Damien Angelica Walters | THE DEAD GIRLS CLUB

Plot (via Goodreads):

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.

Review:

The Dead Girls Club is just the type of read I was looking for after focusing my attention on so many police procedural crime fiction novels. It is a sinister and complex tale with elements of the supernatural and shrouded in a coming-of-age story-line that left me creeped out and nostalgic.

I loved the story-line to this one and it kind of reminded me of The Craft meets Now and Then with some elements of Are You Afraid of The Dark? thrown in for some extra spookiness. This one also features a dual timeline, so you get to see these girls as hormonal and at times over-dramatic teenagers to adults who may or may not have one too many skeletons in their closet. I will say, I felt like the teenager versions of the characters were much stronger and brought more to the story as the adult versions were kind of there to assist in telling the story. While I enjoyed both, the teenager versions just seemed so much livelier for me. I liked how the story-line progressed and kind of eased into the spooky and supernatural aspect of this story without being too over-the-top or gory. There were definitely some very eerie moments that creeped me out and I was happily surprised that the supernatural element wasn't too strong or necessarily unbelievable.

This tale was really intricate and well-told with some very creepy scenes and a great cast of characters to spend your day with. The pacing was great, the nostalgia and pop culture references were perfect, and the big reveal in the end was a forehead slap inducing "duh" moment for me where I was both shocked at the revelation and also wondering why I didn't think of that as I was reading. This was definitely a fun and enjoyable read with some great elements woven in throughout the story and the detail in Walters writing was spectacular. If you're looking for some spookiness or something that is really unique, this is definitely a story you may want to check out.

Special thanks to Crooked Lane Books for this copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 4/5