Audiobook Review: The Payback Girls by Alex Travis
The Payback Girls
Author: Alex Travis
Narrator: Tamika Katon-Donegal
Published: April 1, 2025
Audiobook: 10 hours
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: April 30- May 5, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 3 stars
Book Description:
Why get over your cheating ex when you can get even? John Tucker Must Die meets One of Us Is Lying in a gripping, binge-worthy debut thriller.
His first mistake was underestimating them.
Senior year is going to be perfect. Meghan won’t settle for anything less. She’s already crushing her classes and dating the star of the basketball team. Nate’s friends have been less than welcoming, but it’s never easy being one of the only Black kids at a mostly white prep school. Still, Meghan did not expect the scene at pep rally.
Robin and Bria dated Nate too. Correction: are dating him. He never broke up with them, and Meghan is furious.
When Nate is found bloodied and unconscious in the locker room after the big game, suddenly the three teens are prime suspects—and a tenuous alliance may be the only way to clear their names. Except Meghan doesn’t remember everything that happened that night, and she’s starting to have feelings for one of the exes. One thing is for sure: the more clues they uncover, the more Meghan, Bria, and Robin each look responsible
Jessica’s Review:
The Pay Back Girls is a YA novel that is high on the drama while also showing a commentary on being a black girl minority in a white dominated school. We have a star athlete that was attacked and he was dating three girls, none knowing about the others. We have the infidelity, adding in some amnesia with one character on what happened to Nate on the night in question; we also see the girls deal with social media warfare/bullying galore, and some LGBTQ themes. Put all of this together and we have a book full of drama with some immature girls who can’t seem to make up their mind on if they want to be friends and work together or not on who hurt Nate.
I am far from the target audience but the book description intrigued me, so I wanted to listen to it. But this book was not for me. We have three very different girls who all look suspicious in that that they all could have hurt Nate. They go from not liking each other to becoming friends and working together to try find the culprit. And two of them realize that they actually like each other as more than friends. And despite Nate cheating on all three of them, they still realized that they had feelings for him. These teen girls are confusing!
We do find out who the culprit was and I was a little surprised with that. Other than the novel not being for me, I did like to see real-world issues being brought to the spotlight in a way for the teenage reader to experience.
The narrator Tamika Katon-Donegal, did a great job with her narration. She really brought on the teen girl feeling.
Many thanks for the publisher for granting me a copy to listen to and review. I just wish I had enjoyed it more!
Book Review: The Last Girls Standing by Jennifer Dugan
The Last Girls Standing
Author: Jennifer Dugan
Narrator: Mia Hutchinson-Shaw
Published: August 15, 2023
Audiobook: 9 hours 39 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: August 31- September 7, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 3.5 stars
Book Description:
Sloan and Cherry. Cherry and Sloan. They met only a few days before masked men with machetes attacked the summer camp where they worked, a massacre that left the rest of their fellow counselors dead. Now, months later, the two are inseparable, their traumatic experience bonding them in ways no one else can understand.
But as new evidence comes to light and Sloan learns more about the motives behind the ritual killing that brought them together, she begins to suspect that her girlfriend may be more than just a survivor—she may actually have been a part of it. Cherry tries to reassure her, but Sloan only becomes more distraught. Is this gaslighting or reality? Is Cherry a victim or a perpetrator? Is Sloan confused, or is she seeing things clearly for the very first time? Against all odds, Sloan survived that hot summer night. But will she survive what comes next?
Jessica’s Review:
This one sounded interesting to me and I loved the idea of the aftermath of two girls surviving a massacre: Unfortunately, for the most part it didn’t really work for me until that final twisty ending! It was a slow-moving novel that was hard for me to get into. I was just interested enough to want to see what happened to finish the book. I didn’t really connect to the characters.
Sloan and Cherry met at the summer camp where they were to work for the summer until the massacre happened and they were the only two who survived. They formed a bond and are in a relationship, but it is very toxic. Sloan has survivor’s guilt and also doesn’t remember what happened that night, and begins to doubt what Cherry says happened that night. We do get to go back in time and over the course of the novel find out what happens. A cult also becomes involved with a supernatural element which didn’t really work for me. If it had been just the cult, I would have enjoyed the book more. I didn’t need a supernatural type element added to the mix. The ending is really what saved the book for me and added .5 stars to make my review 3.5 versus just the average 3 stars.
The Last Girls Standing was also a homage to 80s slasher films, Dugan must be a fan of them! Even the cover seems to be a homage to those type films. The cover is what drew me to want to read this one.
Though it was not totally for me I would give Dugan a try again if another of her book interests me.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
A Re-Read of They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
They Both Die at the End
Series: Death-Cast #1
Author: Adam Silvera
Narrators:
Michael Crouch
Robbie Daymond
Bahni Turpin
Published: September 5, 2017
Audiobook
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: September 19-22, 2022
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
Adam Silvera reminds us that there’s no life without death and no love without loss in this devastating yet uplifting story about two people whose lives change over the course of one unforgettable day.
On September 5, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: They’re going to die today.
Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they’re both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There’s an app for that. It’s called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure—to live a lifetime in a single day.
Jessica’s Review:
This was a re-read with the prequel coming out that I have been highly anticipating! I ordered the Barnes & Noble Special Edition months ago when I found out about it and was very happy when it arrived! I can say I loved They Both Die just as much the second time around. No crying again, but it does leave you thinking about the book and these characters long after you have put the book down.
I can’t say much more than what I said with my first review, which is here as a double review with Kim. I do want to add this time around that we ‘see’ other people that Mateo and Rufus come into some sort of contact with during their last day. We see these people before and after the contact, so we see how their day goes, whether it is their last day as well or not. This also shows how connected we are as people and even a little contact can have after affects.
This one will be a re-read every few years and I cannot wait to read The First to Die at the End! I have a few books to get to first, but it WILL be read by the end of the year! I wanted Rufus and Matteo’s story fresh in my head going in for the prequel as it is said that their younger versions make an appearance!
This is a novel I feel that everyone should read.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
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