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Dead Girl's Diary

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From master horror storyteller K.R. Alexander, the chilling story of a girl who has visions of a dead girl -- and the diary that will lead her to the truth behind the girl's tragic demise.

All her life, Kara's been told she was born in the city she's lived in all her life. But she's always felt that wasn't quite right, just as she's had flashes of thoughts that didn't seem to be her own. Now that she's 12, those thoughts are starting to become more frequent... and they're drawing her to a small town she's never been to before.

Finally, against her parents' wishes, she goes there. And even though she's never been there before... she feels like she has. And she feels like something terrible happened to her there.

176 pages, Paperback

First published September 3, 2024

45 people are currently reading
265 people want to read

About the author

K.R. Alexander

39 books115 followers
K.R. Alexander was raised in the holler and filled out on katydids, moonbeams, and a few good yarns. She's an animal rescuer, dedicated reader, and (wannabe) world traveler.

Now she writes paranormal reverse harem romance with rich characters, multi-layered relationships, and engaging stories you'll never forget.

If you're anything like her, one taste of RH and you'll never want to go back to traditional romance!

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5 stars
117 (33%)
4 stars
126 (35%)
3 stars
81 (23%)
2 stars
21 (5%)
1 star
6 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
Profile Image for Amina .
1,326 reviews40 followers
February 23, 2025
✰ 2.5 stars ✰

“​Some stories are meant to stay buried.”​​

giphyeaal

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Okay, some of the positives, because as far as middle grade horror goes, it definitely delivered on the creepy factor. 👍🏻Twelve-year-old Kora unexpectedly receives a ​Dead Girl's Diary​ with haunting visions that lead her to believe that she may share an intimate connection with the owner of said diary, Elizabeth.​ 😨 A young girl who lost her life in a tragic drowning accident almost twelve years ago, in a town close to her own hometown - nope, not creepy at all! But, when the visions start to get more deadly and sinister with tidings that not all is right, it is definitely the obvious choice that she and her best friend, Sienna, have to go and investigate. A quick jaunt that neither parents' will even notice they're gone, let alone playing hooky from school!​ 🥺

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Their parents' furious reactions to their apparent deception is the ​least​ of their troubles. For when they arrive, there's something too off in how friendly all the residents are. Too off in how the town seems to be closing in on them. Too off in how it all seems too familiar to Kora, almost as if she's lived here before.​​ For what started off as an adventure to uncover the truth behind her scary visions, slowly unravels into a deadly game for staying alive.​ 😟

​​​ “...When I look back down at the book in my hands, I can only think one thing: This is dangerous.”

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Loved the spooky factor!​ 😦 Totally delivered in that respect! Loved the mystery! Give me the clues to the connection! Enjoyed Kora's feelings as she tried to navigate her own bouts of uncertainty of being still worthy a friend to Sienna, often wondering if she disliked her for how weird she did behave at times. Sienna may have been a bit abrasive or curt at times, but I guess that was the attempt to keep the unease strong - in the sense that even someone who was a friend, may end up a foe.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ Oh, and ghosts! Elizabeth! ​The intensity in which she came forth - her sinister warnings - her desperation! Sure, ​there's the typical haunted house element, but it is the author's talent to bring it out in style for you to be in that haunted house with them​, in a town that is very weird -enough to give anyone the creeps. 😰​ And that trepidation and tension was spelled out nicely​, as they unearthed more puzzling thoughts and conflicting theories that​ started to shape the mystery into a much more sinister and foreboding one.​ 👍🏻

​​ “I can’t leave—not when I’m so close.”

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ And it was pretty much going swimmingly​ - the pull was hypnotic - the need to know and figure it out - I was all in! Until​ the explanations started to fester out. When the falling action took hold that failed to --- well, not scare me, but reason with me.​ 🤔 I​ mean, it is pretty much obvious who the culprit was; there was a severe lack of plausible suspects to play the blame game with. I liked the action and surreal feeling that came with it - the mounting terror that neither Kora and Sienna were going to be able to escape the town's haunting and daunting force​ and escape the clutches of a relentless force unwilling to let them go. 😓​ But, I did not feel happy with the end. It was not only abrupt, there was no closure on any side - the dead or the living, which I thought was sad and very unsatisfying. It's also how it went about - a weak explanation that didn't seem too fleshed out and not well explained that it was a bit confusing for me to grasp the connection.​ 🤷🏻‍♀️

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ​So, yeah, definitely props for the haunted, ghostly vibes. Elizabeth was ​scary! 👻​ The messages - even scarier, albeit predictable. But, I was ​so visibly​ irked by the abrupt ending - which may have employed a plot device I was famous for using in my fourth grade creative writing - that I couldn't find it in myself to forgive it for how disgruntled it left me feeling. But, if it is any consolation that the fact that it resembled a tactic that my classmates appreciated the unknown, then ​maybe​ this ending was the perfect one for middle grade readers to enjoy.​ ✨
Profile Image for Shadyside Library.
345 reviews122 followers
September 24, 2024
This book was great all the way up until the end. I thought it was unique, very creepy, and fun to read! Although, the twist ending was way too complex and didn’t exactly wrap things up. Aside from the last 20 pages or so, this book was a blast, just like most K.R. Alexander books.
Profile Image for Tiana Jazmine.
88 reviews2 followers
September 7, 2025
For a children's horror book, this concept was super interesting. I would love to see an adult or YA version with more fleshed out details.
Profile Image for Alex.
6,649 reviews1 follower
October 2, 2025
Reading Alexander's books are my new Halloween tradition, and this was such a great way to kick off my spooky reading month.
Profile Image for Kayla Carnicle.
18 reviews
October 28, 2025
I LOVED THIS BOOK. Reason, because the main character can see the ghost within the dead girls diary. Anything with ghosts, and I will devour the stories. Well, Kara and her friend were on an adventure to solve the ghosts death. How, she actually died and they figured it out. This is an interesting read, you will find it appealing.
1 review1 follower
March 10, 2025
Love this book.it has so many twists and turns!very interesting book.good for people that like a little bit of a more scary book.
540 reviews
Read
October 21, 2024
10.20.24. 7th.

Kara has always felt like an outcast her in hometown. She loves reading and only has 1 friend, Sienna. Oh, and she has visions of a dead girl's house. Things get really weird, though, when the dead girl's journal shows up at Kara's house & it's written in a script that only she can understand. Now, she and Sienna are headed to Elizabeth's (the ghost's) hometown to try to get some answers. How did she die? Why does she haunt Kara? And what will make this whole thing stop?
Profile Image for Destiny Diaz.
1 review
December 11, 2024
It was a good read from beginning to end without spoiling the book for other readers. Kara and Sienna mission to see what happened to Elizabeth was eventful. They traveled to the town where it all happened in and thought they wouldn’t much answers, but at the end a was a great twist. Even though the ending felt a little rushed.
Profile Image for Ms. Yingling.
3,929 reviews607 followers
September 9, 2024
Public library copy

Kara has long had creepy visions of memories that are not her own, and she has let her best friend Sienna know about them, since they sometimes stop her in her tracks. When she recieves a package that contains a diary, she shows it to her friend, who claims it is unreadable and written in gibberish. Kara, however, can read it, and know that the writer, Elizabeth Townsend, is the girl in her memories. She and Sienna decide to lie to their parents and travel about a hundred miles to the town where Elizabeth lived, and also where she died in a terrible drowning accident about twelve years ago. When they get to the town, they are surprised at how friendly everyone is. They even run into a boy, Mark, who offers to help them research more about Elizabeth. They lie to him and tell him that they are staying at a hotel at the edge of town with their families when they are really planning on staying in Elizabeth's family's abandoned house, and he shows up with pizza for them. The house is creepy, and Kara hears Elizabeth calling to her. Mark claims that he has visions, too, and offers to take the girls to the lake where Elizabeth drowned. Since Kara is being repeatedly warned to leave town, she thinks about it, but the girls are stuck. They go to the local library, when Mr. Hughes, the librarian, helps them get a lot of information. No one in town seems to think that Elizabeth's best friend, James, was responsible for her death, but dissuade the girls from trying to find him and talk to him, since it was a traumatic experience for him. There was a neighbor, Mr. Pierce, who was the target for increasingly unpleasant pranks that James wanted to pull, but he had been cleared of blame and had recently died. There are plenty of creepy experiences all over town, and when the girls finally try to leave, they are told that there are no busses for weeks. Going back to Elizabeth's house, they find more pages from the diary that lead them to a surprising truth about the town, Elizabeth, and even Kara's past before Kara's parents arrive to save them.
Strengths: My students love ghost stories, but they don't want nice, gentle ghosts who befriend people and teach them about the past. Oh, no. They want KILLER ghost who follow characters around, get into their heads, and terrorize them! I enjoyed the fact that no parents had to die; the girls run away from home on the bus. That's always an adventure, although I don't want my students to try this at home. This was a bit different from the typical "we've just moved and the house is haunted" tale, which I very much appreciated. There's a more pervasive feeling that something is wrong, and that it extends beyond Elizabeth's tragic death. Alexander's titles are always a sure hit, so make sure that if you are having a Scholastic book fair, you request a whole extra box of his titles. (Which are only available in paperback, which will make an entire generation of avid readers sad.)
Weaknesses: I don't want to give away the twist at the end, but I feel like the town needed a little more explanation. Young readers, however, will be fine with this fast paced story.
What I really think: Fans of this author's work will rush to pick this one up, and it's a good choice for readers who like killer ghosts with a history, like the ones who mean the main characters harm in Meija's It Happened to Anna, Ford's The Lonely Ghost, Duga's The Ghost in the Headlights, or Brown's The Girl in the Lake, or Priestly's Still Water.
Profile Image for kim baccellia.
329 reviews15 followers
September 27, 2024
Kara's sudden visions of terror haunt her. Now at age twelve the visions come more often and are scarier. One day she finds a diary on her doorstep with the possible answers to her visions. When Kara and her friend Sienna search for the truth they find a town that holds secrets. Secrets that they don't want others, including Kara, to reveal.

What worked: Fast-paced horror story of a girl with visions and a diary that leads her on a quest to find out what is behind the ghostly presence she's felt all her life.

Kara's visions flutter in and out with alarming frequency. When the diary of Elizabeth Townsend shows up on her doorstep, Kara is sure she's the same girl from her visions. Her BFF Sienna comes up with the idea to find out what happened to Elizabeth and that's where the story gets really strange. First, why is everyone in the town so friendly? Why do they strongly suggest Kara and Sienna leave the mystery alone? The deserted house's presence also is strange with Elizabeth's room not so dirty. This even after her death twelve years previously. And who is Mark?

A lot is going on in this paranormal mystery. I found some of the reveals predictable but the final answer was intriguing. Fans of K.R. Alexander's horror novels won't be disappointed.

A haunted diary leads two friends on a journey to discover a truth that might have deadly consequences.
Profile Image for Richard K. Wilson.
751 reviews130 followers
December 10, 2024
I've said this before.....I don't care WHAT age a book is written for, if it is good, then it is a GOOD book! and this is one of those! Alexander has another ghost story HIT!

When 12 year old Kara is told by her parents 'you have always lived here.....in this town we live in.' she KNOWS something is wrong. Why is someone telling her to 'come and find me.......here'? In her vision type episodes she has, she is seeing and hearing a girls by the name of Elizabeth talking to her and asking her to come and find out what happened to her almost a decade ago.

Kara and a school friend skip school one day and they decide to take a bus to Elizabeths' town where she lived. Now, they know where she lived because a couple weeks back Kara gets a book delivered to her at and on her front steps......a Dead Girls Diary!

I just got done listening to the audio book, and just like all the others, I will order a physical copy to keep along side the other of his books that I have started collecting! I really do believe that K.R. Alexander could take the reins from my favorite other YA ghost story author.......Mary Downing Hahn. The book was another fun, creepy little ghost story with a great twist ending as always.
Highly recommended to ANY age Lover of Horror Books!

4.5 screams
Profile Image for M. J. Pereira.
27 reviews
January 20, 2025
This book was great! Perfect for ages 9-10 and up, I'd say.
Easy and fun read.
This author reminds me of R. L. Stine. But I'd say his work is a bit simpler and more suitable for younger kids but can work both ways.
I ended up guessing who the "Murderer" was, which wasn't surprising to me. But even with that fact, I was still intrigued.
I found this at my library in the young adult section, though. Wouldn't say that was the correct placement, but..🤷🏽‍♀️
This could pass as a kids' book.
But, not bad.
Profile Image for Justthatgirl.
9 reviews
April 11, 2025
Wow. I enjoyed this book a lot. Even though I am saying that this book was very interesting, you may be wondering why I rated a four star and not a five. Let me explain that. Although the plot is very exciting and interesting, I think there is something missing. Personally, although the ghost girl was only haunting the main character, I kind of feel that the side character should have someone haunting her swell, whether it's because of the main character or because she has a secret, I feel that the side character deserves someone haunting her too.
Profile Image for lavi.
20 reviews
October 6, 2025
Questo libro anche se di a malapena 200 pagine mi ha letteralmente mandata in blocco
Non ho parole per descriverlo, anzi forse si: noioso, banale, superficiale…
Banale perché è il classico libro “”””””horror”””””” (se così si potrebbe descrivere) perché non fa per niente paura ed è completamente superficiale, come si sente la protagonista? Ci descrivi l’ambiente?…
E poi io mi chiedo perché 2 inette ragazzine devono andare a complicarsi la vita? Bho.
Libro orribile se volete iniziare con l’horror non traumatizzate nessuno con questo libro vi prego. Ci sono capolavori molto meglio di questo.
Profile Image for Destiny Liskey.
103 reviews
September 15, 2024
Wow. I love K.R.Alexander. I have read every book he has come out with and I would say this made it to my top five for sure. I loved this in every way possible. I was actually very surprised by the polt twist and loved how Alexander made me fell about the characters. As a huge fan please read this. I also think that this book could reach a wider audience then some of this other books like Darkroom. I still really liked Darkroom but I think others might not.
Profile Image for Chandler Black.
5 reviews1 follower
October 2, 2024
If I were an upper elementary or middle school student, this would be a good, creepy read! It is fast-paced, keeps you guessing, and has a twist at the end. This author is so popular with our 6th and 7th graders, and this was the first book I’ve read by him. Can’t wait to add this title to our school library for spooky season!
4 reviews
April 29, 2025
This book was something of an interesting book. It was a hard book to read considering that it didn't do the best job of keeping my attention but I thought that since I started it there was no harm in stopping reading in the middle of the book. If the book was a bit more interesting and not as repetitive, it would have been better to read.
Profile Image for Brittany Dean.
147 reviews
June 16, 2025
A spooky book! Full of suspense and chills! It’s about a girl finding a dead girls diary and having visions of her. She wants to find out more about who she is and how she died. So her best friend and her go on adventure to find out about her and her town that is overly friendly. What will they find? You will have to read to find out!
132 reviews
October 31, 2024
Another great book by K R Alexander!!

Kara has always felt a ghostly presence in her life. The vision are becoming more frequent and more scary. One day a mysterious diary arrives on her doorstep, will this diary help her discover the identity of the girl who haunts her.
1 review
November 13, 2024
I read this book aloud to my fifth grade class. They were on the edged of their seats the entire time. Each day,They begged me to continue. The action draws the reader in from page one. Many chapters are cliffhangers. Highly recommend for any young reluctant readers.
Profile Image for Angela Sandoval.
264 reviews2 followers
February 4, 2025
A fast-paced, suspenseful, highly creepy read. KR Alexander is the king of middle school horror! As an adult reader, I'd have liked to know the history behind this cursed town. But that doesn't diminish the enjoyment of the book. Another one our middle school students will love!
Profile Image for Katelyn.
317 reviews
June 30, 2025
A truly dark, but not too dark, gripping story with a big plot twist with the characters which I was not expecting. I was only able to put the book down a few times until it was finished ♥ I am looking forward to reading the other books I had seen at the library today that the author has written ♥
Profile Image for Willow Hayes.
4 reviews
August 21, 2025
This book was AWESOME! My friend gave me the book during class and she was like “I think you will like this…” I read it in 2 days! This is a GREAT book for people who like thrillers like IRL. It is a really good cliff hanger and mystery book!
Profile Image for Carly [A Beauty & Her Books].
351 reviews21 followers
November 5, 2025
For an MG book, it was good, a bit spooky. I found it from a Psychological Thriller group on FB that raved about this, but I'm not sure if its really up there with some of the other books from this author 🤷‍♀️
Profile Image for Ana.
2,043 reviews
November 20, 2025
3.5 stars. I liked it as a spooky middle grade novel. I liked the characters and the spoon knees was good. I think I would have loved this as a kid, but I think adult me is less sure about the twist at the end.
Profile Image for Samantha.
29 reviews
July 31, 2024
Read this ahead of book fair season and definitely recommend it as an enjoyable, creepy story for middle school and high school kids!!
10 reviews
October 10, 2024
i LOVED this book this is now in my top 5 favorite books by K.R. and K.R. if your reading this PLEASE MAKE MORE!!!
2 reviews
October 26, 2024
While I am biased (I was friends with the author growing up) I really enjoyed this book. A quick, easy read that’s just spooky enough! Love every book he’s written!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews

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