The Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters Published by Penguin on December 10th 2019
Genres: Horror, Thriller
Format: eARC
Source: ARC
Purchase @ AMAZON
Add to GoodreadsRating
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.
#TheDeadGirlsClub #comingsoon
Angie’s Thoughts:
This book was nothing like I expected. I agree with others that said a lot was given away in the description of the book. That didn’t stop me from liking it.
Heather is a very unreliable character. She’s locked so many bad things away that it makes the story feel jumpy. How can we trust anything she says if she can’t trust herself? This is good news for me though because I love unreliable characters. I love the feeling of suspense and dread about what I’ll read next. I love being wrong on something I thought for sure was going to happen. In the same breath I hate them too. Sometimes it’s a struggle to relate to the characters. Sometimes it gets so frustrating that you start to skim read. I had all these emotions but the strongest one was content.
I honestly don’t know how anyone could be friends with Becca. She’s bossy, mean and controlling. She’s Heather’s bff and we read what happened Then and Now. What happened to Becca? That is the mystery that needs to be sold. Was it the Red Witch or something more sinister?
Overall The Dead Girls Club was an enjoyable read. While frustrated at times, it held my interest until the last page. I will definitely read this author again.
The Verdict:
About Damien Angelica Walters
Damien Angelica Walters is the author of The Dead Girls Club, forthcoming in December 2019, Cry Your Way Home, Paper Tigers, and Sing Me Your Scars, winner of the 2015 This is Horror Award for Short Story Collection of the Year. Her short fiction has been nominated twice for a Bram Stoker Award, reprinted in The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror and The Year’s Best Weird Fiction, and published in various anthologies and magazines, including the Shirley Jackson Award Finalists Autumn Cthulhu and The Madness of Dr. Caligari, World Fantasy Award Finalist Cassilda’s Song, Nightmare Magazine, Black Static, and Apex Magazine. Until the magazine’s closing in 2013, she was an Associate Editor of the Hugo Award-winning Electric Velocipede, and she lives in Maryland with her husband and two rescued pit bulls.
