ARA Review by Andromeda Flynn of The Girl Who Cheated Death

[Andromeda Flynn]

[Following is an OnlineBookClub.org ARA Review of the book, The Girl Who Cheated Death.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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The Girl Who Cheated Death: A Supernatural Suspense Thriller by Alan Baker is a psychological thriller about a young woman who survives a fatal car crash. Upon her family's death she witnesses Death and becomes haunted by it, as Death is now phsically visable and makes numberous appearances after discovering Alex can see him. How to make him disappear and stop haunting her is all that Alex can think about besides the loss of her parents. Meanwhile, Alex begins to fall in love with the boy that has always loved her and helps her on her journey.


I rate this book 4 out of 5 stars as I absolutely adored the first half of this book, for the most part. The story was excellent and captivating especially after Alex begins a relationship with Carl. How Carl cares for and protects Alex is beautiful. How Alex begins to live her life and face Death is brilliant. However, there were several other things that made me lose my captivation with the story, characters, and the book overall. My rating remains high because I did enjoy the story. There were just things that needed to be fixed or taken out within the story for me to fully enjoy it and be able to give it a full 5 star review rating.


Firstly, at the party when Jeremy goes too far, Alex's response was too extreme and she claimed Jeremy tried to rape her. The word rape was used a few times relating to this event, although she was violated, it felt like a false accusation which made me cringe. Molested is a strong word which would have been accurate. He raped her as much as she murdered him after striking him. Wishing she could do it again even after facing extreme obstacles and loss seemed unrealistic. Justice was served and he tried to apologize instead of press charges. Another thing that made me cringe was comparing the first sip of coffee to a an addicts fulfillment of cocain, which was too extreme. A nicotine addicts first cigarette inhale of the day would've been a perfect metaphor.


Alex was jealous of Kate and Jeremy but not of Carl. She was so mad she even wanted to disown Kate for Jeremy and felt betrayed. This did not happen with Carl. She was able to act as if it didn't bother her, even if she felt differently. Also, her first sexual experience felt unnatural. Whether she is shy and avoidant or extreme and reflexive consistently clash in ways that don't make sense. People are allowed to be contradictory but not in moments where quick judgemental without thought are concerned, or a virgin being shy one day and admiring a boy that kisses her with distance, or one that wants to be groped and do things in the school parking lot.


The second half of the book lost me almost entirely. Time travel is a difficult subject and the butterfly effect more so. It confused me and I couldn't make sense of many things including the little boy that was saved, as that event still happened in both realities, although it also hadn't happened because there wasn't a time where it was done. Kate and Carl also didn't sit well, especially given Alex's reaction or lack thereof. The ending was good, and made sense why Death kept telling Alex she had escaped him which didn't make sense at ant other moment during the book because surviving doesn't mean cheating death. It wasn't Alex's fault or doing Death took the wrong person.

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