Bad Girls Don't Die (Bad Girls Don't Die #1) http://www.yabookscentral.com/media/reviews/photos/thumbnail/200x285s/b8/43/b3/7810_3678651-1349979110.jpg

Going into it, I really didn't expect the book to be too good. Boy was I wrong. I loved how creepy this book was! It left me wondering if maybe my sibling would become obsessed with dolls and turn into a possessed monster. This book really brought the creepy factor without being gory or too horror-y. And come on, Alexis' sister was just plain scary. I must admit I read it because it was a ghost story, I am a sucker for them.

There were some things that bothered me, how come Alexis' parents didn't realize something strange was happening to their youngest daughter? If I was a parent I think I would notice something like that right away. Also the dialogue was awkward, it just didn't seem as realistic as it could have been. But it was short and the author kept it simple so that was what saved it for me.

Overall, I did like this story, it was a fun read that kept me up turning the pages well into the night just so I could find out what happened next. I would recommend this to people who are looking for those who like ghost stories and are looking for a quick easy read.

I rather liked this book, but not that much. It was a quick read and really sucked me in. Now, I know a lot of book bloggers out there read at lightning speed, but I'm not like that. I'm really okay with getting books done at a moderate pace, but this time I discovered my library wanted me to take this back to them - soon. In short, I ended up finishing this in about a day and a half. It wasn't all because of my deadline though. Bad Girls Don't Die was written in such a way that it pulled me in almost immediately.

I don't usually jump at ghost books, but the story here made it feel like it could happen to anyone. Alexis was your typical outcast teen with your typical dysfunctional family. Only, not quite. The family aspects played in pretty well with the story which I enjoyed. What I didn't enjoy was Alexis's attitude.I understand the whole grumpy-teenager thing, but it seemed like Alexis was taking it a little too far sometimes. She complains about The Doom Squad because they "try to hard," but that's exactly what Alexis does in her efforts to continue being an outcast.

It also felt a bit like the poor love interest only made about three appearances in the story. It felt as if the story could have moved along perfectly fine without him and he was just thrown in to appease the swoony teenagers out there. Normally I'm all for a little romance (who isn't?) but I felt as if Bad Girls Don't Die almost could have done without it.

One more downside, I predicted the outcome LONG before Alexis. I kept wanting to scream at her because she was being so dense.

My griping aside, this was still a great story. I loved all the back stories and history. It was nice to read about normal people going through something paranormal. Many times the main character or their families aren't quite normal which works just fine, but normal characters created a nice change of pace for once.

Final thoughts: I know, I didn't have absolutely positive things to say about this, but it's still worth the read. If you're in the mood for a quick spooky, ghost story pick this up and give it a go.

Reader reviewed by BrielleBookworm

  First off, I'd like to recommend this
book to you if you like ghost stories. I loved this book so much, and I
think it may be in my top five favorite books of all time.



 "I crept down the hall to Kaysey's room. Inside, the only light
was a faint slant of yellow spilling in from the hall, illuminating a
little display of threadbare rag dolls on the other side of the room.
When my eyes had adjusted and the lumps of blackness had taken on
furniture shapes, I began searching for her bookbag."  



  Warning: There may be some spoilers in here, but I'll keep it to a minimum. 


This book is fantastic. I couldn't put it down, not for anything. 

Dinner's ready? Be there in a minute. 
Brielle, come with me to the store. Let me finish this chapter. 

Bri, there's a flaming cat outside your door. That's nice.

   Personally,
my favorite chapter was probably everybody's least favorite. (**SPOILER**)
 It's the
chapter where the doll is trying to get Shara to kill herself and and
her daughter. Shara pushes Megan out of the door, overpowering the doll
and saving her daughter.

     Alexis, the MC is humorous,
memorable also. I love her thought process and her obsession with
photography. She isn't a girl you'll easily forget, and it isn't just
because she has pink hair.

  Kaysey, Lexi's sister, is the perfect
mix of creepiness, charming little girl, obsessive freak, and
bittersweet sibling. She's your average little sister, except for the
fact that she's been possessed by an evil spirit, who's bent on
revenge, even if it means murder. Kaysey seems very real, so much that
while reading the book, I wanted to save her. I wanted to smack her when
I found out she had done something stupid.
  I give it five stars.

***
This review originally came from :
http://awesomebookworm.blogspot.com/2010/12/bad-girls-dont-die-review.html
This is my blog. The review above is mine. This entry is not word-for-word copy and pasted. A few sentences have been re-worded and spelling errors have been corrected.

Reader reviewed by Nicole M.

       While living in an ancient house that has a terrifying past with her annoying family, Alexis and her sister Kasey find an unwanted guest in their house. Water is boiling in a pot on a stove that is off, weird smells along with cold rushes of air also Kaseys eyes change color and she cant remember a thing! This teens life turns into a tragedy!

        This nerve-racking book is best for young adults who love a good spine chilling thriller. Truly nail-biting I could not put the book down. I picked this book because it was unpredictable and interesting with a twist of romance and high school teen life. The book was fantastic but I hated the cover and title. Most people wouldnt want to read this book because of it. This book truly shows to never judge a book by its cover.

Reader reviewed by Lauren G

This novel was a fun read. It had a good storyline and just the right amount of creepy-ness to keep me entertained. I'm always looking for a good scary YA read but they don't come around often enough. I enjoyed this one and can't wait for the sequels. I hope the writer can give us an equally scary story in the next one and I recommend this book to all those who love a dash of scary in their novels.

Reader reviewed by Harmony

I held off on reading this for quite a while because Im easily scared and this involved ghosts. Ghost stories+chicken me = nightmares. So I waited until a nice, rainy day that I was running a bakesale at the library to get very far in it. But once I got into my reading groove, I could not put this down.

Bad Girls Dont Die was pretty much everything I wasnt expecting. Its quirky, its haunting, and its mysterious. For the most part, its unpredictable too. There was one thing that I figured out but other than that, I was on the edge of my seat.

What I loved most was how subtle the spookiness was. At first, it was just little things and it kept building up until the end. The struggle within Kasey also added so much to the story, from what you got to read about it.

All in all, I definitely recommend this one for those who dont like scary books but are looking for a little paranormal spookiness.

Reader reviewed by KJ

This book was so good! The plot was really unique and Katie Alender really made the characters seem real. It was horror, but not Stephen King horror. It was a book that kept me up at night reading, but not so that I was afraid to sleep! Alexis could be any high school girl and she was a character I would like to know. The writing style had a nice flow and while I was reading I had a hard time putting the book down! Ive heard tale of sequels to this book, so Im really looking forward to reading those! All in all I would highly recommend Bad Girls Dont Die. This was a fantastic debut novel and Im looking forward to reading what Katie comes out with next!

Reader reviewed by Yan

Bad Girls Don't Die was a chilling read that had an odd twist of humor. There were moments where my arms were covered in goose bumps and all of a sudden, it wasn't what you had not expected. It was actually somewhat funny, the scenes. However, it comes out more of an awkwardIm not crazylaugh. Extraordinary in that sense of way.

I dreamed I was standing on an island in a swamp full of alligators&I saw Kasey swimming towards me, blissfully unaware of the predators&I pulled out a rifle, and I shot any alligator that got close to her. Then Kasey was with me on the island, braiding my hair and singing me Christmas carols. And a battered doll in a ripped petticoat came out of the water and walked over to us, but Kasey couldnt see her. And the doll pointed at Kasey and looked at me and said Your sister is crazy.

What I loved most about this quote was the randomness of it. Seriously, I love random stuff but when you include it with some not so random information, only to you of course, then it makes it only so much more fun. A little giggle to yourself looking crazed to the world through their eyes makes it so much more sweeter.

Aside from that, outside of its original content, this passage may not seem so frightening, but it left me in chills&well until the part about your sister is crazy. The main fear is the dolls, the true demonic force behind it all. Even in real life dolls are creepy to me. Im talking about the classic porcelain ones, the ones that are so lifelike you just cant stare them in the eye. So here I was, just anticipating something horrific about to happen, and bam, there goes a funny little surprise. So an awkward, half hilarious, half scared, laugh is elicited.

Almost all the characters are so well done. The secondary characters are of course in the background, but also giving more depth to the main character. But that doesnt just stop there, some of them even have a bit more life in them. Carter, the male protagonist as well as being a secondary character, gave Alexis more of a girly flare that doesnt show anywhere else. But he also has a dark past that gave him more depth. Alexis was the older sister, the person who cared for her, as well as the one whos more than what she appears.

The action was predictable in some areas, but not so in others. The mystery aspect and the road to uncovering it was wonderfully done and left no real questions behind.

Overall: A great book to pick if youre in the mood for creepy little dolls. Okay so its much more than that. Just read this book if it sounds interesting to you, trust me, itll be better than you expected. I took it for granted and now Im in contentment after reading it.

Reader reviewed by Megan

To the world, fifteen-year-old Alexis Warren is just a pink-haired troublemaker. She doesnt have any real friends, and her parents are way too wrapped up in their own problems to bother with hers. Pretty much the only things Alexis can count on are the photographs she creates in her darkroom and her little sister Kasey.

One night, to help take Kaseys mind off a vicious family argument, Alexis makes up a story the first thing that comes to mind, really, just a harmless fairytale about a little girl with no friends. But Kasey seems to take the whole thing a little too seriously. Before long, shes actually bringing parts of the story to life and people are getting hurt.

Alexis knows she has to find a way to stop her sister before something terrible happens. But with no friends and no help from her parents, shes basically on her own until help turns up in the unlikeliest form Alexis archnemesis Megan Wiley, who happens to be the captain of the cheerleading squad.

This book got really creepy but was still good and fun to read. I had to put it down a few times because it really crepy. I liked the charcters I didn't like Kasey but I liked Alexis, she sounded better as a person. I loved the idea of this book and really liked. You should read it if you like creepy books.

Reader reviewed by Lexie

Very few young adult books keep the suspense going enough to terrify me. The Sweet Valley Twins books 97-100 (Too Scared to Sleep, The Beast is Watching You, The Beast Must Die and If I Die Before I Wake) and Saundra Mitchell's recent Shadowed Summer
are part of the list. Thats the honest truth. Not terrified in the
Freddy Kruger sort of way, but in hits too close to home sort of way.

Alender
does a wonderful job of creating atmosphere and tension. The
progression of Kaseys behavior is steady and believable. Especially
with their mother constantly working to earn a promotion and their
fathers inability to relate to them anymore, the fact that Kasey
begins to act out to gain attention is perfectly understandable&right?

It
was a little odd for me to see some of the things that Kasey did
explained away so easily. Ive done that before for my younger sister
and didnt really think twice on it. Irrational mood swings,
destructive behavior&even though there is a supernatural reason for
Kaseys behavior, it could have very easily been self-destruction and
schizophrenia.

The suspense part of the book is well developed
and even if Alexis is not always sure of what is going on, we know
enough of the puzzle to say No Alexis! Wrong assumption! in
exasperation. As for the non-Kasey supernatural portions I liked those
the best. Perhaps Im biased (much of what got Alexis in trouble in
school I often caused during my HS years), but I think Alender
perfectly captured the High School scene.

From the
cheerleaders to the outsiders to the posers and not quite sures, they
all inhabited certain stereotypes expected, but very often surprised
me. There were, of course, several who still fit the bill perfectly of
Queen Witch of the School, but in the end they werent given a lot of
time.

My only gripe is that certain things arent tied off
well. I wasnt really sure why Megans grandmother chose to open up to
Alexis about Megans mother, but not to Megan. I wouldnt think it
normal to tell your granddaughters houseguest private information you
havent even told your granddaughter yet. My guess is that it had to do
with how Megans mother died, the circumstances surrounding that, but
its not addressed or explained.

Read the book with the lights
on. Its not scary, but it might make you a little paranoid about
shadows and strange lights for a little while.

((reprinted here with author's permission))

Reader reviewed by Debbie

This book was certainly a wild ride.  I really should be in bed right
now but I couldnt put this book down.  And boy did it scare the pants
off of me.  Ok, admittedly I am a scaredy pants.  I hate horror movies
and I hate dolls so I really dont know what possessed me (haha&bad pun
if you have read the book) to read this except it got such good
reviews.  As a story it was great, there were a few twists that kept
you off balance and unsure what exactly was going on.  Alexis was a
great character who for all her thoughts that the people around her
tried to hard to be something they were not I felt she also was
behaving the same way.  I think she accidentally ended up being the
bad girl and then felt like she had to live up to that reputation. 
That made it even sweeter the way she tried to protect her little
sister.  It was nice that the cheer leader, Megan, was able to break
out of the stereotypical superficial, airhead mold and tried to help
Alexis with the possession of her sister.  Im sure those of you who
are braver than I will love this book.  It was great although it does
remind me why I despise dolls.

Reprinted here with author's permission.

Reader reviewed by Kelsey

Alexis thought that she was just a normal girl with a dysfuctional family. Her sister is doll obsessed and she thinks nothing of it, but should she? After looking into some family history, Kasey begins acting very weird. Her beautful blue eyes turn green sometimes, she sometimes uses language that seems years and years old and she doesn't remember things that happen. She believes it's all in her head, but when it becomes something more can she change it all?

I really liked this book, creepy as it is. The way Alexis handles everything is really well; she doesn't back out of it... she fights it. This is a good novel that just came out, I would recommend it to all ages sixth grade and up.

Reader reviewed by stephanie

Reader reviewed by Deltay

In Bad Girls Don't Die, Katie Alender has spun a chilling tale. Alexis is an intriguing character - seemingly sterotypical at first, but after delving into her personality and throughout the course of the novel, she's animated, unique, and defies classification. A spunky rebel with pink hair and a flair for photography, her snarky and at times slightly sarcastic tone provides an amusing narration.

"To me, taking digital pictures is like finding something. But working with film is like making something." - Alexis Warren (Alender 88, ARC edition).

I don't know, Alexis - being one who works mainly in digital, I'd say that with post-processing and whatnot, digital photography can be making something too. ;) Alexis holds appeal, drawing in the reader with her quirky imperfections, making her all that more realistic. (That, and the fact that I've had pinkish/red hair at one point too.) In fact, I kind of wish I had the guts to go around sticking bumper stickers on the teachers' cars in the lot as well.

Overall, characterization throughout the novel was consistently beautifully done. Megan, Kasey, her parents - all hold attributes that we can all probably relate to, on some level at least. Carter is dreamy and a geniunely nice guy - the kind which [female] readers will definitely wish they knew, and [male] readers would want to be. Alender's impeccable skill in characterization definitely comes to light upon closer inspection of how her characters seem to fit the typical sterotypes at first - the cheerleader, the rebel misfits, the overachieving nice guy - but as the story progresses they come out of the woodwork and show how they transcend these flat classifications.

Personally I would have liked to see a big more sha-bam in the argument advertised in the teaser on the back of the book, a little more action in the climax, and a little more development in Carter and Alexis's relationship, but Bad Girls Don't Die manages to take on enough of a timeless quality that it's pretty much negligible.

Now, Bad Girls Don't Die - ghost story, right? Wrong. It's that, but it's also so much more. Sure, because of that paranormal aspect there are things involved that can't be avoided; but Alender has managed to put a unique spin on it through plot twists and beautiful characterization. Diction choice was well done, and credible. So what else is Bad Girls Don't Die? Well, it's definitely chockful of mystery. And this is definitely a well woven one - it keeps you guessing and tosses in red herrings - all in a setting that could very well be next-door.

With great flow, beautiful characterization and intriguing mystery, Bad Girls Don't Die is definitely an April release to be checked out. If you scare easily, unless you plan on finishing the novel in its entireity, I suggest not starting late at night. Whoosh. The book transcends classification as much as its characters transcend sterotypes - a brilliant debut for Alender.

Reader reviewed by Steph Su

Photography-lover Alexis Warren
lives in an enormous, rambling, slightly creepy house with her dysfunctional
parents and younger sister, Kasey. Alexis may dye her hair pink and disdain
most of the people at school, but her Kasey seems to be REALLY crazy: she has
an unhealthy doll-collecting obsession, and has recently been acting weird,
alternately crying tearfully and acting unlike herself. Almost as if she
were&possessed.

Alex is further convinced that
somethings not right with Kasey when strange things start occurring in the
house: doors open and close on their own, appliances turn on all by themselves.
With the help of unlikely new friendsMegan Wiley, the head cheerleader at
Surrey High, and Carter Blume, the popular new kid whom Alexis might like more
than she shouldAlexis is going to find out what the evil spirit that seems to be
haunting Kasey and inflicting harm wants.

If she can manage to do this
without be killed.

Be forewarned: dont read BAD
GIRLS DONT DIE, or you will feel the goosebumps on the back of your neck long
after you reluctantly put the book down! Katie Alenders debut YA novel is
deliciously creepy; imagine the movie The
Sixth Sense in novel form, and you can get an idea of what this book was
like.

Alexis kicked butt as a
protagonist; if Jessica Darling had a young sister who turns the popular crowd upside-down
and unfortunately finds herself in a ghost story, youd get Alexis. The
majority of the story centers around the evil ghosts mystery, which
occasionally leaves the characters slightly incomplete, at least in my opinion.
I would have no problem reading a hundred extra pages in order to better
understand important characters such as Carter, Megan, Kasey, Alexis parents,
and the ghosts history and motivation.

Despite the sometimes
overwhelmingly fast pace of the novel, however, BAD GIRLS DONT DIE is truly a
remarkable read, destined to send shivers down your spine.