A psychological thriller unlike any other, being available in a flipover edition that allows readers to choose which side of the book they want to read first. The concept itself is intriguing and makes for a riveting read where each side gradually reveals more about what really happened.

The novel follows two viewpoints—the Dead Girl and the Runner—unreliable narrators with something to hide. Their accounts don't quite coincide, and readers will have to piece together the truth themselves. The tension is nicely constructed, and the mystery of what went on in that car is compelling enough to keep the pages turning.

However, while the dual POV structure is an excellent hook, the execution doesn't entirely follow through. There are a few timeline and detail discrepancies that make the story feel disjointed in places, and the characters' motivations could have been explored more deeply. Instead of reading like two completely different stories, the tales too often read like they were merely filling in missing details rather than actively contradicting or clashing with each other.

The mood is assisted by the location—Harbour Hill, a small conservative town full of secrets—although the novel doesn't quite reach its potential. The conclusion, although attempting to be a shocking surprise, was somewhat of an anticlimax and left a few loose ends that could have been tied up better.

Overall, Dead Girls Don't Talk is a fast and fun read with a truly intriguing concept, but the execution doesn't entirely match up to its promise. If you enjoy thrillers with unreliable narrators and an unconventional narrative technique, it's worth checking out—just don't expect perfection.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC copy to review.

Dead Girls Don't Talk is a twisty turny mystery told by two narrators who might not be giving you the whole truth. This book is unique in which you can pick which character's point of view to start with - the dead or the living. With two unreliable narrators, you never know what might come out.

This book is excellent for young adult murder mystery fans and for those who enjoy teen dramas. If you're a fan of CW dramas, this is a good pick for you. Family drama and small town drama are added bonuses, with LGBT+ themes.

It's hard to pick a favorite character or a favorite moment, but as a murder mystery fan, the reveal always winds up being my favorite and that's true here as well. It's well worth reading to the end to find out all of the secrets.

First and foremost, I have to say that the way that this book is structured is so unique. I loved the way that the reader can decide which character's side they can read first! I thought this was genius and reminded me of cluedo! I loved the way readers are given a snapshot of each girl's story before deciding which one to read first. This is definitely going to open up some heated discussions in book clubs!

As a thriller and mystery reader myself, there are certain aspects of a book that I tend to look out for. My number one is short chapters. With thriller books, it is so easy to get bored or lost in a long chapter of a book. However, this book absolutely nailed the short chapters. It keeps the readers more engaged and feels like you are reading quicker.

Another thing that I look for in books is a first-person writing style, and this book nailed that too. I find it much easier to follow books that are spoken in first person, and I like being able to see what the character is thinking, it is like being inside the characters mind.

This book is a must for Thriller and Mystery readers, it is fast paced, and I know that you will not be bored reading this. The concept is very unique, and I would definitely recommend this book!

This book was unique! I loved how you could choose which character’s POV to read first. I chose to go with Syl first, followed by Viola.

This book started out with Syl dead in Viola’s car while Viola was missing, and I thought it was going to be super twisty and exciting (especially with the paranormal aspect). Unfortunately, it fell a bit flat for me. The storyline follows the events leading up to the car crash and I felt like both sides of the story were too similar. Some of the smaller twists were predictable and the ending wasn’t anything that left my jaw on the floor. I do feel like the story picked up in the last few chapters and I found myself flying through the pages to find out what happened. I just wish the whole book had kept me that engaged.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and I liked the characters! (Except for both of the mothers). I hated how they both treated their daughters. It was clear why both Syl and Viola acted out the way they did with their difficult family dynamics.

Thank you NetGalley and Skyscape for the ARC of this revised edition!

Thank you Netgalley for the copy.

This was ok! Based off the description I expected to enjoy this one a lot more. I really enjoyed the format of how you read both the girls stories but at the same time it felt very long getting through certain parts of the stories due to this. I also was not suprised at all that the author of this book was not American as the geography and certain things the characters did not seem correct as an American (e.g. certain phrases, the drive to NYU, the fact a teen boy made tea lololol amongst other things....like yes you CAN drive to NYU and a teen boy can make tea it just felt weird to me). Also the description said Viola is planning go to Princeton while it was really UCLA she was trying to go to and I'm just very confused by all the places, this wasn't major but I can't get over it.

It was a cool twist at the end and I all in all enjoyed it.

This one was interesting! I loved how you could choose which character to start with - reminded me of those "choose your own adventure" books that were big in the 90s! Either way, this story follows Syl and Viola who were seemingly BFFs until Syl is found dead in the driver's seat of Viola's car with Viola nowhere to be found.

I really liked the premise, but I had trouble with the character development. Syl and Viola felt both too underdeveloped but also unrealistically detailed? Like I'm still not totally sure what exactly happened with the car crash and why they had a falling out because their personalities read very surface level, but then Paul used such complex word choices that, as a teacher myself, I never hear teens using. I know the entire purpose was to have unreliable narrators, but neither friend was developed enough to leave me wanting more. The writing felt vague and overly formal for YA.

I can see some younger readers liking this one, but overall, it wasn't for me. Thank you for the ARC!

Dead Girls Don’t Talk really caught my attention. I really thought it was a cool book and being able to pick which story to start first. Unfortunately, I feel like both stories were too similar.

It was the concept of this book that really appealed to me, getting both sides of the story from two potentially untrustworthy people. That was definitely cool, but it was really the main redeeming factor.
The twists were either super obvious or so out of nowhere you literally could not have predicted them, and I think what bothered me most was how the characters talk. Even though they’re 15-17 they talk closer to 30 year old who have had a lot of therapy and it’s just kinda weird.

Dark, twisted and an expected story about a dead girl and a runaway. Written in both point of views, and you choose which story to read first.
Who’s telling the truth? Who’s not?

It start as medium paced, then gets faster that you will not be able to out it down until you find out the truth.

Definitely recommended to anyone who wants to read a thriller but with a different twist, and especially to Pretty Little Lairs fans.

Thank you NetGalley & Skyscape for this arc copy!

Dead Girls Don’t Talk will be out on July 29, 2025.

this was so bad i don’t even know where to start.

i’ll be nice first: the concept and idea of Dead Girls Don’t Talk is good, like a book with two POVs of the same happenings sounds super interesting, a story where the villain depends on who tells the story and that tackles themes like revenge or morality or something, but the execution just is not there. there was potential but it got absolutely massacred by the stupidness of everything.
this book wasn’t bad in a Twilight kind of way, it was bad in a “someone get this lady an editor PLEASE” way
the best way i can explain this kind of writing is: it’s as if the author wrote the whole thing in Dutch, then copy-pasted everything in google translate, and it got published with 0 editorial revisions. i’m not judging because i know how hard it is to write in a language that isn’t your native one, but for god’s sake get an editor. the amount of grammatical mistakes and repetitiveness in the prose was enough to make me want to throw a dictionary and thesaurus at whoever thought “hm, yes, this makes total sense”. words are used wrongly and the only reason i understood them in the context was because i speak Dutch and could guess the author’s thought-process, but otherwise a “discussion” is not a synonym for a heated argument. a discussion is something you have with your boss or teacher in a normal manner. that’s what happens with words literally translated from Dutch to English: they usually don’t have the same meaning.
aside from that, the sentences were choppy and static, and oh my god don’t even get me started on the dialogue. these are supposed to be American teenagers but the whole time i was just screaming “NO ONE TALKS LIKE THISSS” because no one does!! i have never met a teenager that used the words “reverie” or “circumvent” unironically. and this could’ve been overlooked if that was the point, like a creative choice or whatever, but these kind of words are just thrown in there with no rhyme or reason among the other repetitive words that I just thought “yeah, she google translated this”. among other things, like i think it would have been better if the author wrote and published everything in Dutch and got a translator to help so the book can be enjoyable in English, instead of a frankly good sounding story being brought down by the bad grammar and structure. but again, just get an editor.
the story and characters. everyone and everything is so boring. for a YA, i found it awfully hard to relate to any of the characters. mainly because they literally had no depth. their personalities are their flaws only. and it’s told that Viola and Syl were besties but then not anymore or whatever, but we don’t get any proof of that. dynamics between characters should be shown, not told. especially not repetitively, every two pages, as if the reader has short-term memory loss. the characters feel unreal and almost silly. and the lack of side characters?? Viola and Syl are supposed to be teenagers going to school, but their worlds seem to be nothing other than family. and again, this wasn’t the point. “Viola sits with her friends” who are these friends? what are their names? sure, they might not be important but it gives a sense of realism for this teenage main character to know her friends’ names at least. and they can give the reader insight on how the MC is. is she nice to her friends? which ones does she not like? why? literally basic questions a writer should have figured out at the beginning. these are supposed to be actual people but they just felt like accessories to the main plot which is one of the worst things an author can do.
i physically could not care about the story. the only thing i liked was Syl being a ghost and maybe Annie, but again, she has no personality so i don’t think the bar is very high. i thought i was being mean because of the writing, but the more i read, the more i realized it’s not just the writing. it’s the tacky dialogue, the flat characters, the Belgian-ness in a supposedly American story, the non-existent dynamics, the constant “tell” instead of show and tell. it’s just so ugh.
also FYI no one in America uses WhatsApp other than immigrant families, so not white teenagers in a rich suburban christian conservative town.

final thoughts: the potential was there, the execution massacred it

1.25⭐️

The premise for this book was intriguing but when I first started reading I was a little bored. It felt a little like a story I’ve read so many times. But after a few chapters it started picking up and I got into it. I loved that it told Syl and Violas stories in two separate parts. I loved that both characters were unreliable narrators and the fact that you kind of had to figure out what was the truth within each story. I feel like the book showed the reality that we all have a different version of the same story because we all experience things in our own way. The ending really tied it all together! I was shocked at what actually happened in that car but it all made sense! Overall this book was really good and I’d highly recommend it!!

Soooo I liked the concept of this but it just didn’t seem to work. No earth shattering revelations, more like an old “choose your own adventure.” It was hard for me to stick with it.

I really appreciated the unique structure of this book where I got to decide what perspective to start with. I haven’t necessarily seen this done before, along the lines of a “Choose Your Own Adventure”. Overall, the book was fast-paced and witty. I’m not always a big fan of a dead person narrating post-mortem, but it was done well.

I really loved the concept of dual pov. However it didnt really vary much and there wasnt any big twists. For a thriller it was ver predictable.

The synopsis of this book pulled me in. It is an interesting concept based on dual points of view. I felt, though, that it wasn't executed very well. The writing just wasn't for me. It seemed a bit predictable and just ok.

3!

the concept of this book is so unique and fun. I really enjoyed getting to explore both of the POVs in a "flip-over" manner. i do wish that each girl's version was a bit different in a way to figure out what the "truth" was because it did get a little repetitive. i also found that i guessed a bunch of the mini-twists, and the main reveal wasn't super shocking.

however, this was a super fun and quick read! gave lots of drama and pretty little liars vibes.

thank you NetGalley & Skyscape for this arc!

This book was totally different and interesting. You have both girls points of view and get to pick whose story to read first. You finally get to the truth at the end but there are twists along the way. The characters were different enough and the story was quick. A 3.5 read.

Pretty Little Liar meets Tell Me Lies! The Dual flipover stories and choosing which one to read first was so fun! So many twists & turns, I felt like a detective trying to figure out who was telling the truth! Some of the timelines didn't match up, but I feel this was intentional from the Author to throw the reader off! All in all, a really enjoyable read, with a twisting ending and a plit that will keep you on your toes!

I quite liked this book as I loved the choice of who's story to read first and meant that you would get different bits of information from each of the girls. The storyline was good and was gripping but it felt a bit repetitive once you had read one of the girls story so would have liked it if the story's were slightly different to each other so that you get completely different opinions from each of the stories. I also felt the ending was quite rushed compared to the rest of the book. Overall I enjoyed the book and would read another of the authors books!!

The novel revolves around two best friend each with their issues and how these issues affected their friendship and lives.

Lots of twists as each point of view contradicts each other take on the matter. The relationship is toxic, manipulative and crazy.

The suspense at the end had me wondering who really was the villain. I'm still wondering because the characters story were very well brought out.

I enjoyed the novel and I would recommend it.