I thoroughly enjoyed this. A small-town, fast-paced murder mystery. Bettina’s father is in prison for having murdered her mother. Only, years later, women are being murdered again with Bett’s father’s MO all over their corpses. Of course, this launches Bett and Eugenia, the undertaker’s daughter, into an investigation. This one kept me interested and looking forward to what happened. I loved the reveal and the ending.

While this was heavy on the plot, I feel like it didn’t do much for character development and their relationships towards each other, especially in regards to the reveal.

Thank you to Netgalley and Holiday House for the ARC! :>

They call him The Smiley Face Killer, while Bettina calls him Dad.

for over a decade, Bettina has been living in the shadow of her mother's murder at the hands of her father, who has been imprisoned ever since. in their small town of Wolf Ridge, there are no secrets, so when a body turns up in the same manner as her mother, it raises suspicions and brings back painful memories. determined to uncover the truth behind the events haunting her, she works with Eugenia, the daughter of the town's mortician, to shed light on these unanswered questions.

Bettina was unlikable at times. i get that she was going through a lot, but she had to understand that not everything was about her. Despite the initial mistreatment, Eugenia showed unwavering support and kindness towards Bettina, even during her most difficult moments.

overall, i had a really fun time reading this book. it was thrilling and full of expense, which kept me engaged until the very end. although I had theories about what was happening and who the mastermind behind it was, the unexpected plot twists really did one on me. while the ending could have been better, it still left me feeling excited about what could happen next. a potential sequel?? who knows! i would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery novel ♡

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Please remember that this opinion is my own!

I have complicated feelings on this; although, it is not a complicated book.

Bett is the daughter of the infamous "Smiley Face Killer," who killed her mother (and possibly one other girl, but that's still unsolved). He's been in jail for over a decade, in part due to Bett's own testimony, but when another girl is found dead in the same gruesome fashion as her mother, no one is safe, especially not Bett. With her new friend, Eugenia, the undertaker's daughter, Bett is now on the case. But can she prove it's a copycat killer before she becomes the next victim?

This is pretty run-of-the-mill YA thriller/mystery. Bett is very unlucky in the way her life is going, but lucky in that every clue falls into her lap without her trying. Bett is definitely not a perfect protagonist, she acts like a teenager, is rash, makes bad decisions, etc. but Eugenia is great. Arguably the better character. The reveal was pretty good, if far-fetched, but also seemed to undercut the message of violence against women, namely at the hands of men.

My main issue actually has to do with the Smiley Face Killer and Bett. For those who aren't aware of true crime, there is a real case called the "Happy Face Killer"--Keith Hunter Jesperson. His daughter, Melissa G. Moore has spoken out about her experiences with her father and is very open about it. Now, the actual way the killer in the book murders people is different from Jesperson, but the eerie similarities made me a bit uncomfortable because you have smiley vs. happy face, two daughters of killers, etc. It felt somewhat icky and sure, it could be coincidence or unintentional, but the similarities are there. There was no author's note in my copy to address whether or not Melissa gave consent (idk if she would need to in this situation, but it would've been good practice) or to acknowledge the real case. I cannot in good conscience give this a high rating because of this, especially when true crime in the book is seen as exploitative--while drawing inspiration from a real life case and a real person's experience.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review!:)

<i>thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for sending me a free copy in exchange for an honest review!</i>

i was very excited about this book going into it — cool title, pretty cover, interesting premise, maybe there will be crime-solving sapphics and discussions on the ethics of creation and consumption of true crime content. however, i was left feeling severely disappointed.

the plot is still somewhat interesting and compelling and the pacing and the writing are <i>fine</i>, but nothing about this book felt gripping enough to make me want to keep reading out of enjoyment. every character felt underdeveloped, even bettina (and we spend the entirety of the book in her head, since this is told in first person), and her relationships with the other characters felt meaningless.

the writing felt a bit juvenile and choppy at times, even for a YA book, and there are passages that wouldn't look out of place in something written ten years ago (i.e. lengthy descriptions of outfits and appearance instead of proper characterization, a lot of telling instead of showing, slut shaming for literally no reason, bullying for the sake of adding to the 'woe is me' side of bett's character even though, realistically, such a thing for such a reason [being the daughter of a murderer] probably wouldn't happen in real life, etc).

the explanation for everything that happened? flat as an iron board. there are many things that should've been explained and weren't, and the killer reveal felt like a last-minute decision. a pet peeve of mine is crime fiction focusing on some random teenagers solving these mysteries thanks to the sheer incompetence of the police and, while it can be done well, this entire book felt incredibly unrealistic in that regard. bett was just... handed things on a silver platter. it's like using every cheat code while playing a videogame and expecting to be pat on the back for all your hard work.

though this was a plot-driven book, i still expect developed characters, at least the main character. however, bett was just <i>there</i>. she's bland. she has no defining characteristics besides being the daughter of a murderer. that's her personality — her trauma and her past. there's no space for present or future bett to be discussed and, though i'm aware this could have been intentional, it doesn't feel that way. she wants to be an actress, but why? what are her motivations? her interests? who is this girl <i>outside</i> of her trauma, and why am i supposed to care about her when i'm being given no reason to?

there was no reason for her and eugenia to become friends besides convenience; though i know several friendships might start off this way (see: college people you're only friends with at first because you see them every day), they're usually strengthened by the passing of time and common interests, but that also involves people getting to know each other. bett and eugenia knew next to nothing about each other despite knowing each other for years, which is actually lampshaded during the book, but it's ultimately brushed off. eugenia was even less developed than bett, and the rest of the cast of characters aren't better off, either.

overall, this was just meh. it tries very hard to be a spiritual successor to <i>a good girl's guide to murder</i>, but fails. it tries to do a lot of things at once, but lacks the compelling characters and the intricate connections between them, the urgency of the plot, and the originality of the premise. i'm not opposed to reading more stuff from this author in the future, but this just didn't do it for me.

I finished the book over a few days, I really enjoyed the story.

It wasn't the most gripping book where I couldn't put it down but it was still enough where it kept me coming back to it, I did find some conversations harder to follow as it seemed like the came out of no where but it wasn't often enough that it was an issue.
I'll be picking up the book when it comes out in print to re-read though!

Thank you, Megan, for writing a great story!

Dead girls talking is a thrilling Young Adult novel that follows Bettina as she grapples with the challenges of being a murderers daughter. Living in a small town of Wolf Ridge everyone knows everyone. So when Betinna stumbles across a dead body, with eerily similar knife marks to her fathers killing, she becomes the focus of the town again.
What follows is an absolutely captivating story about the truth, friendship and just how far someone will go to keep secrets buried.
This book was absolutely brilliant. It had me hooked from the very beginning and I did not want to put it down. I really enjoyed Bettina and Eugenia’s friendship and how it interwove the story. I cannot wait to read more by this author and I’m so thankful to netgalley and Holiday House/Peachtree/pixel+ink for the reading copy

this was an okay read. nothing remarkable, but it was decent and i didn't want to fling my phone across the room, so i count that as a win. dead girls talking follows bett and eugenia as they investigate the murder of a woman in their town. i found it decently paced, but it irked me a little that bettina and eugenia were able to acquire information so easily. it was sleuthing, but it felt more like they were just asking and getting answers very easily- a little unrealistic, especially given their ages, and it sort of made the whole process feel a little too calm/easy. however, i appreciated that it didn't really sort of 'slog' towards the middle. a lot of ya thrillers have a problem where they start of brilliantly strong and engaging, but falter at around the 40% to 70% mark because of either plotting or pacing issues. this was not an issue for me with dead girls talking. i remained engaged through the whole experience.

onto the characters. i didn't quite??? like bettina? i know it's within a teenager's usual personality to be spiteful and maybe a little mean- after all, it is an age where you're trying to figure things out about your identity and place in the world and having to do that with a murderer for a father and a mother murdered by said father doesn't help- but while i could understand why she acted the way she did, it doesn't mean i necessarily enjoyed it. i liked eugenia much more. she's not exactly quiet, but she doesn't have much friends. even at first introduction, bettina describes her as 'unusual'. she doesn't wear makeup when all holland women do. no mascara, no manicure, nothing. she drives a hearse. that ticks off all the 'weird girl' archetype boxes. still, i think peterson did a great job of characterising her as a more likeable character than bettina- possibly on purpose to sort of even out bettina's more abrasive character.

a sharp, engaging thriller with some commentary on violence against women- in particular femicide- and the impacts it has on people involved and society. prose is digestible but still has its fun moments, so perfect for YA. a fun read! thank you for the opportunity for the ARC.

One for the angry girls - I really enjoyed the female friendship and the imperfect main character. I feel like the twist made sense but I didn't totally get the payoff I was looking for. Overall a solid YA mystery/thriller/light horror!

<i>Dead Girls Talking</i> was an unbelievable tale of two mismatched teenagers/barely adults playing detectives and somehow solving a string of murders by pure chance.
But really, it felt more like a testament to how failing and lazy the justice system is. I mean, these sheriffs and cops really did not want to solve these crimes.

This thriller/crime mystery did not work for me on different levels.
The main character, Bettina, was unlikeable. Very egocentric, mean, arrogant. I’m sorry your mother was killed, but there is no need to be a bitch about it.
I sort of wish Eugenia was the narrator, because she was badass. I probably would’ve enjoyed this ten times more if it had Eugenia’s POV.

The plot was pretty basic and still managed to feel completely unrealistic. Bettina not only manages to all the dead women somehow, but also the evidence (that police ignore, of course) and, in the end, the killer. Not much happening for most of the book until the very end where all hell breaks loose. This didn’t really transmit any real emotion for me, except maybe annoyance towards Bettina.

In the end, there was no real spook factor, no thrill, and no fun.

I have read a lot of thrillers and YA murder mysteries over the years. A lot of these mysteries are wonderful, but I can easily lose my interest when the start and middle of the story doesn't have much going on and the pacing is slow. This was one of those pacing issues, but I am glad I pushed through the slow parts to get to the last half, as the pacing picked up and the story flowed better from there. Its a good book, and I could definitely see myself picking up another one of Megan's books in the future to see her writing improve.

Now, the story... We follow Bettina Holland, who lost her mom when she was very young, being the one who found her murdered in bed. The trauma of this had followed her into her teen life and since the convicted killer of this murder is said to be her dad, she ended up growing up with her mother's grandparents. When, ten years later, there is another murder exactly like her mother's, Bettina starts to wonder if this is a copycat killer or if the real killer has returned.

If you enjoy quick YA murder mysteries that are easy to read, then this might be a good fit for you...

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the early review copy of this book. The review is my own.

There is a guy on tiktok that says adults should stop reading YA. And ya know what? Here I am reading YA and I loved this book. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

This was a good time. I was so excited for this book and when I saw that netgallery had an arc registration open I signed up as soon as I could. And I got it! I really liked reading this book. I loved this book because it reminded me of criminal minds. And if you know me, I am obsessed with that series. It only reminded me of that show because of the vibes, and solving a mystery. but that was enough for me. This plot has a murder set when bettina was still a child, and at time her mother is murdered in a very brutal way. They all said that her father had done it and she was a key witness in the conviction of her father. but till this day she doesn’t know for sure if she saw what she said she saw. it makes her question herself till this day. especially when a new murder started happening that looks identical to her mother murder. we have one: we do have a copycat or two: the murder is still out there. in the end there is a big plot twist and if you are a thriller reader you probably see it coming, I did way before the ending. Our characters are fun to follow. Bettina is very complexed. She of course went through so much. and you see her make mistakes in the beginning, but in the end she tries to do what is right. there was one part in the book when they are asking questions and looking back on the transcripts that it was a lot of info dumping by the author I know that the info was necessary but it could have been done with a few more pages in the book, i would have not mind if the book was 50 pages longer. The writing style is good, especially for a debut novel. it made reading this book easy to follow and the pacing was good.

so overall I had a really good time with this book. It was very fast paced and thrilling with a good plot twist at the end.

Okay so I am now low key obsessed with Eugenia and Bettina. What great characters!! And the plot! And the writing! Totally in love with this book.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. Catch me at Barnes and Noble in June to buy my copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Holiday House for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was an enjoyable and quick read, read in a single day, but I had many issues with it. Most of these issues led me to believe that this was a debut author, which turned out not to be the case. I suppose this might be Peterson's first foray into this specific thriller genre, but a lot of the issues were not genre based. Most of the issues I had were due to the pacing, the character work, and plot holes/abandoned threads.

I liked Bett, even though she was mean spirited at times, she was a teenager, and it was relatable or understandable, she wasn't a bully for no reason, in my opinion. I also really like Eugenia, but I almost thought that the author couldn't decide who she was going to be. Sometimes she was calculated and said exactly what she wanted, and then other times she acted unsure and scared. You could just chalk this up to her being a teenager and still discovering who she is and becoming more comfortable with the world, but it read like inconsistent character work to me. Also sometimes Eugenia would just say stuff into the air, or blurt something out like they were in the middle of a conversation already, and it was jarring to me. More jarring that Bett never commented on it or thought about it. It made a lot of their moments together feel disingenuous, like the author was just trying to get a beat written and less that they were actually interacting organically. This really stood out to me in the break into two scene where they are first discussing investigating the case. It's kinda resolved with a conversation later, but it seemed really rushed and out of the blue that they just decided to investigate a murder like that.

Another thing I want to say about Peterson's writing style, it's so quick on the line to line level. This could just be preference, but it felt very rushed. One sentence she'd be pouring coffee, the next line she'd be finishing off the cup. Little time inconsistencies like that which made me think this book hadn't had any dev edits or that the author was new. It persists throughout the whole book. They'd be driving from the mountain and a line later they'd be pulling up in the driveway. You could just use a scene break if the in-between is unimportant to the story.

The last thing I'll say is that I didn't understand the use of Xavier's character. Him and Bett are sort of dating at the start, then they don't talk for many, many chapters, then somewhere in the middle he decides he really likes her and starts sharing all this personal stuff with her. Then she realises he's holding evidence in a murder investigation, so of course she turns the evidence in as she should, and that pisses him off so much that he hates her now and everyone takes his side because he's a burnout, but also popular at the same time? This thread is never resolved. They see each other later at the party and he just leaves her to almost get hurt, again. Then we never hear from him again. No resolution. If the author was trying to say something about Bett picking her friends over a bad relationship than maybe she should have explained that better or at a more impactful moment.

Anyway, it was fun to read, the mystery was fairly interesting, if not a bit silly, but it was quick and a good first effort into the genre.

Lastly I'll say, I really love the cover, but having now read the book I don't understood who the girl on the front is? Because the killer's victims are blonde, not dark haired?

This book was honestly good, but not great. It was dull at moments and didn't give me the spook factor I was looking for. I did like the plot and the character descriptions and backgrounds, however it confused me at times throughout the book. I don't like being confused, especially when it's not resolved, and it wasn't.
Though even with the confusion this book was good in the idea and the characters, and it wasn't too much confusion to where I couldnt follow along just some seeming plot holes.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this early copy to review!!

This YA thriller is everything; it’s dark, intriguing, I was hooked from the start! It follows Bettina and her investigating to find out WHO is killing the women in Wolf Ridge… is it a copy cat of The Smiley Face Killer AKA Bettina’s dad, or was her father wrongly accused.

The short chapters, fast pace story kept me wanting to keep reading even when I shouldn’t have. Eugenia was iconic, a feminist morticians daughter who’s a little weird, I love her. I also really liked Bett’s love interest and how it didn’t turn the story into a love story, it’s a thriller through and through.

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ .5
the best thing at this party: the twists and bett’s character
you’re losing me: i feel like everything was too easy for bett and eugenia

thanks to netgalley and holiday house for the arc!

🍵 summary

bettina jane’s mother was killed by her father when she was a child. that’s the one thing she is sure of in her life. but what if that’s not actually what happened? when another woman is murdered in their town a decade later, bett decided to investigate herself with the help of the mortician’s lonely daughter, eugenia.

🍓 thoughts

i really enjoyed reading dead girls talking. it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time, and i devoured it as quick as i physically could. every single time i thought i knew what was happening, i didn’t (i ended up figuring it out exactly one page before the big reveal 💀). it is really fast paced and dynamic, and i was close to giving it five stars. the one thing that annoyed me, tho, was how easily people gave bett and eugenia information. they walked in, asked whatever they wanted, and people just told them pretty much without questions. and let me tell you, they were very straightforward about why they wanted that info. i just don’t think it’s very realistic for people to tell two random teenagers everything they know about murder victims/suspects.

🍰 characters

bettina: i liked bettina’s character, and i think she was really complex. she was flawed, yes, but in the end, she was just trying to do what’s right. she went through a lot and she did everything she could to get justice for her family and the other victims, while staying respectful for those who had suffered the loss, which not a lot of people did in this book. of course, she made mistakes, but who doesn’t? there were also aspects of her that i found very relatable, like the pressure she felt from her grandparents to be the perfect (grand)daughter and do what they wanted her to, even when it wasn’t actually her wish.

eugenia: eugenia, my baby <3333 she is literally just like me. eugenia doesn’t have friends at school, and people aren’t her thing. she says what needs to be said without turning around the point, even if that doesn’t make people like her. she know what she wants and she does what she can to get it. but under all that, she is still sensitive, and she cares about people, even if she has a weird way to show it. also she drives a hearse, how cool is that

supporting characters: i liked xavier’s character, i think he was really sweet and supportive of bett until he just… disappeared? i wish we had seen more of him. natalie was also really cool, i liked her. i’m conflicted about ada, on one end i can see why she does what she does, but on the other end… it kind of disgusts me. the grandparents reminded me of my own parents too much to be objective about them 😅

🫖 writing

dead girls talking was well written. nothing extraordinary, but not bad either. i liked it! the pacing was well done, and i don’t think there was really a moment where i felt bored, or i thought the writing was awkward. overall, not exceptional, but good!

🍒 misc.

i really loved the commentary on true crime and violence against women in this book. there was a lot of conversation on the ethicality of true crime and the effect it has on the family of victims, and i think that it’s something that needs to be talked about more often, because some of the content out there is so disgusting. true crime podcasts/channels rarely show compassions with the victim’s’ loved ones, who can be very impacted by those vulture’s’ constant stalking and harassment. it also talked a lot about crimes committed against women and how little the authorities actually care about us, how girls often have to protect each other in a society that has failed them. those topics are very important, and i think they were handled very well by megan peterson.

Dead Girls Talking is a fast paced murder mystery that keeps you guessing the whole book. If you like reading about true crime, but are looking for some fiction then this is for you. Our FMC is 110% certain her dad killed her mom, but when a body pops up with the same M.O. as her mother's murder, she starts to second guess herself. She teams up with the local weirdo to try to uncover the truth. I enjoyed going through it with Bett and trying to figure out what was going to happen next. I wish there would have been more resolution with certain characters at the end since it wrapped up pretty quickly.

Dark, intriguing and compelling book that absorbed me completely! The captivating writing, fast pace and short chapters made it almost impossible for me to tear myself away from the pages, prompting me to finish it in less than a day. "Dead Girls Talking" is a story about serial killers, murders, violence against women, complicated family relationships and bullying, but it is also a story of friendship, hope and justice. A dynamic, gritty and powerful thriller full of mysteries, deceptions, lies and secrets. I was fascinated by the small town of Wolf Ridge, a seemingly placid and peaceful place, where everyone knows everyone and knows everything about everyone, that in reality hides a deep darkness.

While I did enjoy some of the thriller aspects of the book, this was a very generic read and nothing really set it apart from other YA thrillers I've read this year.