Review of The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall by Katie Alender

So I'm a little bit of a, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all," kind of person, but then I don't have any business reviewing books if that's the case, do I?  Yeah, so this book, not a big fan.

First off, let me say that I absolutely loved this author's book Bad Girls Don't Die because she understands exactly what makes a book scary.  I'm a little over saturated in spooky stuff what with the forty thousand paranormal shows I watch on a regular basis, so it's a little hard to scare me.  I'm convinced that I would be the world's worst ghost hunter because no matter what weird thing happens or what unexplained noise I hear, I tend to ignore it completely.  That said, I was so excited to find Bad Girls Don't Die to be an actually scary story, full of the plot and setting details that make a tale frightening.

The same, more or less, can be said for The Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall.  There were all of the usual spooky details - and more.  The story also surprised me not once, but twice, with plot twists I didn't see coming.  That in and of itself is an achievement as I have read so many, many books that I nearly always have the plot figured out in advance.

What's the problem then?  The characters.  Ugh.  The characters.  The main character, Delia, her parents, her sister Janie, an odd assortment of ghosts: I didn't like any of them.  They were reasonably well developed but they just weren't likeable.  And their interactions.  Yuck.  They need some intensive family therapy.  I kept hoping they would learn things over the course of the story and redeem themselves, and while there were some changes, I just didn't find them to be enough to make me like them.

Likes and dislikes are personal things, of course, so check it out for yourself.  The setting, the surprises, and the creep factor may be enough to catch your interest.

LAME FACTOR: Sadly, I would give it a 2/5

YOUR PARENTS WILL FREAK FACTOR: Only if they don't want you reading about the paranormal.

BRAIN POWER:  This is well written but within the reading abilities of an average YA reader.

via GIPHY