Bad Girl Gone (ARC Review)

Bad Girl Gone by Temple Mathews

DNF @ 6%

*Thanks so much to the publisher for sending me over an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review – thanks so much again!!*

Did I want to DNF @ 6%? No, I did not. Did I figure I might? Probably. After reading a rather bad review of this (from Nicole at A Dance Between Pages), I knew I was in for a struggle. But I knew that this sounded really good and full of a redemption story arc that could be done brilliantly. However, from the moment I started the story, I knew that I was not going to be interested.

Sixteen year-old Echo Stone awakens in a cold sweat in a dark room, having no idea where she is or how she got there. But she soon finds out she s in Middle House, an orphanage filled with mysteriously troubled kids.

There s just one problem: she s not an orphan. Her parents are very much alive.

She explains this to everyone, but no one will listen. After befriending a sympathetic (and handsome) boy, Echo is able to escape Middle House and rush home, only to discover it sealed off by crime scene tape and covered in the evidence of a terrible and violent crime. As Echo grapples with this world-shattering information, she spots her parents driving by and rushes to flag them down. Standing in the middle of street, waving her arms to get their attention, her parents car drives right through her.

She was right. Her parents are alive but she s not.

She s a ghost, just like all the other denizens of Middle House. Desperate to somehow get her life back and reconnect with her still-alive boyfriend, Echo embarks on a quest to solve her own murder. As the list of suspects grows, the quest evolves into a journey of self-discovery in which she learns she wasn t quite the girl she thought she was. In a twist of fate, she s presented with one last chance to reclaim her life and must make a decision which will either haunt her or bless her forever.

This book was just…boring? Although I can’t really say that since a lot of things were happening. Echo wakes up in this place that I couldn’t quite understand and then there’s some creepy dead things or monsters or I’m really not sure because while it had potential to be really cool, I just got confused. Instead of truly investigating the creepiness, Echo’s like, ummmmm, I’m just going to sit and hide in this bed.

Which she does until this guy shows up underneath her bed and she chases him for like two seconds until someone tells her that no, she shouldn’t be out and about but she’s also allowed no questions. It was like, NO QUESTIONS FOR YOU, AND NO QUESTIONS FOR YOU. Echo’s then like, why, of course, I’m just going to back to that same bed and think happy thoughts about the first awkward time I met my love of my life, Andy, and he kissed me to shut me up. Happy thoughts.

Snow White definitely didn’t stay in her bed and asked no questions when she awoke from her slumber.

ANYWAY. Then she wakes up again and she’s being yelled at because the guy living underneath her bed somehow transferred his random wetness onto her but still no questions are allowed. Um, this is concerning. Why are no questions allowed? And shouldn’t Echo be fighting harder to get the questions answered?? If I woke up at some place with no memory, no idea what it is – I wouldn’t just be hiding in my bed. I would want answers, and if they told me no questions allowed, you best believe I would be demanding for a superior or trying to call, oh, I don’t know, 911??

I was so bored as well. I didn’t connect with anything and if I was skimming at 6%, I knew I was going to have too much of a downhill battle for the rest of the book.

No crowns since it was a DNF and a Snow White rating!

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