Synopsis:
Dead Girl’s Talking is a standalone thriller by Megan Cooley Peterson.
The town of Wolf Ridge calls him The Smiley Face Killer. Bettina Holland calls him her father.
Everyone knows Bettina’s father was the one who murdered her mother a decade ago. It’s the subject of podcasts, murder tours, and even a highly anticipated docuseries. But after growing up grappling with what that means, a string of copycat murders forces Bett to answer a harder What if he didn’t ?
Old-money Bett must team up with the only person willing to investigate alongside bookish goth girl Eugenia, the mortician’s daughter, who everyone says puts the makeup on corpses. Can this “true crime princess” unmask a murderer who’s much closer to home than she ever imagined?
Gritty, gripping, and propulsive from page one, Dead Girls Talking is a ride for readers who love to see girls get their hands dirty as they claw their way to the truth. Peterson’s knife-sharp thriller cuts deep, with a wicked sense of humor, a wire-taut atmosphere, and a deadly serious approach to bigger transparency, justice, and female anger.
Review:
Dead Girls Talking has a really interesting concept. Unfortunately, the execution wasn’t great. I’m glad I used my free listening hours on Spotify for this and didn’t spend any money or credits on Audible.
I wouldn’t say this was all bad. Not at all. The actual mystery part was pretty good until the resolution – that felt like a bit of a cop out. The idea of being the daughter of a serial killer, one that could be killing again, is really interesting. The way that what Bettina thought she knew would change throughout the book kept me on my toes, but I never really cared enough about the outcome to find this gripping.
I think one of the biggest reasons why I didn’t find Dead Girls Talking very gripping was because of the narration. All of the male characters sounded like Amanda Bynes playing Sebastian in She’s The Man, that’s not me making a joke or being over the top. They really did. I found it hard to not laugh most of the time. Most of the narration was ok, but I’ll probably avoid this narrator going forward. That’s a bit harsh, maybe I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and say it was the accent they were doing that made it terrible. But I wouldn’t go out of my way to listen to any of their narrated books like I do with my favourite narrators.
Bettina was a boring main character. She’s a privileged white girl that doesn’t understand that everyone doesn’t get the same treatment as her. I may be remembering wrong but I think she only befriends Eugenia (who everyone thinks is weird) so she can see the dead body of the woman she found. Oh yeah, also she somehow manages to find every single dead body and piece of evidence for this case.
I don’t want this to be a purely negative review so I’ll end with pretty much my only positive comment for the whole book. This cover is absolutely gorgeous. I’m not sure who the character is that’s facing the front, but she’s beautiful. The whole art style is stunning but liking the cover has come back to bite me.
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