H is for Here Lies Bridget

Author: Paige Harbison
Genre: Young Adult, Fiction
Source: Netgalley
Rating: 3.5/5

Description: 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: Bridget is the Queen "B" of both her school and home. Teachers, friends, even her stepmother, all eat out the palm of her hand. Everyone does what Bridget wants, despite the fact that she lies to get what she wants and treats everyone like they're less than dirt. All that changes when Anna Judge comes along. Anna, who's actually nice and considerate - the exact opposite of Bridget - quickly becomes popular after only one day at school. Now, teachers no longer fall for Bridget's lies, her friends challenge her, and her ex-boyfriend, Liam (who she's still in love with) can't look at her. Everyone, including Liam, likes Anna.

This, of course, pisses Bridget off. It scares her to as now it's no longer all about Bridget. After an exceptionally bad day, Bridget makes a fatal mistake, crashing her car, sending her to a sort of limbo. Here, she's confronted by Anna and the people she's wronged. She's forced to walk in their shoes and see herself from their eyes. She's given 24 hours to make things right or risk staying dead forever.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE

• My biggest issue is it takes a while for me to feel sorry for Bridget. She's extremely mean and nasty to everyone around her and I just didn't like her at first. I felt more sympathy for the people she treated horribly.

• Too much of the book focused on Bridget being the mean girl. I understand some of her insecurities and she had problems. Maybe those could have come out more. I also think maybe a big chunk of the book should have focused on her being in limbo,the shoe walking, and making things right, rather than her mean girl ways.

WHAT I DID LIKE

• Ok, while it did take a while to feel sorry for Bridget, there were times where I got a twinge of sympathy. Those were the times we got a glimpse of her problems :absentee father, missing her dead mother, insecurities. I just wish we could've seen a little more of that side of her.

• I like the premise of the story...the whole "walk a mile in my shoes" kind of thing.

• While I think the limbo thing should have taken a little longer, I'm glad she didn't change after her first visit. That would have been totally fake. After her first visit, she was still a spoiled mean girl.

• I like the fact that Bridget had to feel what the others were feeling each time she treated them like dirt. She actually became her friends, teacher, stepmother, etc so she felt their emotions...their pain. Not a good feeling for her, but it helped in her transformation.

Here Lies Bridget has been compared to Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall. I haven't read Ms. Oliver's book (maybe I should, tho), so I can't make any comparison. Despite the few issues I had with it, Here Lies Bridget was an pretty good read.