For my independent reading project, I read Bad Girls Don’t Die by Katie Alender. It is a supernatural thriller novel that revolves around teenager Alexis and her younger sister Kasey. Alexis has a very dysfunctional life. She skips class on a daily basis and is always a familiar face in the principal’s office. Her parents are very busy and seem to have no time for their children. Then there’s Alexis’s sister Kasey who is not what you would call normal. She has an obsessive collection of dolls and has been acting very odd lately. To top things off, Carter, one of the most popular guys at Alexis’s high school, likes her. A popular guy liking Alexis would ruin her reputation with the “Doom Squad”; your typical high school Goths and slackers. Just when Alexis thought that her life couldn’t get any worse…..it did. Her father was injured in a bad car accident.
Alexis was very stressed with the accident, and her sister’s odd behavior was making things worse. It seemed like Kasey, Alexis’s sister, had multiple personalities and she was not always acting like herself. Kasey also was caught sneaking around the house late at night and working on mysterious “projects.” Sometimes, when Kasey would speak, her voice would be low and piercing, and her eyes would turn a bright green. Alexis could tell that something was up, but she couldn’t figure out what it was! When a new investigation on her father’s car crash revealed that the break wires had been cut, Alexis knew that it had to have something to do with Kasey who had been in the garage the night before the accident. But Alexis couldn’t figure out why in the world Kasey would do something like that!
Things with Kasey started to get progressively worse. Sometimes when Kasey would touch Alexis, it would burn and leave marks. Kasey was caught sneaking around the house late at night. She also took one of Alexis’s school year books and placed huge red X’s over certain students’ faces. She was even working on a mysterious school “project” involving the family trees of her classmates. Alexis finally decided that she needed to solve this mystery. But in order to solve it, she needed to do the unthinkable: team up with the head cheerleader at her school, Megan, who knew that there was some sort of paranormal activity happening. Usually, Alexis would never talk to a girl like her, but Megan had an interest in Kasey and her unusual behaviors. The two girls surprisingly bonded and learned a lot about each other. They researched Kasey’s behavior and figured out that there was an evil spirit possessing Kasey, forcing her to do terrible things. The two girls then discovered that a tragic accident occurred in Alexis’s house a long time ago. A young girl had been chased up a tree by some kids who were making fun of her, and fell out of the tree and died. They realized that the evil spirit inside of Kasey is the spirit of the girl who had died. Alexis and Megan then found a list of names that Kasey had written down. They searched the names and found out that they were all ancestors of the kids who had originally chased the girl up into the tree and caused her death. By putting two and two together, Megan and Alexis realized that Kasey’s list was actually a list of people that the spirit inside of her wanted to kill in order to get revenge! The two girls also discovered that the evil spirit had a power center in Alexis’s house. The power center was an old doll that originally belonged to the young girl. When Kasey’s spirit went crazy and made her try to kill Alexis and Megan, Alexis figured out that she needed to destroy the doll in order for the spirit to go away. She was successful in doing so, and saved everyone from the evil spirit.
As I was reading this book, I realized that it was the perfect book to be reading around Halloween. It had its scary moments and definitely kept me hooked until the end! The author used a lot of foreshadowing and often gave you information that was not made relevant until later in the book, but made everything come together in the end. This foreshadowing caused a lot of suspense. Although it was a good book, I was not a fan of some of its controversial ideas such as paranormal activity and evil spirits. I personally do not believe in ghosts and spirits, and I know that there are plenty of other people who have the same views. We just recently learned about banned books, and I think that this book could have the criteria to be put on the list of banned books. However, just because the book revolves around some controversial ideas, doesn’t mean that it was a bad book. I think that it was very well written and was filled with suspense and excitement! The suggested audience for this book would probably be young adults because some parts would be too scary for children. I would rate this book 4 stars because it was very suspenseful and thrilling, but was also got a little boring towards the middle. I would recommend it to anyone who’s looking for great read!
