BR: Bad Girls Don't Die, Katie Alender

Bad Girls Don't Die

Katie Alender

A new favorite!

What You Need To Know: Alexis doesn’t have many friends at school, considering her mildly bad attitude, so she has a good relationship with her younger sister, Kasey. They live with their unassertive parents in a creepy old house that, unbeknownst to them, has a long history. A hundred years ago, some psychopath ten-year-old girl was tormented by the girls in town and was accidentally killed. Now, that girl’s ghost is haunting them and possessing Alexis’s little sister, and she’s out to get all the ancestors of the girls that tormented her so many years ago. Alexis finds help in odd places-- the head cheerleader at school she suddenly has so much in common with, and the ASB vice president she accidentally helped get elected-- and as she helps her little sister and her new friends, she figures out that she doesn’t have to pretend to be someone she’s not, and that not everyone is really pretending either.

The cover has an uber-creepiness factor that didn’t completely play out in the book, which kind of disappointed me. I mean, I liked the book a lot. It just wasn’t the exact same book the picture on the front advertised. But then again, that tends to happen a lot. I guess I really shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover… but sometimes it works. Ish.

But the voice was strong, the characters were interesting, and the creepiness with Kasey vs. Sarah (who is using the body at the moment?) was pretty easy to follow. The story wasn’t ridiculously complex, but did have quite a few elements to it. Overall, I enjoyed it. Wasn’t a scare-the-pants-off-of-you scary, but was a good ghost story. And the writing style was very enjoyable- Alexis was a fun character to follow, and she wasn’t stupid or weak like a lot of our heroines are these days.

Katie Alender: props for a strong, interesting heroine.