Reviews with content warning for Child death - Dead Girls Walking

Conceptually, this book had a lot going for it. A horror sleepaway camp located at the site of the murders of an imprisoned serial killer is already super compelling, yet Ellis elevates even this by incorporating a supernatural twist. For me though, the execution needed to be better.

My first problem was with the tense/POV combo, which was present/3rd person, which always reads weird to me. To make matters worse, there were TONS of grammatical errors where the tense switched to past and then back again, sometimes even in the same sentence. This lack of quality was disappointing.

My second problem was that the supernatural elements didn’t always make full sense to me, or were inconsistent, in part due to sometimes being explained in a slapdash manner. The whole story depends upon these elements, so it did leave the book feeling weaker in places.

By no means do I think this is a bad book, though. While the story took until about a third of the way through for its inciting incident to occur, which is not ideal for a thriller, I was hooked from then on in. I thought Ellis did well at balancing quieter character moments with tense “run for your lives” scenes. I also think this book delivered on its promise of being scary.

There was some interesting character-work too. I mean, the MC’s set-up is that she is returning to where she used to live to find the body of her mother, who was killed by her serial-killer father. Some moments in her journey needed more emotional weight, but overall I was really taken by the way that Temple was desperately seeking closure, and that she was resolute in her values throughout. Her character development regarding trusting in others was a touch rushed, but the circumstances were admittedly exceptional!

I don’t think I’d recommend this book to everyone, but if you’re looking for a supernatural horror that will hold you in suspense, then keep this on your radar!

Rep: Black lesbian MC with asthma

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kajoreads's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The gore and body horror really delivered. The slasher vibes were on point. And if I was rating this based on that alone, it’d be 5 stars. Ellis did an incredible job making it all gross and unsettling.

This is more of a taste issue, but I did not particularly like the twist.

I’ve noticed I tend to dislike twists that feel like they undermine the premise.

I did enjoy Temple and her dad's relationship. It was a twisted, abusive one, but it felt real. The flashbacks were well implemented imo.

Overall, it’s a strong debut. I’ll definitely keep an eye out for this author.

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courtneys_shelves's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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bookishmillennial's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial

Woweeeeeee! Whatever I thought this book was… well, that doesn’t matter. I was *wrong* !!! I find horror so delightful because I have no idea what to expect. Is this going to be a serial killer? Slasher? Paranormal horror? How much disbelief must I suspend to accept the story? It is always such an entertaining ride and I am so grateful to this genre for just letting me have fun!

Temple goes back to North Point Park, which has been turned into a queer horror-loving camp/retreat, which was awarded to about ten young women. Temple applies as a counselor, hiding her identity (her dad was the North Point Killer and this property was his home!) because she is desperate to find out what happened to her mom five years ago. She is 16 now, and her mom went missing five years ago. However, people begin to get murdered and Temple has to act quickly to figure out how to stop the killings and to get out alive!

Temple was funny, fierce, and a young woman on a mission! I appreciated her backstory of she knew some of the other girls, and how fearful she is of becoming like her murderous father. Some of the scenes towards the latter half of the book were so hard to read, specifically because I feel queasy whenever I read about deliberate child abuse😔

Anyway, I thought the reveals and the explanation for what was happening at this camp were incredibly wild! It felt like an ode to classic summer camp slasher films, but also stood strong enough on its own! There are interview transcripts of Temple’s father Thomas from his time in prison, as well as excerpts from this book that mirrored the reality of the NPK murders, which I felt worked really well & gave me a bit of context surrounding the social climate!

I will totally read more from Sami Ellis in the future, even if 3rd person, present-tense is not my fave !

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sophiareads_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings: murder, violence, gore, death of a parent, desecration of bodies, stalking, child abuse, fire/fire injury

Temple, the daughter of an infamous serial killer, returns to the woods in which she was raised - the woods where her father's victims were discovered - hoping to find the truth of her mother's disappearance. But the woods, now a campsite, are still a site of multiple missing persons cases, and Temple soon finds herself investigating a possible copycat of her father's crimes.

So, this was definitely different than I was expecting, but I think it was different for the better! Ellis definitely does a good job invoking the energy of a horror flick with this book - her writing sets the spooky atmosphere, and the descriptions of gore, while not my exact cup of tea, are definitely reminiscent of a slasher film. Going into this, I was definitely not expecting a paranormal kind of horror, but once this element is introduced, it works really well. Plot-wise, I think this is really great. It's full of twists and turns, and it's fun to see all of the various plot threads introduced throughout the book come together to create a cohesive narrative. My only issue with it, really, was that I wished we were given more information sooner, because frankly, I don't think I fully comprehended what was actually going on here until the 90% mark or something. I totally understand wanting that 'unfolding mystery' vibe with your book, but for a little too much of this book, I just felt a little too out of the loop, which didn't make for the best reading experience. That being said, totally possible that I'm just dumb and other people would totally have grasped everything earlier! And everything did totally come together - definitely a case of 'when it clicks, it CLICKS'.

Still, I think plot was the strongest element here. I really wanted to like Temple as a character, but she sort of gave off 'not like other girls' vibes. (Like, come on, aren't we over calling other girls 'Barbie' as an insult?) Ultimately, I think her character arc was pretty good, but I did find it difficult to warm up to her. I'm really glad the book didn't have a romance though - I was worried it might and it SO didn't need one, so I was glad everyone was just bestie vibes only at the end. Also I really appreciated the discussion of the ethics of true crime buffs - we didn't get a super deep dive into the topic, but I really like what there was, and I thought it was great to include!

Huge thank you to NetGalley, Sami Ellis, and Amulet Books for the eARC!

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jadehusdanhicks's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I LOVED THIS BOOKS. Queer BIPOC murder mystery following the daughter of a serial killer at a true crime camp based on the property he killed at? So good!

Unique, nothing I have read compares to this insane writing and plot line. I am so glad I accessed this as an arc as not only was it unique it then had the added paranormal presence??? Wow.

I loved how unlike many crime books it took well written diverse queer and black characters and didn’t criminalise them unlike how many popular crime novels do.

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