Review: Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alender

Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alender

Young Adult Paranormal/Fantasy

Hyperion Books for Children (April 21, 2009)

ISBN: 978-1423108764

352 pages

From Amazon.com:

Alexis thought she led a typically dysfunctional high school existence. Dysfunctional like her parents' marriage; her doll-crazy twelve-year-old sister, Kasey; and even her own anti-social, anti-cheerleader attitude.

When a family fight results in some tearful sisterly bonding, Alexis realizes that her life is creeping from dysfunction into danger. Kasey is acting stranger than ever: her blue eyes go green sometimes; she uses old-fashioned language; and she even loses track of chunks of time, claiming to know nothing about her strange behavior. Their old house is changing, too. 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.


Alexis wants to think that it's all in her head, but soon, what she liked to think of as silly parlor tricks are becoming life-threatening--to her, her family, and to her budding relationship with the class president. Alexis knows she's the only person who can stop Kasey -- but what if that green-eyed girl isn't even Kasey anymore?

After hearing such great things about this novel, I had to find out for myself just what the hype was all about. I was not disappointed in the least. While I often find fantasy/paranormal novels to be suspenseful, it's rare that I'm actually creeped out by one. Alender does a great job here of piling on the scary while keeping the book PG enough for the YA genre. In my opinion, this is mostly due to the scary Children of the Corn-quality of the story.

I don't know about you but, whether in film or books, I always find the most chilling stories to be those about evil and/or possessed kids. I remember being thoroughly freaked-out by Macaulay Culkin in The Good Son. The ghost-harboring Kasey is right up there with the best on my "Creepiest Horror Kids" list.

That's not all there is to this captivating book though. Alexis is pitch-perfect as the brooding, snarky, outcast of a heroine. Her defensiveness is excellently balanced by her insecurities and loneliness, making her a relateable and realistic teenage protagonist. Though Alexis begins the novel having a strained relationship with her parents and no true friends to speak of, Alender does not leave her to handle her resident psycho ghost alone. We get to see Alexis grow and learn as she takes on her supernatural challenge while discovering an unlikely ally in a previously despised cheerleader classmate and an even more unlikely preppy love interest.

In the end, I found myself hating that it was over and that I had to part with such an interesting heroine. Katie recently announced that Hyperion has decided to turn the novel into a series! I'm looking forward to what she has in store - I'm sure I'll enjoy the next installment even if it's only half as good as this one.

Grade: A

Katie Alender's site