The Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars**
When Heather Cole receives a necklace in the mail, with one half of a ‘Best Friends’ pendant on it, she can’t believe it. She knows this necklace because it was on the neck of her best friend the night she died. It went with her to her grave.
Or did it?
She panics. What could this mean? She is the only one who knows what happened to Becca that night nearly 30-years ago.
She has to figure out who mailed her this and stop them before they reveal the truth!
Alternating between ‘Then’ and ‘Now’ perspectives, the reader slowly learns Becca’s fate. Following the girls 12-year old perspectives, as they hang out discussing all things macabre was the most interesting part of the story for me.
Becca was obsessed with a story of a woman called The Red Lady, think Bloody Mary, and would not stop talking about her.
She regales their friend group with stories about The Red Lady, a woman killed for being a witch, seeking her revenge. Her storytelling is so vivid the girls begin to believe it.
Is she real?
The ‘Now’ perspective follows grown-up Heather, a child psychologist, as she tries to piece together who knows about her and Becca.
This part of the story was not as enjoyable for me. Personally, I found adult Heather annoying AF and I could not understand the decisions she was making.
Her thought process and decisions were more like she was still 12-years old than an actual functioning adult.
Because of my disconnect from the ‘Now’ portions, the overall story felt uneven. I would rush through ‘Now’ in order to get back to ‘Then’. Unfortunately, due to this, it took me a bit longer to get through this than it would the average Thriller.
The premise was very interesting but the execution fell a little short. Also, for me, I was disappointed with one of the big reveals and felt that some of the narrative didn’t fully back up that reveal. I know this sounds cryptic but I don’t want to risk giving anything away.
This being said, there are definitely a lot of interesting aspects to this story and I think the writing shows a lot of promise. I would pick up more work from this author.
Thank you so much to the publisher, Crooked Lane Books, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review. I always appreciate the opportunity to provide my opinion and I know a lot of readers will really enjoy this one!