Dead Little Mean Girl by Eva Darrows

It's too easy to hate the pretty girl, to gossip and speculate about the new girl and make fun of anyone who is different from you.  One thing that is hard to do is to keep hating the dead girl, especially when she is or was your step sister.  As much as she hated her when she was alive, Emma couldn't keep hating Quinn once she was dead.

Quinn took an immediate dislike to Emma from the minute they met.  Yet, their mothers were in love and they all moved in together with the hopes of becoming a happy family.

It was difficult to read of the experiences of the new sisters.  At first I thought there was a chance of them bonding, but it was not to be.  Quinn seemed to have an ulterior motive for everything she did.  And once Emma was burned by her, she kept her distance.

This book made me stop and really think about the many events that had happened and how I had accepted the easy interpretation, that Quinn was just plain mean.  Just like Emma, I didn't look deeper and question why she had acted as she did.  It takes time to get to know someone and realize that our first impressions might not be correct.

Both girls came from broken families though they were clearly loved by their parents.  Unfortunately neither of them came through the situations unscathed and neither were at their best when they met.  Not a good basis for combining their families.  I liked how author Eva Darrows handled the conclusion of the tale.  It helped me feel better about all the bad things that had occurred in the earlier parts of the book.    This would be a great book for class room discussions.

Eva Darrows is the pen name of author Hillary Monahan.

I received an advance reader copy of this book from Indigo Books and Music Inc., in exchange for an honest review. 

Cover image courtesy Harlequin Teen.

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