Bad Girls Don’t Die by Katie Alender

Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alender

(#2 From Bad to Cursed, #3 As Dead as it Gets due out 5/15/2012)

YA Thriller/ghost story

Rating: 3.5/5

Spoiler Alert: No


 
Official summary from series' website: "When Alexis's little sister Kasey becomes obsessed with an antique doll, Alexis thinks nothing of it. Kasey is a weird kid. Period. Alexis is considered weird, too, by the kids in her high school, by her parents, even by her own Goth friends. Things get weirder, though, when the old house they live in starts changing. Doors open and close by themselves; water boils on the unlit stove; and an unplugged air conditioner turns the house cold enough to see their breath in. Kasey is changing, too. Her blue eyes go green and she speaks in old-fashioned language, then forgets chunks of time.

"Most disturbing of all is the dangerous new chip on Kasey's shoulder. The formerly gentle, doll-loving child is gone, and the new Kasey is angry. Alexis is the only one who can stop her sister — but what if that green-eyed girl isn't even Kasey anymore?"

Ha! Finally, one of the books that I marked as I read! Here we go.

I love scary things. It's fun every once in a while to jump and scream. The summary on the book and the cover made me think that I might get a little bit of the heebie-jeepies from this book. But it's so hard to find a book (especially YA) that will really scare me (I'm still on the search. If you know of any, put it in the comments). Bad Girls Don't Die didn't scare me – not even a chill—but it was well-written and told. I think some of the issues for me was that the story and the "haunting's" were a bit cliché.

High school-y enough without being overdone This, I especially appreciated. It's so easy for a YA book with a high school setting to be to cliquey and cliché and horrible. But Alender steered clear of that, and it was nice

Good dialogue fast, witty, natural and smooth. Loved the bantering between Carter and Alexis, it gave us entertainment and told us more about who they were.

Nice metaphors "The oak tree in the front yard adds to the effect. It's enormous and gnarled; it hangs over the house like an overprotective boyfriend."

Good characterizations I kept reading Kasey (the 13-year-old little sister) and saying, "Oh. My.Gosh. I sincerely hope I wasn't like that when I was 13". Great job reminding the reader how at that age, everything is life or death. Alender gives the MC, Alexis, a great spunky personality that entertained me on every page

Humor up the wazoo

This book isn't a literary masterpiece, it doesn't have a profound theme; it's strictly for entertainment value. I found myself getting further and further along in the story with little to no effort on my part, the story moved itself along, until I finally realized I was turning the last page. Katie moves the story along really well with her humor, metaphors, and clever dialogue, not once did I ever get bored reading this.

Then I got to the end of the book (page 259, to be precise) and got a little peeved at her. Where the heck did this come from? The revelation that she gives the reader feels so far out of the blue, it's unbelievable. If there had been some foreshadowing earlier in the book, this part would have been easier to swallow. As it is, it feels a little like Deux e Machina (or whatever that is). The ending was sweet…a little too sweet…but I got over it. Anyway, the goal was met, I want to read the second one.