This book is not for the faint of heart. It is about getting rid of the nastiest of human beings while being a bit morally gray. It is fast paced and definitely for action movie fans.

I want to thank William Morrow Books and NetGalley for the ARC of The Bang-Bang Sisters.

The Bang-Bang Sisters is an intelligent, violent, thrilling page-turner you never want to end. If Tarantino and Motorhead had a literary baby, this would be it. One part Charlie’s Angels, one part punk rock, and all parts kick ass!

This is the type of book where you buckle in for the ride and let it take you where you need to go. Don’t try to make sense of everything; enjoy it for what it is!

If you loved Schrader’s Chord and Keith Rosson’s Fever House, you would love Rio Youer’s The Bang-Bang Sisters. A solid four out of five stars.

Each year, Rio Youers delivers some of the best novels for the year, The Bang-Bang Sisters is no different. In a completely different vein than his last hit, No Second Chances, this books is a nonstop thrill ride.

The Bang-Bang Sisters is a riotous thrill ride that will blow the doors of your usual reading experience.

Do your normal stories include a rock band trio dodging beer bottles and bad pickup lines from the stage? Probably not.

Do your normal stories include highly trained vigilantes working with a secret group of hackers to dole out punishment when the justice system fails? Ok… if you’re like me then maybe it does.

Well… Do your normal stories include those same vigilantes being forced into a hunger games style battle to the death in a small southern town by a psychotic man looking for revenge? I DIDN’T THINK SO!

I digress.

If you are into exalting action highs, crushing depths of despair, and relatable characters that you are generally concerned for their well being, then this is the book for you.

It also helps that Rio Youers is the master of creating outlandish, yet absolutely believable villains. The depths of depravity never hit you all at once or right away. It comes unbeknownst, like a slow moving stream of nefariousness, that continues to cascade down the steep slope of the storyline, building in strength until you’re left with no choice but to be carried away by the raging river of menace and mayhem.

This ability has made Rio an absolute must read for me every time he drops a book.

I have to be honest, I’m not even sure how to review Rio Youers’s newest novel: The Bang-Bang Sister. I’m not even sure if I should attempt to give a synopsis of this one since the story is so wild, with plenty of crazy twists and turns. At the most basic level we have three bandmates (2 sisters and a friend) who when they aren’t thrilling audiences with their music are vigilante assassins. Sounds wild, right? It is…and then some. This is an over the top, crazy nonstop action adventure. This story is so wild you should have to wear a seatbelt when reading it. Seriously, if this is ever made into a movie and they want to do it justice it will have to directed by either Quentin Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez. Thanks so much to William Morrow and NetGalley for allowing me access to an eARC of The Bang-Bang Sisters.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-bang-bang-sisters-rio-youers/1144226327?ean=9780063311800&bvnotificationId=b26d8559-43b8-11ef-856f-0affc7246703&bvmessageType=REVIEW_APPROVED&bvrecipientDomain=gmail.com#review/314465909

2.5 stars rounded up. I seem to be in the minority when it comes to this one. I just checked what other people are saying and most of them seem to have loved it.

I wanted to love this book. It sounded like one I would. A trio of female vigilantes/musicians? The concept sounded so fun.

It just didn't really work for me. I never really felt connected to the story or the characters. That said, I can see the appeal here. There's a lot of campy fun stuff going on in this one. After seeing other people's comments, I'm wondering if this was a case of it's me, not the book.

I read an ARC of this book from NetGalley. All comments are my own.

Rock stars by day, vigilante justice seekers by night, Flo, Jessie, and Brea (the bang-bang sisters) are living the dream until they become targets. The uncle of one of their victims gives them 48 hours to find one another and fight to the death or else he will kill their loved ones. On top of this, there is a notorious serial killer on the loose who may be more intertwined into their narrative than it first appears.

Overall, I really loved about this book and think it will stick with me. I loved the premise, the resourcefulness of the sisters, the love they share, and the surprising connections between rock star and vigilante lives. I loved the intersection of the story lines and the explosion-filled ending. I wish this book had a little bit more joy. In a worthy effort to examine important topics like sexism, racism, corruption in policing, etc, the bang bang sisters experience a lot of exploitation and powerlessness that could be hard to get through at times. I kept wishing we saw these issues as the sisters conquered them rather than watching them be victimized by them, even though that's more realistic. I also wish some of Chance Kotter's circle were a bit more three dimensional.

But the ending was SO satisfying and the premise so refreshing that I still feel very positively about this book! Thank you to NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy.

I discovered Rio Youers a few years ago with his rollicking good book Lola on Fire. His follow-up novel, No Second Chances, was even better, but this, The Bang-Bang Sisters, is the icing on the cake.

Jessie, Brea, and Flo are sisters—Jessie and Brea by blood—but blood is only part of the bond. Together, they are a rock band touring clubs and dive bars across the country, but that's just a sideline; they are also vigilantes seeking justice where the courts have failed. Working with grey-hat hackers, the three women mete out their brand of justice. All is going smoothly until they get a tip that a serial killer known as "the wren" has been found in Reedsville, Alabama. Unable to pass up the opportunity to put paid to this killer, the women head to Reedsville and into the arms of wealthy mobster Chance Kotter, who has a personal interest in seeing them dead. Pitting sister against sister in a deadly game where only one sister will survive tests their love for each other.

This story is a roller coaster ride from start to finish. It is action-packed with memorable characters—good and evil—and twists I didn't see coming. It is intricately plotted and perfectly executed. It is a story about vengeance and the strength of love, and as the body count rises, it becomes a satisfying read that left me wanting more of the sisters. 5/5 stars.

Thank you, NetGalley and William Morrow, for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. The publication date is July 16, 2024.

Read as a print copy, just as good as the others. Would love to see as a mini series or show, the action and characters a great and the twists just keep coming.

Rip-roaring, action packed, and fun as hell, The Bang-Bang Sisters is a delightful and fast-paced (even at 400 pages!) ride through the gritty world of a group of assassins who love music, justice, and one another.

The titular Bang Bang sisters are Brea and Jessie – biological sisters - and their best friend, Flo. They are a killer rock band by night and a team of vigilante assassins who carry out hits upon only the most evil of targets by day. It turns out the former occupation is a great cover for the latter as they cross the world under the direction of the hacker collective The Trace, who work via the dark web.

Their latest case brings them to Reedsville, Alabama, where they’re on the hunt for ‘The Wren’, a serial killer who’s been terrorizing the area. It’s the location of their very first contract job, and they should have seen the symbolism coming. Unfortunately, they’ve tumbled into a plot that fiendishly puts them in a head-to-head battle for survival. It’s all Chance Kotter’s work, and he – a relative of a previous Bang Bang Girls target and a ruthless, rich mobster to boot – is determined to watch them kill each other. Can they avoid this horrifying fate?

This is a book about sisterhood, and The Bang-Bang Sisters has that in spades. Brea, Flo, and Jessie would be nothing without one another, and they would do (and do end up doing) just about anything to save each other from hellish fates worse than death.

This is not a pretty book – packed with action, tension, gore and violence – but it’s a whole lot of fun. I won’t reveal who survives The Bang-Bang Sisters – but you should definitely pick up the book and find out for yourself.

This was a fun-to-read book, full of action - and feminism. If you want to read about women kicking ass and making white southern men look like fools, then you'll love it. I guess white southern men are an accepted demographic to demean, but I am one, and I still enjoyed the book. I say we open back up all demographics to ridicule, and let authors write whatever they want. Anyway, I enjoyed the book. It was a page turner.

5 ⭐️

What would you get if you mixed up Chain Gang All Stars, Swamp Story and Blackbird and Butcher?
Answer: The Bang-Bang Sisters by Rio Youers is a perfect melting pot of all three best sellers and is sure to join the ranks as a summer hit! .
What a wild ride! Starting with a serial killer named Wren and bouncing into a an all girl rock band whose members moonlight as vigilantes delivering their own brand of justice, the reader is in for thrills and chills.
With no lack of action and plenty of shady characters including a ruthless mobster and his crew of cronies, it’s “game on” and our kick a$$ rockers are in for the fight of their lives.
*I will mention that there are a few pages that reference violence towards animals and at one point I thought I might put it down but I didn’t and I’m glad as hell I kept in it.

The Bang-Bang Sisters by Rio Youers is a gripping action-read I didn't know I needed. I hung onto every word, paragraph, page, chapter. I am still clutching onto this book in my brain! The scenes are fast paced, just the way I like them, and I haven't read something that kept my attention like this in a long, long time. The main characters are avengers who are fierce, powerful, cunning, astute. and best of all, women. I was gasping and cringing in all the best ways.

My only minor wish is that every character would all be introduced with racial classifications, not just the Black characters. All the characters are assumed to have white skin and the Black characters are differentiated as Black. There are two specific occasions out of three in which Black characters appear briefly for just one scene and are described as "trailer trash" or in the slum neighborhoods. However, this book does justice to its three main characters, one who is blonde, her sister, and their Black best friend. This book is phenomenal despite my tiny little criticism. I want to read it again and again and hope it gets adapted for television! I need more of these heart-wrenching, violent and adrenaline-driven stories featuring the most powerful women.

A note on the reviews I write: I believe in only submitting reviews on books that are meant for me to read. I believe if I feel a book is rated a 1, then it wasn't written for an audience member like me. Every author puts their heart and soul into their art. I choose books that I would love and will only rate these publicly. Thanks for reading!

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book. This was an epic read! I loved every single minute of this story! This story was an absolute thrill ride with an excellent cast of characters. An all female cover bad that moonlights as assassin's. You just can't go wrong!

This was such a rip roaring rock n roll delight of a book, much like a gig of your favourite band this will leave you breathless and sweating and/or possibly doing finger guns shouting PEW PEW, my spidey senses tell me that this will definitely be picked up to be made into a movie, this book oomphed, is that a word? It OOMPHED violence and emotion, a fun high octane crime thriller that explores the bonds of sisterhood

First of all, I would like to give a big thank you to William Morrow Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this fantastic novel!

I was browsing upcoming titles on Amazon and stumbled across a book called “The Bang-Bang Girls.” Based on the title and summary of the book, my curiosity peaked. I read up about the author, Rio Youers, and it turns out that he is a pretty damn good writer. I have since purchased several of his previous novels, but I’m here today to talk about The Bang-Bang Girls.

This absolute off the rails bullet train of a novel focuses on 3 “sisters” (2 by blood, 1 best friend) who tour as a kick ass cover band. That by itself would make for a compelling read in the right hands, but what makes these sisters so special is that they moonlight as assassins for hire who go after the most vile offenders that currently have bounties on their head. The hits for hire are arranged by a mysterious band of dark web hackers known as “The Trace”. Everything for the Bang-Bang girls has gone according to plan until an extremely wealthy relative of one of their previous victims tracks them down and looks to extract revenge in a seriously twisted manner. Oh, and there’s also a creepy serial killer known as “The Wren” ties into everything somehow.

I don’t want to talk about the plot too much as there are some nice twists (the big one got me good), but I will put out there that there is a nunchuck battle against a vicious attack dog.

This honestly wasn’t exactly what I was expecting the book to be, but in the best way possible. Youers does a great job humanizing all of the characters, even the baddies, which makes you care about the stakes and eventual outcome.

This book is F-U-N and is bound to be adapted to the big or small screen in the future. The ending also leaves me hoping that the author plans to turn this into an ongoing series. 5 stars, get out and read this bad boy!!

Rio Youers rocks and rolls in this high-powered action-packed ride through grimy streets and hallways filled with dead bodies and bullets. The Bang Bang Sisters is what you get when you combine kickass characters with an equally badass setting all put on the stove at maximum heat to get all that kinetic energy zooming past you like angry hornets at a rave.

Full review out on https://www.bestthrillerbooks.com/kashif-hussain/the-bang-bang-sisters-by-rio-youers

Sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll may be cool, but in The Bang-Bang Sisters it’s made apparent that weapons, death and rock ‘n roll generate the superior thriller novel. Rio Youers has turned up the volume to eleven and delivered a headbanging, moshing, pulsating, melt your face off smash hit of a story.

Brea, Jessie and Flo are the mighty trio making up a kick-ass rock band that excites and entertains crowds across the country. But offstage they’re bad-ass vigilantes called the Bang-Bang Sisters, killing criminals who have escaped justice and have been marked for death by an underground hacker community known as The Trace. After the final gig of their latest road trip, the sisters get a lead on a notorious serial killer in Reedsville, Alabama that is too enticing to ignore. But once they get there, they’re ensnared in a trap by a local businessman/criminal hellbent on revenge, forced into a game where they have 48 hours to kill each other – only one of them can be left standing in the end – or their loved ones will be killed instead. Beat up, dejected and with seemingly no way out, the three women reluctantly start playing the game. But if a small sliver of an opportunity presents itself, rest assured the Bang-Bang sisters will seize upon it and won’t go down without one hell of a fight.

To best describe The Bang-Bang Sisters let’s look to rock lyrics for inspiration….

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now – it's just a Bang Bang sister about to turn you into worm food. Ain't no doubt about it these ladies are doubly blessed, 'cause they are rock ‘n rollers and roaming vigilantes. And gals like these, baby, they were born to run. So when the going gets tough, the tough get going. But while this game makes them afraid and petrified, they realize a need to find some kind of way outta here, figuring out along the way that freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose and that it’s better to burn out than to fade away. They don’t wanna die, but if their tormentors get their way they’ll wish they’d never been born at all. However they won’t stop believing. Here they are and they will rock you like a hurricane. And they will survive. Because as long as they know how to love, they know they’ll stay alive.

The Bang-Bang Sisters is a symphony of violence and emotion. A novel that totally rocks. Action packed and filled with gut wrenching conflicts. Dark and deep with tremendous characters. A must-read thriller that upon cracking it open you’ll swear you hear a voice screaming for those about to rock, we salute you!

The most high-octane, adrenaline-fueled book you're ever likely to read. By night, sisters Brea and Jessie along with their friend and "sister" Flo are a rock band performing at clubs and bars across the country. By other nights they're also a band of vigilantes, taking contracts over the dark web, removing despicable people from the Earth. When they're given a lead on a notorious serial killer calling himself "the wren", they find themselves in Reedsville, AL, the site of their very first killing. But unbeknownst to them, the most powerful man in town is waiting for them, looking to exact his own vengeance. Soon, they're pitted in a game of survival - against each other.
Rio Youers writes a unique style of crime novels. This one has aspects of 70s style grindhouse action flick mixed with modern day John Wick non-stop action. The story hits the ground running and never takes its foot off the gas. It's intense and exciting throughout and has one of the most jaw-dropping plot twists I've ever read - one it doesn't wait until the end to show. Somehow, Youers just gets better and more inventive with each book he puts out.

A meaty book that explores the bond of sisterhood and how far those bonds will go. This book will test those bonds to their very ends.

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.