Thanks to Roaring Brook Press, Jennifer Mathieu, and Netgalley for the chance to read this advanced copy in return for an honest review.

Evie Barnes, along with her friends Connie, Sunny, and Juanita, is considered the bad girls of Eastside. They are the girls the whole town talks about and expect bad things from. As the group hangs out at the movies, Evie goes off on her own and is almost assaulted by one of the rich boys who are there. Evie's life is saved by the new girl in town who does more than she set out to do. The girls must band together to explain what happened and free an innocent man.

This book has been billed as a female version of The Outsiders and I can see why. There were a few places throughout the story where I felt it lagged a bit but altogether it was a well-told story of female loyalty and the strength of their friendship. I have never read anything by this author but I am very interested in reading more and becoming acquainted with her writing.
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Bad Girls Never Say Die, by Jennifer Mathieu, is a gender-swapped reimagining of The Outsiders, but it doesn't actually rely on readers knowing the inspiration very well.

The story is set in the 60s in Texas, but a lot of the book is about what it means to be considered a bad girl, which is part of every generation. This is part of what made The Truth About Alice so compelling. Being a "bad girl" here can mean anything from drinking to shoplifting to dating the wrong boy to wearing too much eyeliner.

Evie knows that as a bad girl, from a single-parent home, in the poor section of town, she is automatically in the wrong in all situations. Whenever the rich kids come over and start fights, it's the local kids who get in trouble. Plus, aren't girls always in the wrong when it comes to leading a boy on, being a tease, being a slut, or basically anything about sexuality?

Full review (Contains a small spoiler if you've never heard of The Outsiders)

I really wanted to enjoy this book. I was hoping for that same fervor Mathieu presented in Moxie. The inspired YA story about modern day feminism was exciting! Nothing like that materialized in Bad Girls Never Say Die. A few different things kept this book from reaching its potential, and I ultimately did not enjoy it very much.

It’s undeniable that Mathieu is passionate about women’s rights and creating an inclusive world. Everything I have read of hers points out the inequities in society and makes sure to look at them through various lenses to keep it intersectional. Despite her obvious research, Bad Girls Never Say Die failed to balance the story of five different young women in various situations trying to break the mold expected of them in the 1960s. If that wasn’t a big enough challenge, this is also a historical fiction retelling of Romeo and Juliet and a murder story. There is so much going on that Mathieu does not give adequate space to any particular plot line and in all her bouncing fails to create compelling characters.

Without a doubt, Diane was the most exasperating character in this book. Her behavior that sets the story running is completely inconsistent with everything else we know about her. Even as the novel progresses and we learn more of her story, the initial event doesn’t fit, like a piece that has been pulled from a different puzzle. Nearly all of Diane’s dialogue was vapid and overly-romantic; I wanted to scream. I’m not sure if she was written this way on purpose, or if her Pleasantville-style behavior came about accidentally. Either way, it’s extremely difficult to enjoy a book when everything about one of the principal characters is irksome.

I should note, Diane is not the main character of Bad Girls Never Say Die. The main character is Evie, but Diane as a person and as a plot-driver takes so much space that Evie is more of a vehicle to telling Diane’s story then she is an independent entity. In fact, so much of the story is told in dialogue between Diane and Evie that it feels like our main character exists solely to be the recipient of this backstory. Don’t get me wrong, Evie has her own stuff going on, but at every turn it took a backseat to whatever Diane was dealing with.

Honestly? It was a bit infuriating.

Mathieu is running with too many characters, too many plot lines, and not enough substance. This is one of the shorter YA books I’ve read in a while, and if she wanted to flush out the story a bit more, Mathieu had plenty of space to do it. There is no inspirational content here. At most, there are a few lines of throwaway dialogue complaining about women’s roles in this era. It’s impossible to have an emotional connection with the characters, because they’re so shallow and under developed. I don’t think this is indicative of the authors normal work, but it makes me hesitate before picking up another one of her books because not only do it I think that Bad Girls Never Say Die is an an unimpressive book, but I very nearly came to hate it.

Give me a story with lots of passion that powers forward into its plot like an unstoppable train, and I’m all here for it. Give me a story that meanders around a lot of different ideas without quite addressing them and drops in a pair of ridiculous lovebirds with the cheesiest dialogue, and I am out. At the end of the day, I was grateful for how short this book was, because I finished it all that more quickly.

I might try one more book by Mathieu but my experience with Moxie and Bad Girls Never Say Die was such polar opposites that I am unsure whether or not her writing is for me. That said, if you’re thinking about picking up this book, may I suggest Moxie instead? It’s much better. ( )

I really had higher hopes for this book, I love The Outsiders and seeing as this was a retelling of that book with feminism woven through it, I was all for it.

The characters weren't very easily loveable. The book was really slow at the beginning and then it would go faster and then slower, it just had some major pacing issues for me. Some parts of the plot were very predictable and just had no climax really. The book was really okay just had the issues listed above. Oh, also Diane deserved better than she got but what happened to her in the end didn't bother me any. ( )

I really had higher hopes for this book, I love The Outsiders and seeing as this was a retelling of that book with feminism woven through it, I was all for it.

The characters weren't very easily loveable. The book was really slow at the beginning and then it would go faster and then slower, it just had some major pacing issues for me. Some parts of the plot were very predictable and just had no climax really. The book was really okay just had the issues listed above. Oh, also Diane deserved better than she got but what happened to her in the end didn't bother me any. ( )