Here Lies a Vengeful Bitch

May 27, 2024
Debut author Crowley combines Stephen King’s Pet Sematary with Courtney Summers’s Sadie in this supernatural thriller. When high schooler Annie Lane wakes up on Resurrection Peak—a location rumored to raise the dead—she has no idea how she got there. She’s soon found by the ghosts of five other teens, who inform her that the legend of Resurrection Peak is true, and that she’s been brought back from the dead. With their help, Annie digs into the events surrounding her death and contends with emotional fallout brought about by memories from her life before—the life she lived with her neglectful mother in the small town of Hagley, which harbors a culture of toxic misogyny. After learning that her best friend’s life (and death) is inextricably tied to hers, Annie’s search for answers turns into a quest for vengeance, aided by Sam, one of the ghosts of Resurrection Peak, who has a penchant for smoking and 1950s slang. Sardonic first-person narration by rough-around-the-edges Annie is further enhanced by snappy repartee, both of which elevate a plot that covers well-trod ground to a surprising and earned conclusion. Annie reads as white. Ages 14–up. Agent: Larissa Melo Pienkowski, Jill Grinberg Literary.

July 1, 2024
A dead girl seeks the truth about her violent murder in this horror-fueled adventure. Bad girl--"to be honest, I think I'd rather be dead than good"--Annie Lane wakes up after her death in a freezing river. She's on top of New Jersey's Resurrection Peak, near a desolate, ghost-filled town with no clear memory of how she got there. Annie finds community at Chapel House, an abandoned mansion where she meets a crew of the similarly undead. They include Sam, a James Dean look-alike whom she becomes attracted to. With Sam's occasional help, Annie begins an investigation to find her murderer, starting with confronting her musician ex-boyfriend, Morgan "Gun" Donovan, whose show she attended the night of her death. She also discovers that Maura, her Princeton-bound, aspiring journalist best friend, has been missing since the night she died, and Annie becomes determined to find her. She gets no support from her cruel and neglectful mother, but Maura's dad, who's the local sheriff, has always treated Annie like she was his own daughter. The visceral language in Crowley's debut punctuates the nonstop action and brings the eerie supernatural scenes to life. Unexplained plot holes make for uneven storytelling, however, and the lack of clear worldbuilding is frustrating. Main characters are cued white. A plot-driven revenge story that struggles to clearly set the scene. (author's note with content warnings) (Paranormal thriller. 14-18)

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