The Dead Girls Club: A Novel
The Dead Girls Club: A Novel book cover

The Dead Girls Club: A Novel

Hardcover – December 10, 2019

by
Price
$18.31
Format
Hardcover
Pages
288
Publisher
Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1643851631
Dimensions
6.35 x 1.06 x 9.53 inches
Weight
14.4 ounces

Description

Praise for The Dead Girls Club : "With The Dead Girls Club , Damien Angelica Walters gives usxa0a disturbing, compelling, twisty, feminist, coming-of-age/horror hybrid that feeds off our obsessions and anxieties.xa0The Red Lady abides." —Paul Tremblay, bestselling author of A Head Full of Ghosts "Walters offers a rich and complex picture of childhood and the traumas found within it." — Cultured Vultures "Especially appealing to readers who grew up with R.L. Stine's Fear Street series, Walters' first novel will find fans among a wide range of horror readers." — Booklist "Axa0modern tale destined to pull thriller lovers through cold winter nights." — Pittsburgh-Post Gazette "Ghosts, literal or not, haunt the core of this novel...Walters ramps up the tension and thrills (and twists) as the novel careens towards its conclusion." — The Nerd Daily “[Damien’s] writing talent and horror roots are on display...A solid debut mystery.” — Mystery Scene Magazine "Psychological and disturbing...In the frightening world of The Dead Girls Club , women's lives are shaped by violence, but there may be a haunting way out." — Foreword Reviews "[A] twisty supernatural thriller." — Kirkus Reviews "One of the most finely crafted works of the century so far...The author has a way with words that is inescapable and utterly unforgettable, deviously soothing and darkly ominous." — Horror DNA “This supernatural thriller will have readers crawling under the covers...All the creepy crawly feelings of a ghost story complete with goosebumps and one-eye-shut moments.” — Manhattan Book Review "Damien Angelica Walters once again proves why she's a major voice in the horror and thriller genres...Put this on your reading list now, as it's sure to be among the top books of 2019." —Gwendolyn Kiste, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens “Unsettling...If you like twists, it will keep you guessing to the very last page.” —Alma Katsu, author of The Hunger "Feeding on classic coming-of-age horror themes... The Dead Girls Club becomes a stifling portrait of the adolescent trauma that hides behind suburban veneers, tracing the haunting ripples of guilt that never fade." —Louis Greenberg, half of S.L. Grey, author-duo of The Apartment " The Dead Girls Club effortlessly combines [Damien's] artistic, literary flair with a supernatural story that’s equally familiar and unexpected." — Grit Daily Praise for Damien Angelica Walters: "Eloquent prose." — Publishers Weekly , starred review for Cry Your Way Home "A writer who only seems to get better and better." —This is Horror "If you have not yet heard of Damien Angelica Walters then you are missing out." — Signal Horizon "The queen of deft, delightfully flowing, yet quietly unobtrusive words, and the wielder of one hell of a wicked blade aimed right at your weak spots." — Cemetery Dance "Walters is impressive." —Laird Barron, author of The Croning and The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All "Damien Angelica Walters writes prose as sharp as a scalpel. With surgical precision, she slices through her characters' veneers to lay bare the secret scars underneath, the knots of fear and desire twisting them...Walters is a writer to watch." —John Langan, author of The Wide, Carnivorous Sky and Other Monstrous Geographies "Walters' prose is vivid and gripping, luring you in, feeding you images that will leave you comforted by the light of your bedside nightstand." —Rebecca Jones-Howe, author of Vile Men Damien Angelica Walters is the author of Cry Your Way Home, Paper Tigers , and Sing Me Your Scars , winner of This is Horror's 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 . She lives in Maryland with her husband and two rescued pit bulls.

Features & Highlights

  • One of
  • Refinery29
  • 's and
  • POPSUGAR
  • 's Favorite New Books
  • A scary story becomes far too real in this “unsettling” supernatural thriller in the vein of
  • A Head Full of Ghosts
  • that “will keep you guessing to the very last page” (Alma Katsu, author of
  • The Hunger
  • )
  • 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.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(162)
★★★★
20%
(108)
★★★
15%
(81)
★★
7%
(38)
★
28%
(151)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Red Lady, Red Lady, Show us your face!

The Dead Girls Club takes place at a abandoned home, with four teenage girls telling each other ghost stories, serial killer stories, and dead girl stories. “Red Lady, Red Lady, Show us your face!” .

The storyline has a few twist with thrilling turns. It truly is about a beautiful friendship between two young girls. One of them Heather, who comes from a stable home and the other Becca, who is being abuse in a broken home. I empathized with both girls. Becca was troubled and Heather had a genuine desire to save her friend. I was also reminded of when my kid friends and I repeat "Bloody Mary" in front of a restroom mirror. The story lacked to build an ambiance of tension (in my opinion) and I did not like the ending. However, I would recommend the book, because I do like how the author is descriptive with feelings, thoughts, and experiences of the characters.
3 people found this helpful
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Wannabe Supernatural Story

Is it true that people become psychologists or psychiatrists because they have so many of their own personal problems? That seems to be the case with Heather, a child psychologist who is at the center of our story.

The Dead Girls Club is billed as a supernatural thriller yet I did not find that to be the case. The more apt description, in my opinion, is it is a wannabe supernatural story but never gets there plus it's hardly thrilling. I had to force myself to get through the second half of the book. In fact, because it’s considered a supernatural thriller, I expected The Dead Girls Club to be a fast read that I wouldn’t be able to put down. I was wrong. Finally, while the ending caught me by surprise, it seemed anti-climactic.

The story is alternately told in ”Then” and ”Now” chapters with ”Then” being when our main character Heather is 12 and ”Now” is when she is 40-ish. For me, the ”Then” chapters were more compelling and interesting -- we learn about the Red Lady, an urban legend about a witch who was killed centuries ago. These stories were the most appealing element for me as was the buddy relationship between young Heather and Becca, the Red Lady storyteller.

The ”Now” chapters were somewhat boring and didn't hold my attention as well. There seemed to be some redundancy and aspects came across as contrived. Her husband and two other childhood friends were never fully developed and didn’t play much of a role — it felt like the husband in particular was an afterthought. These chapters show that Heather is spiraling out of control, becoming increasingly paranoid. She isn't exactly a likable or sympathetic character and that contributed to my being unengaged with the story.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion.
3 people found this helpful
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A powerful and gripping story

If you like stories where macabre meets misdirection, by all means read “The Dead Girls Club” by Damien Angelica Walters. Since a very adequate plot summary is provided, I won’t go into it, but will give my own personal reaction to this eerie and convoluted narrative.

In general stories which hinge on prevarication and lack of communication annoy me greatly, and if this one hadn’t been so masterfully crafted, I would simply have said I believed the main characters should have been roundly chastised for their duplicity long before things came to such a severe crisis. And I would have put this book aside and given it a low rating. However, the way Walters developed the psychological nuances of the situation, using alternating “then” and “now” chapters and delineating her protagonist’s decompensation and unraveling, was intriguing enough to keep me engaged. In addition, this author presents an extremely telling analysis of the way in which young children in difficult circumstances are in fact capable of creating alternate realities for themselves, which can indeed verge towards the gruesome and horrific. Although this novel perhaps should carry a trigger warning for some readers, it is a powerful and gripping story.
3 people found this helpful
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Ehh

It’s been a couple of weeks since I finished this book. I wish I could say that the story stuck with me but as more time passes the less I remember. That’s not to say I didn’t like it while I was reading it. There were some section that I did like. The book as a whole was just not very memorable. I had to skim a few other reviews to refresh my thoughts. I will say what I liked about this book is that we get a dual timeline. We follow the main character as an adult as well as when she is 12. I thought the book started off strong but quickly fizzled our for me. This was due to main character. She started to grate on my nerves with her repetitive whining and dumb decisions. I really liked the perspective from her and her group of friends at 12. I felt this timeline was more believable. So this didn’t totally work for me but it was entertaining at the time.
2 people found this helpful
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brilliant and surprising

I'm a huge Damien Angelica Walters fan, so this was one of my Most Anticipated Reads of 2019. And I was not disappointed. I will admit I felt it was a slightly slow start, but Walters really sticks the landing. I also like books that alternate chapters between past and present to build tension, and Walters paces both pieces so that they come together perfectly at the end. Highly Highly recommended for folks who love the classic "Bloody Mary" or "Slenderman" type of trope and want to read a neat twist on it.
2 people found this helpful
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definitely spooky

i really enjoyed this! i haven't read a horror/thriller in ages so i can't really speak *too* knowledgeably, but the writing was clean and compelling and DEF spooky. reading it alone in a hotel was a bad choice. there were a few things i found jarring but that could be attributed to just different childhood/teen conversations. the bulk of the book is great for folks who love a good horror story!
1 people found this helpful
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A Dark Tale of Friendship and Secrets

Walters has penned an interesting psychological thriller with lots of twists and turns. Excellent pacing and character development. The main character, Heather, is a child psychologist, who has a successful career, a stable marriage, a well-ordered life and a disturbing childhood secret. Everything runs smoothly until odd events occur that threaten her carefully-constructed facade. Walters does a great job creating the slow-building dread and ratcheting suspense, as Heather begins to unravel when her past and present collide. Childhood flashbacks expertly capture the intensity of best friendships, long summer days and dark deeds tangled in fantasy. A good read that explores the complicated boundaries of friendship and the corrosive power of secrets.
1 people found this helpful
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This should be marketed as a YA suspense novel, not in the horror genre

This should be marketed as a YA suspense novel, not in the horror genre.
I was disappointed because I was expecting an eerie, supernatural horror story and it was not. It started out suspensefully, then I grew not to trust the protagonist, she was hiding things from everyone, including herself, making one bad, impulsive decision after the other. I found it unbelievable that she actually had the kind of career she did, with her emotional baggage. Also, she never seemed to mature from her experience.
I found that by the middle of the book, I didn't care why anything happened and just read to finish it.
Oh also, the author's name, Damien Angelica - really? That would appeal to the YA audience, I suppose.
1 people found this helpful
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Not horror

I kept waiting for the horror but this is a mystery in my book. Are some twists but just not it for me
1 people found this helpful
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Good story

(3.5)
This story takes place over two different time periods. It takes place in 1991 and in the current time period. Back in 1991, a group of four girls had club called the dead girls club where they talked about serial killers and murderers. Within this club the girls had best friends, they paired off and Heather was best friends with a girl named Becca. Becca had some favorite stories that she liked to tell and the subject of her stories was the Red Lady.
Fast forward to the present, Becca is dead and has been since 1991. Her mother is in jail for murdering her however, Heather, who is now married and has a nice job working with children, knows who really murdered Becca and it wasn't her mother. It as her.
That's about all I'm telling you and that's all on the back of the book, at the top, and in the first chapter or two. This is a thriller so you really have to go in knowing very little to enjoy it fully. It's written well and the story has an interesting back and forth going on. I just found myself drifting as I was reading it. The past was very interesting, trying to figure out what was going on and how one thing was going to lead to the inevitable. The "now" though was disjointed at times. Heather was a stranger character to follow. Her behaviors were very odd and you could understand them to a degree but only to a degree. I can't go into it too much but I hope if you read it you will understand what I mean, even if you completely disagree!
All that said, this is still a good book. It's well written, keeps you wanting more (especially in the past and about the Red Lady), and leaves you wanting to see what the author gets up to next. So, it certainly made for a good reading time!
1 people found this helpful

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