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 something's 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 friends--Megan Wiley, the head cheerleader at Surrey High, and Carter Blume, the popular new kid whom Alexis might like more than she should--Alexis 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: don't read BAD GIRLS DON'T DIE at night, or you will feel the goosebumps on the back of your neck long after you reluctantly put the book down! Katie Alender's 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, you'd get Alexis. The majority of the story centers around the evil ghost's 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 ghost's history and motivation.
Despite the sometimes overwhelmingly fast pace of the novel, however, BAD GIRLS DON'T DIE is truly a remarkable read, destined to send shivers down your spine.
Reviewed by Amber Gibson for TeensReadToo.com
Alexis might not be perfectly well-adjusted to high school life, but she finds her niche as an outspoken pink-haired smart-aleck quite satisfying, thank you very much.
Her four-person family is far from perfect, but they have always managed to get by, in their spooky architectural jumble of a house. Alexis' mother spends more time at work than at home, but so do millions of other moms across America. Kasey, her doll-obsessed little sister, is sometimes too passive for her own good, but hopefully the doll-collecting is something she will grow out of. As for her father, they aren't exactly close, but he could be worse.
One night, after a family argument leaves Kasey in tears, Alexis comes to the rescue in the role of comforting big sister. Kasey requests a story, so Alexis soothes her with a made-up story off the top of her head. Since it is for her baby sister, the story revolves around a little girl and her doll, Kasey's favorite topic. Naturally, Alexis doesn't think much of the story, though come to think of it, it is a bit strange at how smoothly the spontaneous story rolls off her tongue.
However, shortly after Alexis' tale, Kasey starts behaving weirdly. More strangely than normal anyhow. It starts small, with her eyes sometimes changing color from blue to green and using old-fashioned language, like "oughtn't." At first, Alexis tries to brush away her foreboding feelings, deeming the odd vibes she is getting from Kasey as a figment of her imagination, nothing serious.
When mysterious lights appear in the middle of the night, doors close themselves, and the air conditioner goes haywire to the point where Alexis can see her breath in the house, she knows it is no overactive imagination. She has no idea what exactly is going on, but something weird is happening in their house, and much as she hates to admit it, Kasey has something to do with it.
Events spiral rapidly out of control, as midnight wanderings progress to thievery and even attempted murder. Alexis has no idea who to turn to - does anyone even believe in the supernatural anymore? People might just lock Kasey up as schizophrenic, but Alexis knows better. Her little sister is not crazy. Kasey is possessed.
Katie Alender's BAD GIRLS DON'T DIE is a haunting tale of one town's murderous history and a ghost that wants revenge.
