Dead Dead Girls Book Review

Dead Dead Girls by Nekesa Afia
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I love murder mysteries and I was excited to pick up a queer murder mystery during Pride month. This book had a synopsis that interested me, but once I read it I found myself not enjoying it as much as I expected. While the book had really important themes and topics it hit on, the actual murder mystery portion felt lackluster. Even the queer part of the story felt like an add-on. I only finished it to see who the killer was and how they did the reveal.

I’m glad I finished it because I did like some portions of the book. I think Rafael was the side character that shined the most. Moreso than his twin sister Rosa Marie, who was the main character’s lover. Louise Lovie Llyod, I do like the triple L, was written to be an interesting heroine as the book starts off with her being kidnapped when she was sixteen. Fast forward 10 years and young girls are disappearing again and the main character Louise gets pulled into helping the police find the murderer. One of the most confusing things for me with this story was the connection between Louise’s kidnapping and the current murders. The book makes it seem like they’re connected but never fully explained why. I don’t believe we’re even told who the kidnapper was when Louise was sixteen.

Another big issue I had with this story was that there were way too many characters. It was enough that I could’ve used a directory in the back of the book as a reminder of each character. I mainly needed this because we’d go chapters without hearing about someone for them to suddenly pop up again and I would have to really think about who they were. I feel like the story could have been equally impactful if the focus was put on a more specific cast of characters. It also would’ve allowed more of the supporting characters to be fleshed out better. I wanted to love Rosa Marie and see the relationship between her and Louise but she wasn’t given much until later in the story. I felt like Louise had more chemistry with Rafael because they interacted more and his character was much more fleshed out than Rosa Marie.

It’s possible some of these characters are given more in the sequel but the writing in this book didn’t convince me to continue with this series. Aside from the lackluster murder mystery, the actual story felt disjointed throughout. The chapters rarely flowed well together. We’d end one chapter with Louise about to go do something and start the next one with her doing something totally different. I wanted to read what she was about to do not hear about it in a short conversation at the Zodiac or one of the other underground nightclubs. It just felt like the things I really wanted to read were glossed over and the things that weren’t important to the story were described in too much detail.

This series has potential but if you’ve read other murder mysteries or you’re a big murder mystery fan then I’d suggest skipping this book. It’s not going to meet usual murder mystery expectations. It barely even met my queer book expectations. It took us a while to get some queer love! And I get that it’s set in the 1920s so characters can’t openly do much but to wait until almost halfway through the book is a bit disappointing. I personally would recommend other queer murder mysteries – and if you have recommendations let me know!

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