Format: Hardcover, 304 pages
Release Date: August 6, 2024
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Thrillers & Suspense / Supernatural
Murdered bad girl Annie Lane is back from the grave and hellbent on revenge . . . she just has to figure out who killed her.
This
fast-paced thriller by a talented debut delivers a horror-infused hunt
for justice that's at once furiously feminist, darkly funny, and utterly
satisfying.
Between her careless mom, her cheating
ex-boyfriend, and her rotten reputation around town, Annie Lane is used
to being left behind. But she’s never been left for dead before—until she wakes up to find her body’s been dumped on a mountain rumored to raise the dead.
Annie
can’t remember who killed her, but she’ll stop at nothing to figure it
out and make them pay. Because girls like her don’t get justice unless
they take it for themselves.
Codie Crowley’s propulsive debut Here Lies a Vengeful Bitch presents a furious and cathartic thriller skewering society’s condemnation of “unlikeable” girls. 17-year-old Annabel (Annie) Lane wakes up and learns quickly that her life has changed forever. It seems that someone dumped her body in the water, and she's dead. Or is she? She immediately meets Hunt, and Howl, and Fern, and Sam who apparently died in the 1950's. The only thing that Annie remembers is being chased through the woods.
When she wakes from the cold water of the Paulinskill River, she does so
with a hunger for revenge on the entire small town of Hagley, and
everyone in it who are acting like this is all somehow her fault. When she arrives at school, everyone looks at her like she's the walking dead. After getting into a argument with the principal and Sheriff who treated her like a second daughter, she returns home to a mother who is irate that she pulled some sort of prank.
What is even more strange is that Annie's best friend Maura seems to disappear off the face of the earth. This book was wild. As Annie tries to find out why she was murdered, it becomes a guessing game. Could it be the ex-boyfriend? Could it be a co-worker? Could it be someone close to her that she trusted? Then there's the mystery of Sam. Sam who becomes a fixture in Annie's life. Sam who may be the King of Lies, or just a person who was killed like Annie.
One of the best things about this book are the short chapters, and the mixture of humor and horror that the author uses to tell the story. Honestly, you could have blown me over with some serious winds once the villain is discovered, especially after Annie gets a helping hand from her best friend. I usually don't post trigger warnings since the author does a good job of what is expected from the story.
In this case, the trigger warnings are justified since a lot of really awful stuff happens to Annie before the book even begins. This is probably going to confuse readers, but Sam reminded me of bad boy James Dean with the way he talks, and of course his motorcycle. I think readers will be confused by the story itself. Is Annie really dead? Yes, even though she can be seen by others, she can eat like people who are alive, and she still has feelings, and no, she is not a vampire, or the walking dead. The curiosity lies with where Annie died, and the fact that she was resurrected and there are still things that will scare the crap out of you.
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