This story starts off about a girl who has insecurities like any normal fifteen-year-old. How can she fit in? How can she be friends with the bad girls? What does she have to; do, act, speak, look like, and be like to achieve that? Nothing a little chole eyeliner won't fix. Meet Evie. A sort of girl that mothers warn their daughters about. My sort of girl.

Right off the bat Evie let's you know that she isn't the most outspoken person. She also isn't one to trust her womanly intuition. Women's intuition is something that is really important to me, so the fact that it was mentioned in the book is great and I really like the way that it was portrayed in this book. Like many girls and women all over the world when we are told to ignore the one thing that protects us, but benefits others, it is something amazing to pay attention to.

I love the cover of the book. It really matches the mood and the girls.

Loved it!!

Content Warnings

mallory10100's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

the friendships in this book were amazing and heartwarming 💖

Content Warnings

thebooknook180's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional inspiring sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I really wanted this book to be better than it was, but ultimately the story as a whole was pretty disappointing. The last 30 pages were probably the most interesting, and the most well written. But otherwise the book and main character just fell flat. For Evie, it honestly felt like she was a side character for this entire story. I think a multi perspective book could’ve helped this book a lot. To really show what each of these girls from the “wrong side of the tracks” was going through. (Also the random lines about segregation felt incredibly out of place? Either further develop on that, or maybe don’t include it? As it was random and did not further or add to the story in anyway.) The mentor teacher and the “Bad Girls Never Say Die” lines were also underdeveloped and half baked. If you want (particularly the line) to really hit hard with your reader, it needs to be more important and weaved throughout the story. The weird and blatant foreshadowing was odd and not very well written or subtle at all. Overall this book moved way too slow for me, and took me way to long to get through. The writing was okay, and I understand what the author was trying to do. But overall I wanted this book to hit a lot harder than it did. Side Note- don’t market this book as an adventurous feminist read, if it’s not going to be adventurous. You are setting the reader up for disappointment.

Content Warnings

whatskatiereading's review against another edition

Go to review page

medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Thank you BookishFirst and Roaring Brook Press for my copy of BAD GIRLS NEVER SAY DIE!

I thought this was a fantastic YA book--one that I would have absolutely loved had it come out when I was in high school. The story is an all-female take on The Outsiders, following the story of "bad girl" Evie who takes in "good girl" Diane after after a tense encounter at their town's local teen hangout spot. I enjoyed the main themes of the book: friendship among young women and the lengths they will go to in order to protect their friends, as well as socioeconomic class. This book does take place in high school so the characters are dealing with the typical struggles that many high schoolers go through. While I did enjoy reading this book as an adult, I think I would have loved it even more had I read it when I was the same age as the characters. Coming from someone who typically reads fiction set in the present day, I enjoyed the historical aspects of the book taking place in the 1960s.

Content Warnings

booksbytheglass's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

here’s the key point to this one: it is NOT a thriller. I went into this thinking I was getting a historical fiction thriller story, and it was most definitely heavy on the history side.

that being said, if you go into it with the right mindset, you will thoroughly enjoy this book!! the vibe was definitely the outsiders meets west side story, and the feminism messages behind the story was SUPERB.

however, I found myself skipping chapters quite frequently because it was meaningless dialogue - evie apologizing to her mom and grandmother for the 8th time, evie and diane having a heart to heart about the same situation, diane and connie crying about johnny, just to name a few.

and this book was THICC like 500+ pages thicc. I haven’t read something this long since the red queen series wow. I felt like it definitely could have been trimmed down and still had the same effect on readers.

was the struggle through the book worth it in the end? I’m still debating on that. I’d consider myself in neutral territory on this one.

wine pairing: austria grüner veltliner
rating: 1.5 stars

Content Warnings

More...