As someone who reads a plethora of genres in my everyday book dealings, I’m accustomed from time to time of two main genres intermingling; however, Dead Girls Don’t Cry by Casey Wyatt spun me for a loop. It was a cross between urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and sci-fi. Unbelievable! And although there were moments that I wanted to walk away, I ended up really digging this novel.
Cherry Cordial, our narrator, is a hundred-year-old vampire, burlesque star in her sire and head of her family’s strip club. She is definitely the headliner and considered by Jonathan, the head, to be his number two in charge. The other vampires seem to respect her and the customers adore her.
One night after leaving the club Cherry helps a rogue vampire from being drained by a zombie – yes, I said a zombie. In Wyatt’s world zombies, vampires, and ghosts coexist; zombies and ghosts actually created by some flaw in the creation of vampires. Anyhow, that rogue vampire, Ian, and Cherry end up in a skirmish with the zombies. However, Cherry is definitely not keen on their meeting progressing from there. She immediately dismisses him not knowing what lay ahead for them both.
I’m hesitant to delve too much into the storyline for fear of spoilers. I will tell you Cherry and her family along with Ian, some zombies, ghosts, humans, and other rogues end up on the run which causes them to run for the most unexpected place in the universe, Mars. Living on Mars ends up revealing so many secrets about their origins. Which is a completely different spin than I could have ever even dreamt up, or anyone that I’ve known of has up until now.
I’m so not doing Dead Girls Don’t Cry justice, but again I don’t want to give anything away. I will tell you that the worlds created by Wyatt are simply amazing. Never in my wildest dreams could I have pictured a vampire colony on Mars! I was super impressed with the characters as they developed, as well as the world they created once on Mars.
Now for the bad news – as limited as it may be. There were way too many moments where the filler made me want to fall asleep; it was mostly on their trip to Mars in the ship. I wanted to tear my hair out. I felt that time could have been utilized so much better.
I must warn readers that aside from mild to severe violence, there is quite a bit of consensual sex that can often take up numerous pages. Ugh! It was just too much for my taste but to each their own.
All in all, I’d say Dead Girls Don’t Cry certainly opened my eyes to a world of a different kind. I am definitely a paranormal lover. I adore vampire, zombie, and ghost stories on their own. The mix was odd at times as it took away some of the qualities of zombies and ghosts that I love, but it was creative for certain.
Being that this is the first book in a series, I could not say if I would read the next, but I did enjoy this one enough to add it to my “maybe” list. Look forward to considering it.