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venetiana's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.25
Great atmosphere and setup, loved the characters. Unfortunately very slow, and somewhat repetitive.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Blood, Murder, and Alcohol
Moderate: Hate crime and Racial slurs
Minor: Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail
kdailyreads's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Violence, and Murder
talonsontypewriters's review
I tried to eke it out because I hate DNF'ing things, but if it's still this difficult to trudge through very short chapters over halfway through it's probably just going to get worse. I hate to say anything that implies debut = poor quality, because that's just not true in so many cases (and subjective anyway), but unfortunately it does apply here, at least for me.
The writing is painfully dull -- very choppy and simplistic, walls of stilted dialogue with no differentiating character voices, all telling and no showing, so much repetition and so many epithets -- and the plot isn't interesting enough to make up for it. A sense of suspense is almost nonexistent; any foreshadowing is too frequent and heavyhanded to be effective. I do feel some level of intrigue, but mostly just to confirm my suspicions, and it's not enough to get me to power through to see. Subplots are present in abundance and go unresolved and unacknowledged for chapters at a time, with awkward pacing and scene/chapter transitions.
All that alone makes anything hard to invest in, but I also can't get a sense of really any of the characters: Everything about them is told and not shown, and none of them really stand out. There are a lot of side characters, and I had trouble remembering who some of them were. Even the setting falls flat -- without some slang and a few technology notes, it would be indistinguishable from the present day, which is really disappointing because 1920s Harlem has so much to work with... and it just is not there.
Dead Dead Girls has so much potential, but sadly it's not followed up on as it could be. Maybe I'll be able to return to it in a more patient mood, but for now it's a hard pass.
The writing is painfully dull -- very choppy and simplistic, walls of stilted dialogue with no differentiating character voices, all telling and no showing, so much repetition and so many epithets -- and the plot isn't interesting enough to make up for it. A sense of suspense is almost nonexistent; any foreshadowing is too frequent and heavyhanded to be effective. I do feel some level of intrigue, but mostly just to confirm my suspicions, and it's not enough to get me to power through to see. Subplots are present in abundance and go unresolved and unacknowledged for chapters at a time, with awkward pacing and scene/chapter transitions.
All that alone makes anything hard to invest in, but I also can't get a sense of really any of the characters: Everything about them is told and not shown, and none of them really stand out. There are a lot of side characters, and I had trouble remembering who some of them were. Even the setting falls flat -- without some slang and a few technology notes, it would be indistinguishable from the present day, which is really disappointing because 1920s Harlem has so much to work with... and it just is not there.
Dead Dead Girls has so much potential, but sadly it's not followed up on as it could be. Maybe I'll be able to return to it in a more patient mood, but for now it's a hard pass.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual assault, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Sexual content, Vomit, and Lesbophobia
Smoking, including underage. Descriptions of dead bodies. Broken arranged marriage between a 16- and 22-year-old, no actual romance (at least at this point); references to sexual dynamics between teenage girls and adult men. Attempted rape/sexual assault shown, others implied -- scene where police discuss assaulting a Black woman in custody.nadiafed12's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
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
4.25
I loved this book and cannot wait for the second part of the series, where we get to know Rosa Maria better! While I loved this book and want to continue with the series I felt like we were missing answers to some things. I was left with questions about the calling cards (maybe Sam?), how the detective's past girlfriend actually died (he definitely killed her, but was the whole purpose of blackmailing the reporter to get his new crimes in the paper because he wasn't recognized before?), and what was going on with Cecilia before her untimely death? Both her and Josie came to Louise about something going on but we never found out what? I definitely wish the detective had a longer "villain monologue" when he and Louise came head to head for the last time just for more reasoning from him. Overall, a great book that touches on so many important topics.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism
Moderate: Violence
hazelgirl21's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Racism
Moderate: Racial slurs, Violence, and Death of parent
lormurenzi's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Racism, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Murder
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, and Police brutality
Minor: Homophobia
paperpaladin's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
Dead Dead Girls is a mystery set in Harlem in the 1920s. Going into this I had high hopes about it and was hoping to find a new mystery series that I could read in between the longer fantasy books that I typically consume. Overall, this book was okay. Nothing great about it nothing terrible. It has a few problems that are due to it being the author's first published work but nothing that makes it unreadable. The characters have dimension, the plot is interesting enough, the situation has connection to the main character and stakes that you care about.
I do have two major concerns that lowered my overall enjoyment. Firstly, the foreshadowing is not subtle at all. The author likes to end chapters with a foreshadowing of what is to come but early on before the investigation into the mystery has really started, you are told who the murderer is. It doesn't say "the murderer is X" but pretty close to that. I do not read mysteries often and I figured it out so that might be upsetting if trying to figure out the mystery is part of the appeal.
My other concern is that this book was set in the wrong time period. This book really wanted to talk about homophobia and that kind of discrimination but was set in the 1920s so they couldn't discuss that as much as they would like. Instead the author had to focus more on the racism which didn't feel like they were as interested in talking about. The racism would come up but I think there was more time spent on the main character thinking about how her love is forbidden than their is on the racism in this book.The racism is also portrayed as one super racist cop who might not be as bad as you are first lead to believe and one seemingly nice detective who might actually be way worse than he seems. This feels like it is trying to say people are complicated and that racism is bad even if the person has other good qualities but I don't feel like it stuck the landing.
My rating system
1 - Did not enjoy
2 - Not irredeemable but has too many flaws to say I enjoyed
3 - Enjoyed it
4 - Great book but didn't love it
5 - Amazing book
I do have two major concerns that lowered my overall enjoyment. Firstly, the foreshadowing is not subtle at all. The author likes to end chapters with a foreshadowing of what is to come but early on before the investigation into the mystery has really started, you are told who the murderer is. It doesn't say "the murderer is X" but pretty close to that. I do not read mysteries often and I figured it out so that might be upsetting if trying to figure out the mystery is part of the appeal.
My other concern is that this book was set in the wrong time period. This book really wanted to talk about homophobia and that kind of discrimination but was set in the 1920s so they couldn't discuss that as much as they would like. Instead the author had to focus more on the racism which didn't feel like they were as interested in talking about. The racism would come up but I think there was more time spent on the main character thinking about how her love is forbidden than their is on the racism in this book.
My rating system
1 - Did not enjoy
2 - Not irredeemable but has too many flaws to say I enjoyed
3 - Enjoyed it
4 - Great book but didn't love it
5 - Amazing book
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence
Minor: Homophobia
i_am_selinam's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Violence
readundancies's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
This story, as far as mysteries go, was very underwhelming. The writing is very tell not show, there was not nearly enough exposition with respect to world building for my taste, and the pacing always seemed like we were a half step ahead of the main plot through the entirety of the novel.
I did not connect to any of the characters. I did not care for virtually all of them. I didn’t actively hate any of them but I didn’t really like them either. There seemed to be some sort of an emotional component lacking in all of the characters that I could not overcome.
I appreciated the 2SLGBTQIA+ rep, and the racial aspects of the novel, but nothing felt truly flushed out in a way that captivated me.
All in all, there’s nothing inherently wrong with this story, I just didn't really find it all that engaging.
Content Warnings
Minor: Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, and Murder
zarap's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Sexual violence, Violence, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Gore and Murder