Dead Girls Tell No Tales by Carissa Ann Lynch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars rounded up**
Dead Girls Tell No Tales follows a downtrodden Fantasy author, Adriana McMahon, who after some life issues, moves back in with her Mom in her small Indiana hometown.
Adriana, struggling with writer’s block, is running out of money quick. At this point, she’s worried her publisher is going to show up, demanding her advance back. It’s dire times at the McMahon house.
Desperate to make ends meet, Adriana gets a job at a local shop. It’s there that she meets 17-year old, Rebel James, a high school girl with a love of creative writing.
Rebel is noticeably an outcast amongst her peers. She’s in need of a friend, or any sort of adult figure in her life, frankly. When she approaches Adriana about helping her with a writing project, Adriana’s hesitant, but she also sees glimmers of herself in Rebel, and does want to help.
She ends accepting Rebel’s request, and becomes a bit of a mentor to the teen. When Rebel suddenly disappears, and bodies of dead girls begin being found in the local area, Adriana becomes desperate to find out if her friend is okay, something no one else seems to understand.
Making matters more upsetting, it seems the murders are mirroring some of Rebel’s stories. Was Rebel trying to tell Adriana something through her writing?
Additionally, it all seems oddly-connected to Adriana’s own past, stirring up buried memories of her best friend she lost years before. The entire affair puts Adriana in a tailspin, making her logic and reasoning hard for others to follow.
Her Mom thinks she’s lost it, as do the local authorities, who are watching her closely because of her arguably erratic behavior. But Adriana knows something dark is going on in this town, and she’s gonna get to the bottom of it come hell or high water.
Dead Girls Tell No Tales is a true Popcorn Thriller. I could totally imagine this playing out as a Lifetime movie, and I don’t mean that in a bad way.
It kept me invested the whole way through. It did take me a few minutes to get used to Adriana’s narrative voice. She’s a quirky one, but after I just accepted the fact it is who she is, I started to really enjoy it.
I think part of it is related to the personal tragedies she suffered as teen. I feel like she got sort of stunted in that part of her growth, so at times, you think, how old is this woman? But honestly, in relation to everything going on, it does make sense.
I wouldn’t say there’s anything ground-breaking about the plot, but it was still entertaining and a fun weekend read. Sometimes, that’s all you need.
I think The Bachelorette Party is still my favorite from this author, but this would be a close second. It reminded me a lot of Whispers of Dead Girls by Marlee Bush, and I did enjoy this one more.
I would recommend this to Readers of Popcorn Thrillers. If you’re looking for something quick and suspenseful, that won’t require you to burn down all your brain power during the reading process, this could be the book for you.
Thank you to the publisher, Thomas & Mercer, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I had a great time.