Book Review – The Dead Girls Club

After loving Little Darlings by Melanie Golding, I was pumped to receive an email from Crooked Lane Books inviting me to take part in the Blog Tour for The Dead Girls Club. The Dead Girls Club was the perfectly creepy and compelling book for Spookathon.

About The Book 📚

Title: The Dead Girls Club

Author: Damien Angelica Walters

Publication Date: December 10, 2019

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

Genre: Supernatural Thriller, Horror

Author Website https://damienangelicawalters.com/

Synopsis

A supernatural thriller in the vein of A Head Full of Ghosts about two young girls, a scary story that becomes far too real, and the tragic–and terrifying–consequences that follow one of them into adulthood.

Red Lady, Red Lady, show us your face…

In 1991, Heather Cole and her friends were members of the Dead Girls Club. Obsessed with the macabre, the girls exchanged stories about serial killers and imaginary monsters, like the Red Lady, the spirit of a vengeful witch killed centuries before. Heather knew the stories were just that, until her best friend Becca began insisting the Red Lady was real–and she could prove it.

That belief got Becca killed.

It’s been nearly thirty years, but Heather has never told anyone what really happened that night–that Becca was right and the Red Lady was real. She’s done her best to put that fateful summer, Becca, and the Red Lady, behind her. Until a familiar necklace arrives in the mail, a necklace Heather hasn’t seen since the night Becca died.

The night Heather killed her.

Now, someone else knows what she did…and they’re determined to make Heather pay.

My Review

› Heather, Becca, Rachel and Gia were the The Dead Girls Club – a book club where they talked about true crime, serial killers, and supernatural scary stories. One night, Becca tells them the story of The Red Lady, a woman who was accused of being a witch and buried alive. Becca claims The Red Lady is real, and promises to prove it.

Almost thirty years later, Heather is a Child psychologist. She’s married with a good life…until – the other half of a “Best Friends Forever” charm she once shared with Becca mysteriously arrives at her office in an envelope. Becca was killed during the summer after seventh grade. Heather claims The Red Lady made her do it. Afraid that someone knows what she did, Heather tracks down Becca’s mom, and the other members of The Dead Girls Club to try and figure out who knows the truth.

“You never knew who was secretly a monster.”

• Told in first-person and two timelines, The Dead Girls Club seamlessly switches from 1991 to the present. I LOVE the writing style.
• Heather is a slightly-unreliable narrator and I’m so here for it. Sometimes I hated her, sometimes I cried for her…I felt every emotion possible. Her and Becca are the lead characters and jump off the page, however, the secondary characters did feel a little cookie-cutter.
• The juxtaposition between Heather’s advice to her clients and what she does is fantastic and a clear indication that she hasn’t dealt with her own childhood trauma.
• The pacing and plot are well-done, yet the ending felt a little rushed to me.

› Triggers
• self-harm, parental abuse, neglect, murder, anxiety, alcoholism

› Final Thoughts
• With a sinister atmosphere, The Dead Girls Club, is a supernatural page-turner about obsessions, secrets, friendship, mother-daughter relationships, loyalty and betrayal. If you liked Girl on the Train, Her Pretty Face, or Little Darlings, then I think you’ll like The Dead Girls Club. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️