Review: Bad Girls Don’t Die by Katie Alender

Title: Bad Girls Dont Die (Bad Girls Don’t Die #1)
Author: Katie Alender
Published: 21st April 2009
Rating: 2.5/5 stars

Summary: When Alexis’s little sister, Kasey, becomes obsessed with an antique doll, Alexis thinks nothing of it. But things get weirder when the old house they live in starts changing. Doors close by themselves, water boils on the unlit stove, and an unplugged air conditioner turns the house so cold the girls can see their breath. Kasey is changing too. Her blue eyes go green, and she uses old fashioned language, then forgets chunks of time. Most disturbing is that Kasey, 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 the green eyed girl isn’t even Kasey anymore?

 

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Review:

I read this book as part of the Halloween read-a-thon challenge. I don’t usually read scary books because I get frightened very very easily. However, I wasn’t scared by this book in the slightest. It had some creepy moments but the direction this novel took was so predictable that any suspense disappeared.

This story focuses on Alexis, a social outcast, who begins noticing some strange changes in the behaviour of her younger sister, Kasey. Kasey’s obsession with weird dolls and the family living in an old, creepy house gives you an idea of just where this story is headed. Even for someone like me, who usually steers away from the horror genre, I had a good idea on what was going to happen right from the start.

Alexis is a a misfit, a promoter of social justice and sometimes she was annoying to read about. With a rivalry against the school cheerleaders and none of the teachers on her side, she didn’t standout against other female protagonists I’ve read about over the years. Kasey was a more interesting to read about, she began as a ordinary, nice but immature sister. As the book progressed, she became unpredictable and I found myself trying to guess

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“My problem is that I don’t even fit in with the misfits. I don’t fit anywhere.”

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The side characters added a bit more depth to this story. Even though there was a lot of typical high school drama going on, there were some friendships that emerged later in the book which I enjoyed.

This book was fairly slow moving. The end felt very rushed and as a result it lacked any impact. After finishing this book I was left thinking that’s it? However, I did like how the author mixed the character’s everyday issues in with the supernatural element of this book. This lead to a couple lighthearted moments to break up the strange events, which I appreciated.

Luckily, this book is a short book. Despite the lack of action in the first half, it’s still a quick read which is a plus for me. I was expecting to at least find this book intriguing as I’ve read so many amazing, positive reviews for it. Yet, it didn’t live up to my expectations. It was full of cliches and nothing surprised me. I don’t know if I missed something but this book was a disappointment.