Title: Dead Girls are Easy
Author: Terri Garey
Series: Nicki Styx #1
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Ghosts, Paranormal fantasy, Urban fantasy
Dates read: 27th January 2020
Pace: Fast
Format: Novel
Publisher: Avon
Year: 2007
5th sentence, 74th page: “She was quite a character.”
“My name is Nicki Styx and I thought I had the world all figured out. Then I regained consciousness.”
There’s something about almost dying that makes a girl rethink her priorities. Take Nicki Styx – she was strictly goth and vintage, until a brush with the afterlife leaves her with the ability to see dead people.
Before you can say boo, Atlanta’s ghosts are knocking at Nicki’s door. Now her days consist of reluctantly cleaning up messes left by teh dearly departed, leading ghouls to the Light… and one-on-one anatomy lesssons with Dr. Joe Bascombe, the dreamy surgeon who saved her life. All this catering to the deceased is a real drag, especially for a girl who’d rather be playing hanky-panky with her hunky new boyfriend… who’s beginning to think she’s totally nuts.
But things get even more complicated when a friend foolishly sells her soul to the devil, and Nicki’s new gift lands her in some deep voodoo.
As it turns out for Nicki Styx, death was just the beginning.
I’ve been meaning to read this novel for a long time. Ever since I read the novella in Weddings from Hell. But, it always seems to be pushed to the side. Now I have no idea why I did so… this is brilliant, funny and kind of sweet. It’s such a light-hearted take on the ability to see ghosts and a great way in which to create a whole new romance to grace my shelves. It’s just… well… beautiful.
I’m a big believer in karma and the belief that what goes around comes around. The fact that this is a big part of the storyline, that idea that everything happens for a reason… I absolutely lapped that up. Especially when Nicki has the pleasure of coming up against the man who wronged her in the past and kind of turned her against relationships… there was something so poetically beautiful about it. Especially when he realises what a mistake he made.
Growing up I kind of always wanted my token gay friend. What I didn’t realise was that I had actually met him in year eight, and just have absolutely no gay-dar. But the token gay best friend in this story is absolutely brilliant. He hits every single stereotype, is completely loyal and adds an extra layer of light-heartedness when shit really starts to hit the fan. He also perfectly compliments Nicki’s sass and bitchiness in a way that I completely didn’t anticipate. And acts as a bit of a conscious when she starts to withdraw… everything that you should have in a best friend.
I seem to run across certain themes and trends in the books that I’m reading which are completely random. And I’m never really sure why they appear. In this case, lately it seems to be Voodoo. I read two stories which feature this in a matter of days, and have come up against a few more stories which feature this religion (practice?) in the past few months. It’s a great story driver and something that I’m completely fascinated by. Now I just feel like I need to start doing a little research of my own.
Although Nicki’s life is completely turned upside down in this story, there is no woes me attitude. I tend to find that completely irritating. Even if I would probably be a little sooky about dying, coming back and being able to see ghosts. I’m not perfect, but I like it when the heroines in my stories are unwilling to take the challenges life throws at them by the balls and tell them to just get stuffed. Especially when I know that things are just going to get more and more intense as this series unfolds. After all, there are a few mysteries that were introduced in Dead Girls are Easy which haven’t been tied up yet…
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Earth and Skye 