Alexis Warren is back. Now, she and her parents have moved from their haunted Victorian-era house to a non-descript suburb and are trying to rebuild their lives after Kasey, Alexis’ younger sister, was possessed by a murderous ghost and tried to kill them all in Katie Alender’s debut novel Bad Girls Don’t Die. Alexis has a boyfriend now, is settled into a comfortable group at school, and is ready for life to get back to a controlled, predictable normal. But then Kasey is released from the psychiatric hospital and comes home, and of course, soon all Hell breaks loose.
This time, Kasey and her friends fall prey to the lure of popularity, beauty and success. They join the Sunshine Club and soon everything starts going their way – they go from dorky and unpopular to cute, popular and charmed almost overnight. But Alexis is suspicious of this sudden transformation and discovers that there’s something ominous and demonic behind the Sunshine Club: a seemingly benevolent spirit named Arlat who inhabits the book on which the girls swear an oath. To keep Kasey from getting in over her head again, Alexis and Megan, her best friend, infiltrate the club. At first, Arlat’s gifts make Alexis feel charmed too: she gives up her pink hair and antisocial tendencies and her photography starts getting the attention of a major magazine. But there’s a part of Alexis that keeps a clear head in the face of Arlat’s seduction as she wonders what exactly it is that Arlat wants from the girls in trade for his good graces and when that debt will come due. Too soon trouble starts brewing among the members and Alexis must use all her strength of will to resist Arlat’s temptations and try to rescue the girls and Kasey before it’s too late.
I didn’t read the first book in Alender’s series, Bad Girls Don’t Die, so the first few chapters of From Bad to Cursed were a little confusing as Alexis brings the reader up to speed on her life now and hints at past events. But Alender gets into the action of this book fairly quickly and it doesn’t take much to give yourself over to the frightening transformation that the girls undergo as they turn into creepy perfect Barbie dolls. To me, this is a book about addiction: at first, Alexis thinks she can handle the demon possession but Alender cleverly shows how easily and quickly a person can succumb – here its the charmed life granted by a supernatural force that seduces you by granting your innermost desires – but it could just as easily be drugs, alcohol, or anything that a person gives themselves over to. The mystery unfolds quickly with some predictable twists and turns in the plot, but all-in-all, Alender captures the horror of demons, supernatural possession and gory-movie violence with skill – I’m glad I read From Bad to Cursed in the afternoon!
- Posted by Cori