killer. It’s said that her mom is one of his victims, and he even confesses to it, but she doesn’t believe him. He tells Temple where to find her mom’s remains, so she’s determined to go digging. Not to confirm his confession, but to prove that he’s lying. Especially since people have continued to die in the woods even though he’s behind bars. She suspects a copycat killer.

In order to return to her father’s hunting grounds to look for her mom’s body, she must pose as a camp counselor because the land she needs to search is now an overnight horror camp for queer girls. Temple’s initial mission turns into chaos as the threads of truth unravel; exposing the deranged and horrific history of Temple’s family. Temple soon realizes she dug up more than she bargained for as the past rears its ugly heads and wreaks havoc on the campers.

I was completely pulled in by the events of this story. There are so many revelations, twists, and turns. As I was reading, I kept being shocked by the author unveiling new information. There’s absolutely a lot going on in this book. For some, maybe too much. Could Sami have dialed some elements back? Yes, but everything together still made for an interesting and exciting story. When all the pieces came together and revealed the full picture, I was truly surprised. The final truth was not something I anticipated, so that’s automatically a win for the author in my eyes. It’s always fun when the author delivers the root of the mystery as something I didn’t guess.

I’m sooo excited to see more horror with Black mc’s. I’ll definitely be awaiting Sami’s next book!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced eARC.

This was an interesting read. The setup was a bit long, mostly because our mc was so antisocial that there wasn’t much room to explore any character other than her. Still, once it got started on the action, I was hooked.

This is a wonderful YA thriller that you will not want to put down. It has everything from suspense to action to mystery and more. I think if you are someone who finds themselves listening to true crime
Podcasts or watching the ID channel, then you’ll need to pick up this story.

I really thought it would like this one but I found it dragged. I was rolling my eyes at Temple’s ‘not like other girls’ nonsense and I found I had no idea what was going on for 80% of this. I’ve settled at 3 stars bc I skimmed a fair amount of it once I lost interest so seems a little unfair to rate any lower.