The Dead Girls Club by Damien Angelica Walters

A supernatural thriller in the vein of A Head Full of Ghosts about two young girls, a scary story that becomes far too real, and the tragic--and terrifying--consequences that follow one of them into adulthood.

Red Lady, Red Lady, show us your face...

In 1991, Heather Cole and her friends were members of the Dead Girls Club. Obsessed with the macabre, the girls exchanged stories about serial killers and imaginary monsters, like the Red Lady, the spirit of a vengeful witch killed centuries before. Heather knew the stories were just that, until her best friend Becca began insisting the Red Lady was real--and she could prove it.

That belief got Becca killed.

It's been nearly thirty years, but Heather has never told anyone what really happened that night--that Becca was right and the Red Lady was real. She's done her best to put that fateful summer, Becca, and the Red Lady, behind her. Until a familiar necklace arrives in the mail, a necklace Heather hasn't seen since the night Becca died.

The night Heather killed her.

Now, someone else knows what she did...and they're determined to make Heather pay.

This story is told on two timelines, 1991 and the present day. Back then, we learn about the childhood that shaped the woman Heather has become today. Oddly enough this book dredged up some old memories for me, or maybe it's not that strange. Maybe we all had that one childhood besty who turned catty and left us out, or talked behind our back once puberty hit. Perhaps we all had a friend who we would rather visit when their parent wasn't home to make us feel uneasy. On the other side of the coin maybe you were that friend, and surely you had your reasons if that were the case. Back then Heather and Becca were 2 such friends. Inseparable until they weren't. Girls from very different backgrounds who loved each other like sisters. Friends for life until Heather killed her. Today Heather is a psychologist, working with troubled kids, though she has always kept her own dark childhood secret. Until now. Someone knows what happened all those years ago. Is it a supernatural being come to life from a story? Or is it something no less sinister but far more human that wants to make Heather pay? You'll have to read to find out.
5 out of 5 stars
I received an advance copy for review.

Get a copy

About the author
Damien Angelica Walters is also the author of Cry Your Way Home, Paper Tigers, and Sing Me Your Scars, winner of the 2015 This is Horror Award for Short Story Collection of the Year. Her short fiction has been nominated twice for a Bram Stoker Award, reprinted in The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror and The Year's Best Weird Fiction, and published in various anthologies and magazines, including the Shirley Jackson Award Finalists Autumn Cthulhu and The Madness of Dr. Caligari, World Fantasy Award Finalist Cassilda’s Song, Nightmare Magazine, Black Static, and Apex Magazine. Until the magazine’s closing in 2013, she was an Associate Editor of the Hugo Award-winning Electric Velocipede, and she lives in Maryland with her husband and two rescued pit bulls.