REVIEW: Bad Girls Never Say Die by Jennifer Mathieu

OUR REVIEW:

True to the blurb, Bad Girls Never Say Die, has that feel of The Outsiders. While the story really centers on Evie and Diane, the other girls in the friend group aren't just flat secondary characters. They all have hidden stories and interesting lives that make the entire novel feel more realistic than fiction.

As a girl from the south (Louisiana) and a teacher of high school students, I really appreciated the attention to detail and the realistic way in which the girls and their surroundings were portrayed. Nothing felt overly dramatized or far off from what it may have felt like to grow up in an oppressive south. 

I also appreciated that while Evie wasn't really sure what she wanted or where she would end up, she knew what she didn't want. She may not have always gone about seeking her independence from what was expected in the most enlightened and proper way, but she was acting exactly like I'd expect a young teen girl to act in that time and place. I liked the strong female voices and that none of our main characters felt like caricatures of the how girls of that time are often portrayed.

I didn't know what to expect with Bad Girls Never Say Die, but I knew that with Jennifer Mathieu behind it, I'd enjoy it and I most certainly did.  

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SYNOPSIS:

From the acclaimed author of Moxie comes a gripping gender-flipped reimagining of The Outsiders that explores the deep bonds of female friendship and what it takes to be a "bad girl."

1964. Houston, Texas.

Evie Barnes is a bad girl. So are all her friends. They’re the sort who wear bold makeup, laugh too loud, and run around with boys. Most of all, they protect their own against the world. So when Evie is saved from a sinister encounter by a good girl from the "right" side of the tracks, every rule she's always lived by is called into question. Now she must redefine what it means to be a bad girl and rethink everything she knew about loyalty.

In this riveting story of murder, secrets, and tragedy, Jennifer Mathieu puts a female twist on S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders. Bad Girls Never Say Die has all the drama and heartache of that teen classic, but with a feminist take just right for our times.