Katie Alender Books In Order

Publication Order of Bad Girls Don't Die Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Katie Alender is a young adult fantasy author that is best known for the “Bad Girls Don’t Die” series of novels. She was brought up In South Florida and studied Communication Arts at the Palm Beach County School of the Arts. Once she graduated from high school, she went to Florida State University Film School where she studied film. She then moved to LA where she got a job working in TV production and development for several years. Some of her work included several years producing “Animal Planet” shows. Her first brush with publishing was when she was in high school and had “So You Want to Live on Mars” an article that she wrote published. She published “Bad Girls Don’t Die” her debut novel and the first in the Bad Girls “Don’t Die” series in 2009. She is a member of the International Thriller Writers and the Society of Children’s Book Illustrators and Book Writers. When she is not writing her novels she can be found hanging out with her family, reading, playing board games, gardening, cooking and sewing.

Alender first realized she wanted to become an author when she was in the fourth grade. Her grade teacher loved asking her learners to hand in stories every week and it was at this point that she got an interest in authorship. However, since she was still a child, she also wanted to be an otter caretaker, artist and marathon runner all at the same time. It was not until she was graduating from college and went on to work in Hollywood that she realized she was still fascinated by the art of creating characters and fictional worlds. She started working on a manuscript in her free time but gave up after writing about 100 pages. It was when she got the idea for her debut novel that things started happening. She has always loved “The Cloister Walk” by Kathleen Norris which influenced her state of mind. “On Writing” by Stephen King was something she started reading after she got stuck and it made her finally be able to get unstuck. She has also read countless fiction and young adult writing all of which influenced her writing.

The idea for the “Bad Girls Don’t Die” series of novels came to Katie Alender while she was daydreaming one evening. She had an idea about two sisters that were desperate to learn the facts of the family’s history. They tell each other made up stories but then the stories of the younger sister start coming true in a bizarre way while the older one has to deal with the consequences. She started working on the novel at the airport in 2002 while she headed to Istanbul Turkey to attend her brother’s wedding. She was still reading “On Writing” by Stephen King and there at JFK, it struck her that she could make a great story out of the idea. Once she was back home, she got down to writing and within a year she had finished the manuscript. Just like recommended by King, she let the manuscript sit for a year before she could come back to it for editing and revision. But by the time she dug it out of the drawer, she had a very demanding job. She found she did not have time to deal with revision, rewrites and editing until she decided to start working on it late at night or early in the morning. It took several years of revising and rewriting to get the settings, characters and plots just right. The manuscript was finally sold in 2006 and she has never looked back since.

“Bad Girls Don’t Die” by Katie Alender is the story of Alexis, a girl that had a very dysfunctional experience in high school. Dysfunctional is not something new in her family as her parents have the worst marriage ever while her twelve year old sister is obsessed with dolls. Things seem to be changing when there is a huge fight between her and her sister and this surprisingly causes the two sisters to bond over tears. But Alexis thinks that her life is going from dysfunction and into dangerous territory. Her sister Kasey has become even weirder as she uses archaic language, turns her eyes green from blue, forgets huge swathes of times and seems oblivious of her strange behavior. It is not only her sister who is changing but also their old house where water boils on stoves that are unlit; a switched off air conditioner cools the house to freezing and doors close and open by themselves. Alexis wants to believe that she may be hallucinating but things get very interesting when she realizes that her life is in danger. Her new romance with the class president is also under threat and she starts to think that it may have something to do with her sister who just may not be who they think she is.

Katie Alender’s “From Bad to Cursed” continues to follow the life and times of Alexis. She is not someone you would think would sell her soul. She got all she needs including her little sister, the perfect best friend and an adorable boyfriend. She is thrilled to learn that Kasey joined a club as she needs friends if she is to recover from her ordeal. But she finds it strange how fast the girls of the club go from antisocial and dorky to popular and gorgeous. It is not long before Alexis realizes that her sister and her club mates have pledged loyalty to Aralt, who claims to be a benevolent spirit. She is worried about her sister and teaming up with Morgan her friend they decide to conduct investigations. They have to join the club and once they are in, they find Aralt to be seemingly harmless. Alexis is soon after trading her punky clothes and pink hair for a contemporary look and enjoying her newfound success and elegance. Alexis no longer remembers why they joined the club and rather than fighting Aralt, they now love him and would not do anything to the spirit that had transformed her life without asking for any favors.

In “As Dead as it Gets” by Katie Alender, Alexis is still coming to terms with the death of Lydia Small which she was a witness to. The girl had died from some supernatural powers and Alexis and her friends may regret using supernatural powers to get popular and trendy. Most people think Alexis killed Lydia even as Lydia’s ghost now stalks her and she sees yellow roses everywhere she goes. The yellow rose happens to be the dead girl’s signature flower and it seems that she is telling Alexis that she coming after her. It is not long before people are going missing with only a yellow rose left behind. Alexis needs to protect Kasey but is also dealing with a new romance she started with a boy that may not be what he says he is. She needs to remain strong if she is to resolve a complicated mystery about the death of Lydia.