Review: Favorite Dead Girl by Jerry Kuznik

Favorite Dead Girl

Jerry Kuznik

216 Kindle edition pages

★★★★

Favorite Dead Girl is a biographical thriller written by Jerry Kuznik. Originally published in 2019 by Notebook Publishing, the novel is 216 Kindle edition pages. I was warned before beginning the story that there were some dark themes entwined in the pages, but I had no idea what to expect once the events starting taking place.

The main character in the story is Pamela, a fourteen-year-old girl who seems to have it all. She’s beautiful and sweet, has caring friends, and is admired and adored by all the boys at school. Though she seems to have everything she could want, life as she knows it is abruptly taken from her when she’s involved in a tragic accident that leaves her with significant brain damage. By what can only be called a miracle, Pamela survives the accident and has to re-learn the acts of walking, talking, quite simply, living, without mechanical support. As challenging as it sounds, that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what Pamela endures during her years, and in Favorite Dead Girl, author Jerry Kuznik features the tragedies that follows Pamela through life.

As a reader, I despise spoilers, so I don’t want to disclose too much, but I cannot express enough how unprepared I was for the amount of tragedy that played out through the novel. Though I had a warning of what to expect, the shock factor did not dissipate as I started experiencing Pamela’s story.

There were some significantly dark themes in the story that may not be appropriate for some readers including child abuse, sexual assault, graphic portrayals and language, and mention of suicide and depression. It’s difficult to read through a dark novel and WANT to tell others to read it, but my dark and twisty mind is internally screaming at everyone to read this one. And while I’m going on and on about the dark themes, let me go ahead and express that not all of the story is dark. Pamela is truly an inspiring character and after reading about her life throughout the years in the book, I feel that I know her so well. The character descriptions and personalities portrayed were so on point with the author’s intentions and I’m still reeling. It was an absolute honor to read Favorite Dead Girl and I’m overjoyed to rate Jerry Kuznik’s novel 4 out of 4 stars. I’d raise the bar even higher on this one if I could..

At the time of my published review, Favorite Dead Girl is available on Kindle Unlimited.