Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alender

Title: Here	Loved it	Graded
Author: Katie Alender
Genre: Paranormal
Publisher: Hyperion
Elements: Ghosts
Series: Book 1 of a series

Alexis thought she led a typically dysfunctional high school existence. Dysfunctional like her parents' marriage; her doll-crazy twelve-year-old sister, Kasey; and even her own anti-social, anti-cheerleader attitude. When a family fight results in some tearful sisterly bonding, Alexis realizes that her life is creeping from dysfunction into danger. Kasey is acting stranger than ever: her blue eyes go green sometimes; she uses old-fashioned language; and she even loses track of chunks of time, claiming to know nothing about her strange behavior. Their old house is changing, too. Doors open and close by themselves; water boils on the unlit stove; and an unplugged air conditioner turns the house cold enough to see their breath in.

Alexis wants to think that it's all in her head, but soon, what she liked to think of as silly parlor tricks are becoming life-threatening--to her, her family, and to her budding relationship with the class president. Alexis knows she's the only person who can stop Kasey -- but what if that green-eyed girl isn't even Kasey anymore?

I thought this was the perfect YA thriller/creepy novel. I loved everything about it. It was haunting, it had hints of romance and it had the one thing I loathe most in the world: creepy dolls. I've been scared of dolls ever since watching the movie Chucky. It probably doesn't help that my sister had LOADS of stuffed toys in her room. Luckily most of them are Pokemon stuffed toys, so phew! She once had this lifesize Teletubbies doll in her room.

It looked like Chucky's mother at night. Brr.

Alexis was hard to relate to at the start. She was just so difficult to everyone! Then as the events rolled on, she became someone I actually admired, being rational and keeping her cool when dealing with Kasey. Most importantly, she manages to keep her mouth in control. I cringed whenever I read scenes with Kasey in it. I didn't know what to expect, and it made me very jumpy.

The pacing worked well for the novel, being neither too slow that things might get draggy, thus ruining the suspense, nor too fast so as to ruin the whole "creep" factor.

Pick this up for a good scare! It's totally unique, and reading about creepy dolls is a nice change from reading about supernatural creatures.