2.5 stars. This was an OK read, but nothing special. The premise was interesting, but I felt like more could have been done here and it just fell kind of flat. The main character, Hope, makes some really stupid, idiotic decisions, and she was really slow at putting two and two together to figure out who was behind the society. Honestly, this story might have worked better as a show. I can see it being similar to Pretty Little Liars. Speaking of screen adaptations, the first part of the book, when Hope first gets her invitation reminded me of the movie Would You Rather (it's currently on Netflix). In the movie, participants are invited to this billionaire's house to play a game of "Would you rather." The winner gets a huge cash prize at the end of the game, and all the losers end up dead (of course, participants don't know that last part until the game starts, and once it starts it's too late to back out). So when I read the beginning, I thought this book would be similar to Would You Rather, cause of the cash prize and the "consequences" the would suffer if they don't play by the rules, but unfortunately it's much less interesting and the stakes are not as high. At first I thought, it could be that because it's YA, it had to take the "safer" route and couldn't get as dark as Would You Rather, but there are plenty of dark YA stories out there. In any case, it wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great either. ( )

**** Review contains spoilers*****

This book intrigued me after reading the synopsis......however, the story ended up being much different that I expected.

Let's start with the bad and get that out of the way, I'd rather end this review with the good......I did like this book overall.

First off, and a biggie to me.......inaccuracies. Hope...the main protagonist.....has cystic fibrosis. Krys played heavily on this for the plot....pretty much everything Hope does, or doesn't do, is motivated by her CF. The idea that Hope is dying and will die any day now is pushed throughout the story.......the problem with this is that CF treatments have improved vastly through current medical advancement and the average life span of a CF patient is 50 yrs........and there are many CF patients who up to 80 yrs. I realize that there are outliers and some patients have worse prognosis......but, it's mentioned several times that Hope is doing well and her Physician even states that her lungs are pretty clear. I get the idea the writer was trying for, but inaccurately portraying a serious disease, one that a reader could be suffering from themselves, isn't acceptable to me.

My next problem lies with the believability of the plot......we are to believe that a teen could pull this off?? I was disappointed to find out who the villan was. I feel like this could have been done so much better....and more realistically......by having this be a secret society/network doing this for some reason.

Lastly, and least important, small things that annoyed me: the relationships......the rich girl and cool goth/ punk......the best friend romance.....the rich boy uses unpopular girl.....I feel like Krys stayed too stereotypical......I saw it all coming, its way too overdone. This is a YA book, and I try to keep that in mind......but, I still feel its a bit too cookie cutter.

Hopes battle scene with the villan is another bone of contention for me.....it's simply impossible to pull yourself out of a casket while being buried alive without being seen.......and lifting the lid with several lbs of dirt on top would be impossibly challenging for a healthy individual.... much less a sick teen.

There is a derogatory insinuation about Republicans.....implying that all are intolerant to homosexuality....first off, not true....I'm from the South born and raised and know several Repubs and gay ppl alike, they aren't mutually exclusive. I strongly dislike writers imparting extreme political views into their writing....its simply not the place for it

This brings me to my last gripe.....the use of incorrect words.....example: hork, which means to gag...when it should have been hock or hack.....admittedly, a small issue, but an annoying one.

Now, the good: Everything else! I really did enjoy this one, despite the issues. Krys excels at character creation and interaction. I really cared what happened to the girls. This was a fun and well paced read. The romantic scenes were well written and realistic, without the cheesiness associate with most YA books. I'm hoping the ending meant there will be a sequel in the future. I recommend this for teens, and adults who appreciate YA reads......but, would pass on it for those bothered by disease discussion and health complications. ( )

This review contains spoilers!

The bad girl (Hartley Jensen), the Smart Girl (Nicole Morgan), the Rich girl (Farrah Weir-Montgomery), the Sporty girl (Lyla Greene) and the Sick girl (Hope) all get a mysterious evite which says something like:
You are cordially invited to participate in a game of thrills and dares. Come to 291 Schilling Rd. at midnight tomorrow. Tell no one, and come alone. If you dare. Their invitation also all have something personal included and in the cases of everyone but Hope, the personal information is in the form of blackmail. All 5 girls accept the invitation and when they meet at the abandoned warehouse they find a letter which says they’ve been selected to participate in a series of dates where the winner will get $100,000. They will be punished if they don’t participate or if they cheat or tell anyone else. To prove the legitimacy of the game, everyone is given $1000. After some discussion, the girls select the first dare which is to go to Six Flags in the ninth Ward. Scale the Mega Zeph roller coaster. And take a leap of faith. They have to climb to the top of 100 foot roller coaster and bungee jump.
As the story progresses, Hope, the narrator, is desperate to discover who is manipulating them into these dares. It becomes increasingly obvious that whoever it is has intimate details about each of the girls that no one else could possibly know. The source of that knowledge and the source of the money eventually gets explained in a satisfactory way. This was a fast paced enjoyable story that I think would be very engaging to grade 8 or 9 girls. ( )

Um, 7 stars. Read this in just about 3 hours tonight because I could just not put it down, like, at all. I would reread this over Girl on the Train any day. This is a tightly written (edited!) story that can be standalone or built upon because the ending was perfect. ( )

Cystic Fibrosis has been getting a lot of attention in recent years. I'd never heard about it until Bates Motel or Foreverland, one of the two. I like being aware of diseases like this because if books, movies, shows, and people bring it out to the forefront more people will care. Hope has this illness that basically gives her a shorter life span. Her mother is super protective of her so basically she's been shut in her home since the last time she's gotten real sick. Then, suddenly, comes this e-mail that dares her to come to this spot. She's going to be playing a game. What she doesn't know yet is the lengths to which the Society will go to make sure she and other girls, all different, stay playing the game. No cheating, no leaving, until the game is finished or the Society will make sure you are punished.

From this cover and from the way the characters were written this felt very much like a middle grade book to me but it's geared toward YA. I felt like I was going to feel it was MG before I read the story so that didn't throw me off too much. The mystery is what ended up throwing me off. I hadn't anticipated how much I would need to know who was behind everything and why. The growing suspense had me flying through Dead Girls Society. Thankfully, the reveal and reasoning was satisfying.

It took me a while to get to know everyone's names but they became memorable when things started hitting the fan. All of the girls, save Hope, had been blackmailed to play the game. It seems like the Society has been keeping tabs on these girls. Hope really was the only one who wanted to figure out who the person/people were behind everything because nothing felt right. I like how the girl everyone think is weak, including herself, ends up being the most daring of them all.

Hope likes a boy. A boy who just happens to be her best friend. I didn't really care for this part of the story so I mainly ignored it. I did like the other love interest more. As a whole though, the mystery blew this part of the story away.

The mystery and suspense kept me guessing in Dead Girls Society. I think that the story could have been written more like it was a YA book to bump everything higher in my opinion. I enjoyed how everything was resolved and Hope's deducing skills. That cliffhanger at the end was killer!
( )