This YA Horror book had me feeling all the creepy crawlies, making sure the lights were on, and checking over my shoulder. The banter in this book gave me several good chuckles. For me, this book was too youthful for the very adult and graphic content, but it is listed as YA Horror. So, I don't really have room to complain. This book uses a lot of slang and modern language that was hard to understand at times, but it definitely added to the vibes for this book. I will be recommending this to my horror book lover friends.

Temple Baker is signed up to be a camp counselor at a horror fan's summer camp geared towards young women of color. The twist is that the camp is on the haunted property in the woods of Virginia that Temple's family has lived on for generations. Temple's father was arrested and confessed to killing 10 people on this property. However, Temple is convinced that her father was possessed by a demon and didn't truly commit the murders.

Temple's father has given her clues that require her to investigate the crime scenes. The only way for her to access the property without drawing attention is to attend the summer camp and sneak off when she can.

Themes and elements in this book are as follows:

🍁YA Horror
🍁The Diverse Baseline
🍁Women of color
🍁Queer
🍁Gay
🍁Demon possession
🍁Haunted houses
🍁Haunted properties
🍁Walkers

Be aware of the following triggers:

🍁Graphic demon possession
🍁Gore
🍁Graphic murder scenes
🍁Walkers
🍁Ghosts

I really thought I was going to love this one! A queer, spooky summer camp? Yes please! But honestly this was so boring and I just don’t have the desire to finish it 🤷🏻‍♀️

Unfortunately this was a miss for me. I thought the premise sounded great but it just didn't keep my attention and I really struggled to focus with the audiobook. This might be one that is better suited for physical or ebook.

I’m giving 3 stars overall because I also want to rate the audiobook primarily here; on Goodreads etc I’ll go down to 2 stars.


I liked the premise immensely, as I actually really like teen horror. (And then there were queer girls in a camp in the woods!)
So I was really hooked and now that I’ve read the book, I’m a little disappointed.

It definitely wasn’t the writing style, because I liked how Sami Ellis‘ words carried the story. I especially liked the scenes with horror elements.
The portrayal of the girls (teenagers around 16) was on point and felt realistic. References to Kpop (BTS) and goodreads, for example, were really great.
All in all, it sounds really good, but unfortunately the story „got carried away“ too much and I didn’t warm up to our main character until the end.

Temple Baker is our FMC and she really stressed me out from the beginning. Of course she has a traumatic past, (which is totally okay) but this „I’m different from the others, I’m a monster.“ / „I can never be like the others.“ etc, just annoyed me.
Of course such characters can / should / must exist, but for me it just wasn’t done well in this case. Temple was just too „I push everyone away“ for me to be able to sympathise with her as FMC.

Also, it took until about halfway through the book for me to slowly become interested and invested. The story was too drawn out in certain aspects and also kept getting lost in itself due to the inserts (goodreads comments etc).
When the horror really kicked in, I was totally enthralled because Ellis got it across really well and some things gave me goosebumps before the resolution.
In the end, however, it was the resolutions that ruined it for me - it was just too much of a good thing. „Sometimes less is more“ and that’s what I would have liked here.


About the audiobook:
Tamika Katon-Donegal read incredibly well and really blew me away with her performance. The vocal realisation of the characters and emotions was wonderful and extremely expressive.
Especially the fear, panic and also desperation were extremely well realised and I could have been throwing air kisses around all the time, haha.

From time to time I couldn’t pinpoint exactly where I was in time, as the book works a lot with interjections from the past. In this respect, the book is perhaps easier to understand, even though I enjoyed the audiobook as a whole.

Narrated by Tamika Katon-Donegal
Presented by RB Media

Man, I tuned out for SO MUCH of this audiobook. It wasn't what I expected and I just couldn't get into it.

The blurb suggests something like a slasher flick, with a group of black lesbian kids camping out at a horror camp. One of the camp counsellors, Temple, is the daughter of a convicted serial killer, and she's only got the gig so that she can dig up (literally) the truth about the death of her mum. Then a body turns up, and Temple 'fears that one of her father's "fans" might be mimicking his crimes.'

I was expecting a serial killer roaming the woods, picking off kids. I was expecting tense moments, dramatic kills, and the fear of someone lurking in the woods. I wanted eerie atmosphere and jump scares.

What I got was a multigenerational haunting with a lot of ridiculous supernatural stuff and Temple talking often about what a terrible person she is.

Honestly, it was just so dull to me. It seemed to go on forever - when I thought things were coming to a head and we were getting into the explanations and final battles, I was barely 50% through. And then it was just the same crap for the rest of the book. There was nothing that hooked me in and had me invested at all - by the end, I was just desperate for it to be over.

I was also really confused about who was a camper and who was a counsellor because they all seemed to be the same age? I thought counsellors were supposed to be older so they could look after campers? Not that I've ever been to one of these camps in my life ... but I read, ya know?

So essentially, because it wasn't what I was expecting and there was a lot of the same stuff happening repeatedly, I tuned out often and still never felt the need to go back and re-listen. I even literally fell asleep at one stage (which I guess is also kind of a compliment to the narrator because her voice was quite soothing).

Admittedly, I listened to most of it while sick and out of it with a cold, so that might have added to how easily I was distracted, but I did find it really hard to concentrate and stay with this one.

Horror lovers might enjoy it, but don't expect a slasher flick - this is something a bit different.

With thanks to Netgalley for an audio ARC

Okay so this book is hella creepy but also really amazing. Without too much spoiling, the main character goes through a major transition of learning to accept herself and others through returning to her family's ancestral land to try and confront the demons of her past. While there, she meets with other lesbian horror fans who are all there obsessed with a book. Its creepy, heartwarming, and told in such a way that you can't help but feel the pain the main character is going through. I really recommend the audiobook to. Top tier..

I received this audiobook as an ARC through NetGallley.

This usually isn’t my usual kind of read/listen, but it was phenomenal! The story itself was captivating, the perfect combination of spine chilling horror with touches of perfectly placed humor to break it up.

Tamika Katon-Donegal was amazing bringing the characters to life, showcasing everyone’s diverse personalities!

10/10 would watch this if it ever gets optioned for a movie.

If you didn't love the execution of the short story because of all the unanswered questions but you liked her writing style then still pick this up! She had me hooked!

Overall not a bad book.

The audiobook is superb. The choice of narrator went so well with the story. From her tone to her pacing, it all made the novel that much more compelling.

I feel like Sami Ellis shone better in long form format over her short story in These Sunken Souls, where she has more room to fully flesh out all of the plotlines that she incorporates into her worldbuilding. The thing that I liked the most in the short story was also present here too: atmosphere.

What a absoulte ride of a book!
I wasnt really sure what was happening a lot of the time, but I was having a good time.
Such a fast paced full stuffed book! Tamika Katon-Donegal does the narration perfectly, their voice just sucking you in straight away.

Again we love queer horror, there is no better!

What a rollercoaster. I was going to give it 4 stars until chapter 47 when it struck me: this is an awesome game of DnD! 5 stars from this dungeon master! lol

I fully admit I was always going to check out Dead Girls Walking because the author, Sami Ellis, wrote probably my favorite story in All These Sunken Souls: A Black Horror Anthology, which was one of my favorite reads last year. Ellis wrote a spooky urban legend called The Teeth Came Out at Night - and it was the scariest. How could I not follow Ellis after that introduction?!

Dead Girls walking features a cast that is almost entirely female, queer, and black and I love it for that and for being a classic horror story. It's not that who they are doesn't mean anything in the story, but Ellis addresses everything, well really presents it all, in such a way that even the old white man that is my dad could ingest with no complaints (while secretly pushing him more towards acceptance). It both embraces and subverts tropes, something Ellis is clearly gifted at doing.

Stories like this are some of my favorites because they're so good and so familiar that it's bound to change a heart or mind or two.

Outside of that though - I love a bunch of horror nerds! These girls are fun and smart and mean and brave and by the end Cali was my favorite sorrynotsorry

I don't want to spoil the actual narrative of this book though (aside from my DnD comment lol) because the summary does a great job of both telling you what this book is and isn't about lol I wasn't entirely surprised because I'd read Ellis previously and was already secretly hoping for something like what happens but I do think some folks may be in for a fun surprise.

And I mean that, truly - Dead Girls Walking is FUN. And gory. What a great YA horror novel!

I also highly recommend checking out the audiobook because Tamika Katon-Donegal is P H E N O M E N A L narrating this one! I got so into this it felt like watching a movie.

I want to thank NetGalley and RB Media for this advanced copy of the audiobook of this title in exchange for an honest review. This was a really interesting take on the summer camp horror setting. I thought that the author did a good job subverting any expectations as far as the direction I thought this book was going to go in and kept me on my toes still the very last chapter.

Queer, campy young adult book with serial killer's? This was an automatic pick up for me, and I'm so glad I was approved for an ALC!

The narrator did such a good job with the audiobook! Definitely recommend the audio for this one.

Now plot wise, it was interesting, and it kept me wanting more. And the twist? That was definitely not expected at all. I really had a fun time listening to this book! I also really enjoyed the humor as well.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘰𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬.

What an absolute fever dream… nightmare-in a good way.

Temple is going to an all queer horror based summer camp that is on the property of her old house, the dumping grounds of her father, a notorious serial killer, in the hopes of finding her mother’s body he claims is there.

For a lot of this I was just like idk what’s happening but damn if it isn’t kinda gross. But the vibes were there and how the tale unfolded was wild and such a great time.

Thanks to NetGalley and Recorded Books for an advanced listening copy.

2.5 stars

This felt like being dropped in the middle of a story and having to play catch up. I was a bit confused the whole time, especially with the flashbacks and bits of a book that was referenced. I thought it was kind of disjointed and along with the twists, I just struggled a bit.

The characters weren't super likeable and I really only remembered Temple out of all the girls. I will say that the twists were things I never saw coming and I appreciated how creative the author got. I hope others enjoy this more and if it sounds like it's up your alley, go for it!

I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All opinions are my own. Thank you to Recorded Books and NetGalley for the copy.

WOW. Like this book is such a RIDE, y'all. It grabs you by the throat in the first chapter and never lets go. The plot is a thrill ride. The banter is a blast. The characters jump off the page. And Temple - I would die for Temple. She's the angry, hurting, lonely teen that so many teens will see themselves in. 10/10 I knew this book would be amazing and it delivered.

4.0 out of 5 .
This new YA horror was fast paced, intriguing and fun for anyone who loves true crime.
This book follows teen, Temple, whos dad is a convicted serial killer who also admitted to killing Temples mom. However, Temple is having a hard time believing her dad and took it in her own hands to investigate where the killings took place. That place, ends up being renovated into a queer camp for girl.
While investigating at this camp another girl gets killed.
Who is the true killer?
Is there more than 1?
Does it run in the family?
This book is not only a great read but a fantastic audio

A serial killer's daughter goes to camp hoping to find her mother's body. This book had an interesting plot with a few good twists. I didn't like that there were so many characters to keep up with and it got a little confusing at times.

Best of the YA horror books I’ve read! Kept me interested from start to finish. The narration was great. Story was definitely creepy… poor Temple could not catch a break.

Temple is a broody teenager who is unlike most teenagers; she's black, gay, and the daughter of a serial killer. When she returns to her family's old farmland to try to investigate her father's cryptic messages to her and get to the bottom of her mother's disappearance at what is now a camp for queer Black horror lovers, she finds herself smack in the middle a sinister mystery laden with shocking family secrets.

I loved this book! The dialogue was snappy and very realistic. I loved the dark and unflinching nature of the plot, but really appreciated that it keeps a warm heart at its center by focusing in the humanity of the ladies at the camp. The narrator is excellent, able to flip seamlessly between distinct and very natural voices. I found myself laughing aloud at times because of the combination of writing and delivery ("MY TIMBS!"). This novel is a slasher film that uses nature as its soundtrack; I was so pleased to see how frequently birds and other forest sounds were mentioned as being songs or "beatboxing". It was a really fun choice that helped flesh out the already vivid atmosphere.

I did find that Temple was a little grating and that I wanted to know more about her earlier in the story in order to soften her--- I felt.that she was a little flat at first without much indication of what was really going on with her internally. That being said, after an hour or so, the story really picks up, and many of the other characters are intriguing and loveable in ways that kept me hooked until I could also feel love for Temple.

That being said, I noticed that I enjoyed the story the most when the writer was giving me vivid descriptions of scenery and people, and lush backstory for her charactes. By the middle of the book, I felt like I was in the woods with those girls, and I have never been to Virginia. At one point , a character mentions that she started the horror camp Temple is attending because she knew a teenaged version of herself ---black, gay, and horror obsessed ---- would have absolutely loved to attend such a thing. I felt like the author has done that very thing for young horror readers. Sami Ellis has crafted a well-written, chilling, and very moving slasher that feels like it was made for young black queers. I asked myself as I sat down to write this review whether I would have wanted this book available to myself fifteen years ago as I was: a Black queer teenager struggling to find herself in her favorite genre? The answer is not only yes, but hell yes.

Thank you NetGalley for making this advanced copy available for review! These opinions are my own.

This book took me places I wasn't expecting! The premise was interesting, with young Temple deciding to go to the scene of her serial killer father's crimes to find her mother's body. She finds more than she bargained for, starting with a freshly killed murder victim.
It took me a minute to get into it but this book got pretty exciting. I did not see that ending coming. The narrator was fantastic and helped make the story more exciting.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me listen to this audiobook