From the back of the book: “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-eyes ‘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 isn’t enough…”

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I just need to say it: I hate Bridget.  Bridget is that girl from high school we all love to hate.  She may be pretty, but her personality makes her ugly.  She’s nasty, manipulative, conceited, … she’s just a well rounded jerk.  That being said, Harbison’s portrayal of Bridget is stupendous; I actually felt like Bridget was going to walk right off the page and pay me an unwanted visit.  As the reader, we’re supposed to dislike Bridget, a lot, and with the feelings I harbor towards her, I’d say Harbison did a great job creating her!    

With such great characterization, I believe this novel had the potential to soar.  However, the novel was a little too long winded and repetitive for my taste.  Writing a piece that deals with the same experiences, viewed multiple times, is very tricky to master.  It is extremely easy for the text to become repetitive, and this is what happens in Here Lies Bridget.  The first half of the novel sets the scene: you meet Bridget and the other characters in the book, and you observe everything from Bridget’s point of view.  I really enjoyed that portion, even though I wanted to strangle Bridget the entire time.  The second half of the book, however, deals with Bridget reliving the same scenarios over again, only this time she is inside the mind of the person she hurt.  It is here that I started noticing the vast amount of repetition; the same scenarios unfolded, and the same dialogue was repeated.  As I already knew what had transpired between Bridget and the other characters, I didn’t need, or want, to re-read the dialogue.  I was more interested in what the other characters were thinking and feeling.  In Harbison’s defense, these new scenes did add the thoughts and feelings of the other characters, but it was minimal, and I was left wanting more.  The thoughts and feelings the characters reveal do not strike me as being the crux that can change Bridget’s cold heart.  Her character is evil; she has hardly any redeeming qualities.  So, I can’t say I was surprised by the ending of the novel, but I will admit that I was less than pleased with it.  Hence, I’m on the fence with my personal rating.  I did like the novel, but I remain frustrated.  Three and a half stars.