2024 Reading Challenge

2024 Reading Challenge
Jill Elizabeth has read 1 book toward her goal of 285 books.
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2023 Reading Challenge

2023 Reading Challenge
Jill Elizabeth has read 5 books toward her goal of 265 books.
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Book Review: Games for Dead Girls by Jen Williams

About the Book

When Charlie was eleven, she created a monster…

For Charlie and her niece Katie, it’s supposed to be a quiet holiday in the peaceful, out-of-the-way seaside town of Hithechurch, England. Charlie is researching a book on the folklore of the area, and the gloomy sea and dangerous caves seem to offer up plenty of material, while Katie is just there to run wild and get some fresh air.

But Charlie’s research reveals a deeper, darker secret, one that uncovers her own, carefully hidden past. Because young women are going missing again: a teenage girl snatched from the beach in broad daylight, and before that, other girls through the decades have vanished from the area, their families left with no answers and no bodies to bury.

Charlie’s creation was a thing of felt, straw, fury, and a rusty pair of scissors in the dark. It couldn’t be her monster. Could it? Charlie is set on discovering the truth about the girls’ disappearances, but she’s about to encounter a force of pure, obsessive malevolence that threatens to destroy anything in its path.

My Review

Oh my goodness I really really liked this one! I think Williams did a fantastic job spinning a strange and fascinating tale with a number of twists that I did not see coming at all – although there were a few that I did manage to pick up on before they were revealed, this did nothing to affect my enjoyment.

I enjoyed her characterizations and found her spin on the murdered / abducted girls trope novel enough to feel darkly compelling and unusual in a way I haven’t encountered in a while. Her characterizations were well established and well-defined and the pacing and plot moved along at the perfect speeds to keep my attention and my curiosity well-honed.

I tried reading her last novel, Dark and Secret Places, and struggled with it. After this one, I’m not entirely sure why although I do wonder if it was the audio format that made this one work so well for me. I found the narrator to do an excellent job setting the tone and am definitely going to go back and try the last book as an audio now.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my obligation-free review copy.

 

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