Review: The Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters

Title: The Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery
Length: 282 pages
Book Rating: C

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

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.

Review:

The Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters is an intriguing mystery with supernatural overtones.

Fascinated by serial killers and urban myths, twelve year old Heather Cole,  her best friend Becca Thomas and friends Gia and Rachel form the Dead Girls club. Becca regales her friends with disturbing stories about the Red Lady. The three girls are soon weary of Becca’s obsession with the Red Lady and their friendship grows strained. Before long, Rachel and Gia are no longer friends with Becca and Heather.  By summer’s end, Becca is dead and although her body is never found, her mother is convicted of her murder. Heather knows more about what happened to Becca than she is saying, but she soon puts what happened to her best friend behind her.

In the present, Heather Cole is a child psychologist and she and her husband Ryan are quite happy. Her uneventful life is suddenly interrupted when her long ago past collides with her present.  After receiving a package in the mail that brings up memories she would rather forget, Heather is desperate to find out who sent it to her and more importantly, why.   Frantic with worry, she makes one disastrous decision after another that affects her career, her marriage and friendships. Will Heather unearth the truth about who is behind the increasingly upsetting events that are occurring?

Heather is very secretive about her past and this does not change as she tries to figure out who is behind what is happening to her. She is distracted at work as she continuously plots her next moves in  her search for answers. Heather is short with Ryan and as events spiral out of control, she grows suspicious of everyone around her. As the situation careens to an explosive and shocking confrontation, Heather has alienated everyone around her. Will she  emerge from a shocking showdown unscathed? And can Heather salvage her career and relationships once the dust has settled?

Alternating between the past and present, The Dead Girls Club is an interesting mystery with a clever storyline. Unfortunately the pacing is slow and Heather is an unlikable protagonist. Her decisions are over the top and unbelievable.  Becca’s stories about the Red Lady are initially absorbing, but they soon become rather repetitious. With stunning plot twists, Damien Angelica Walters brings the novel to an action-filled, satisfying conclusion.

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