Here Lies Bridget by Paige Harbison

Summary/Cover Image from Author's Website:

What do you do when the five people you meet in limbo all want you to go to hell?

Bridget Duke is the uncontested ruler of her school. The meanest girl with the biggest secret insecurities. And when new girl Anna Judge arrives, things start to fall apart for Bridget: friends don’t worship as attentively, teachers don’t fall for her wide-eyed “who me?” look, expulsion looms ahead and the one boy she’s always loved--Liam Ward--can barely even look at her anymore.

When a desperate Bridget drives too fast and crashes her car, she ends up in limbo, facing everyone she’s wronged and walking a few uncomfortable miles in their shoes. Now she has only one chance to make a last impression. Though she might end up dead, she has one last shot at redemption and the chance to right the wrongs she’s inflicted on the people who mean the most to her.

And Bridget’s about to learn that, sometimes, saying you’re sorry just isn’t enough.

Review:

I've been looking forward to reading Here Lies Bridget ever since I first heard about it because I loved the idea of having not only a mean girl be the main character, but also having the mean girl face her mean girl ways in a limbo type setting.

Luckily, Here Lies Bridget proved to be well-worth a read because it's funny, interesting, and fast paced- a debut I thoroughly enjoyed.

Bridget Duke is without a doubt the meanest girl in her high school and she's not hesitant at all to admit it. She's the girl who'll tell if you look fat, or if she thinks your over-stepping on her turf... she makes you fear and want to be her. But lately, her power over everyone is slipping. For one, there's a new girl who has caught the eye of Bridget's ex-boyfriend, the guy that Bridget still secretly loves, and everyone else. Furthermore, she's getting closer and closer to being expelled and loosing all of her friends because of her mean girl ways. So after a freak accident lands her in limbo, will she be able to see what she did wrong and not change it but the way she rules her life as well? Or will she fall to admit she has a problem along with a huge load of insecurities?

Bridget...there's so much to say about this one girl. For one, I'm not at all hesitant to admit that for the most part I really, really despised her. She was mean, heartless, and barley gave her friends or family the time of day, yet alone be there for them when they needed her the most. Though, the thing is, I could understand why she was the way she was, because in all seriousness, as the reader finds out within the book, Bridget has had a tough life, and while some of her problems mostly come from her belligerent attitude, some come from the fact that she has a hard time with trust and letting go. And because of this, I still managed to root for her to become the nice girl she used to be for the whole book, because I didn't want her to fail and stay the same, as I'm sure most other readers will feel. Instead I wanted her to embrace a better life, one where she could like herself and most importantly be herself.

With that being said, I actually really liked the other characters such as Bridget's step-mom, Bridget's friends, and Bridget's ex-boyfriend because all where important parts in the story as well as Bridget's chance of recovery.

Another high point of Here Lies Bridget was the plot. As mentioned before I loved the idea of a mean girl facing her mean girl ways in a limbo type setting because it kind of reminded me of Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall, a book I absolutely loved. I always thought it was interesting to see Bridget face all the stuff she did to the people who cared about her in limbo because it caused a lot of tension and excitement as you wondered how everything would turn out.

The only aspect I wasn't too found of in Here Lies Bridget was the back story. It took Paige a long time to get to the good stuff so to say, and some of that time kind of left me bored to tears, though by the time I got to the good part, I truly appreciated it even more.

In all, even with that, Here Lies Bridget is a highly addicting tale of a mean girl's path of recovery. I can't wait to see what Ms. Harbison comes up with next!

Grade: B

Here Lies Bridget will be released February 1, 2011!

Source: Netgalley