*I received a copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this opportunity*

Bettina Jane Holland has a lot on her plate. Not only has she lost her friend group (if only Natalie would admit she was wrong, maybe they could patch things up), finals are looming, her Harvard interview is next week, and she's just decided she wants to no longer visit her incarcerated father. It's not easy living in a town haunted by the brutal murder of your mother, especially when you were the key witness that put your father into jail-- and to say Bettina is struggling would be an understatement. However, when a copycat murderer starts plucking women from the small town of Wolf Ridge, Bettina has to grapple with the questioning everything she thought she knew about her father.

I wanted to love this book so much. It has everything-- the beautiful cover, the intriguing premise, the rich girl and goth girl duo, the intrigue. But unfortunately, DEAD GIRLS TALKING fell flat for me.

Bettina was insufferable as a character. It would have been one thing if she'd grown during the course of the story, but she's still the same vapid, self-centered girl at the end as she was at the start. Sure, having your world crumbling around you might put some things into perspective, but there wasn't any self-reflection or meaningful growth that led me (the reader) to think the experience made Bettina a better person. Also, there wasn't much to her from the beginning but her generational wealth and her trauma.

Spoiler

At the end, she declares she's interested in pursuing acting instead of law. What??? The only hint we get she's interested in drama is an assignment to memorize a monologue that she didn't end up doing?

I have no idea. what Bettina's identity will look like after the end of this story, and honestly, I don't think she does either.

And if it wasn't hard enough to get over the main character, the plot really wasn't that great either. Everything fell into Bettina and Eugina's laps-- and, sure, let's play devil's advocate and assume the police are THAT incompetent and uninterested, but I have a really hard time believing that two teenage girls managed to solve a decades-old crime by asking four/five people some questions. And the ending, while a fun twist, felt unexpected and unbelievable (and not in a fun way).

Spoiler

I have a hard time believing Bettina's narcissistic father would allow himself to rot in jail for 10+ years when Lydia could have very easily continued killing from the very beginning to prove his innocence? There was no reason for him to take the fall for that long, and really no reason to start up again after all that time. Additionally, I hated that there wasn't any conclusion on her father-- how is he allowed to walk free and Bettina shrugs it off and says "He'll get caught eventually, I guess". Girl. Your father orchestrated a murder spree and he knows you know, and you're fine with just hanging with your aunt and grandparents?

Overall, if I was a teenager looking for a quick thriller, this would fit the bill. However, with so many other fantastic books in the genre, I can't say this would be my first pick.