Book Review: "Darling Girls" by Sally Hepworth

When it comes to female-centric thrillers I have to say that I am normally the first one to go ‘absolutely, yes and then some’. For the past few weeks I have been trying to delve into stuff a little outside this realm. Books that perhaps have more dialogue than I would normally read, books that are more drama and gossip than simply murder mystery or thriller and of course, books that include themes that normally, I would not care about - such as romance. In this novel, there is a wide range of things going on and though the first time I saw the book I thought ‘am I really going to like this?’ I can tell you know that I did, in fact, thoroughly enjoy this reading experience.

This book is about three girls who are all sisters in the same foster home. There is Jessica, who arrives as a young child and is dyer helpful, there is Norah who arrives a bit later and is quite violent and angry, then there is Alicia who is the one who is grieving the hospitalisation of her grandmother. They start off their foster lives normally (well, except for Alicia) and then the mother, Miss Fairchild, becomes abusive towards them. She forces them to clean an already clean house for hours and hours a day, she gets them to run her errands for her, they aren’t allowed to go anywhere or do anything without her permission.

It gets progressively worse when Miss Fairchild has to accept money from the church to help out with bills at home. A man named John from this church weaves his way into the lives of all the girls in the home and is hell bent on being as abusive as physically possible to the girls. This includes, dragging them by their ears, locking them in the basement without food or water and beating them.

As this story is being told from twenty-five years' before, we are also thrust back into the present where the only reason these three girls who are now women have returned to their foster home is because of the fact the house was being demolished and bones were found underneath it. As the police bring the girls in for questioning, they admit that they really don't know anything about the body. When they meet more of these girls, we start to think about how Miss Fairchild may not be telling the whole truth about what happened at this foster home.

The story opens with a psychiatrist talking to an unknown client and yet, this unknown client seems to know a lot about the story - constantly implicating various people. But the question throughout this book is who did it, why did they do it and who is Amy?

The writing style in this book is a little bit more fast-paced than things I am used to - but that didn't bother me in the slightest. It is meant to be a bit quick, short chapters and all of that. I liked the fact that each of the sisters had their own unique personality which means that you would never get them mixed up regardless of who was speaking. They each had a very individualised voice and experience even though they basically lived through the same thing.

When it came to the story, I will say that when you think the mystery is solved, it isn't you have to carry on reading. Your entire perspective of the story will change on the final ten pages and you will realise what has actually been going on. To be honest, I really should have caught on earlier than I did because the explanation offered about halfway through the book seemed almost too easy.

I really enjoyed this one and if you're into a fast-paced thriller I would definitely recommend it. Even if you aren't - this is a great place to start. I have to say that thanks to this I am definitely going to be reading more of this author's work now. I feel like this was very clever, well-written, well-plotted and the weaving of different stories was part and parcel to how it all kind of came together at the end. I would definitely add this to you 'to be read' pile.