Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth

41 reviews

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I had anxiously been awaiting for this new book by Sally Hepworth and it did not disappoint. Another great read that made it hard to put down and has twists up to the end that I didn't see coming! 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Loveable characters: Complicated

Wowza, I think this is Sally Hepworth's darkest story. I haven't read everything she has written but have read quite a few of hers The content of Darling Girls is definitely not for the faint of heart. Even with all of the trigger warnings, this story was very propulsive and that feeling started at the very beginning of the book. Hepworth writes suspense really well with characters you want to figure out. If you have read and loved her books in the past and can handle more toxicity in the storyline and characters, I think you will enjoy this one too.. If you're looking at Darling Girls being your first by the author, I urge you to tread lightly and explore her backlist!

Darling Girls is out April 23rd! Thank you St. Martin's Press and Netgalley or my e-arc!

Content warnings: verbal, physical, sexual and emotional abuse; all the negatives of foster care; neglect; malnutrition; death of a child; and likely more I am forgetting at the moment!!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

What on Earth did I just read !?!? 🤯🤯🤯

I absolutely devoured this book! I will say please k is there are triggers for this book in my opinion and the biggest one being child abuse.

Right when I thought this book couldn’t get anymore dark the ending just jumped out and made my jaw drop to the ground! And that alone gave it five stars for me. However the entire book was so incredibly done. I love all the shocking events and turns of events. I loved trying to figure out what happened to Amy along with the three girls. Just bravo on this book 👏🏻 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The most fascinating part about Darling Girls to me is not necessarily the story itself, but moreso how Sally Hepworth utilizes her writing not as a way to tell a story, but instead as a tool for leading the reader in a direct direction of her own creation. The reader is given information in which they can draw a conclusion of their own, but that conclusion is constantly undermined by brand new information almost as soon as their conclusion is drawn. In her particular style of writing, it fully feels as though the reader cannot trust themselves or the information given, and that heightens the experience of reading through Darling Girls.

In this way, Sally Hepworth's story is not just one about weaving together a tale for the reader to enjoy, but we are actively put within the investigative role, and behind the scenes, we know even less than we thought was the case. Much like how in art, an artist will utilize leading lines and negative space that gives the viewer a forced, cramped perspective and leads us in a specific direction, Sally's own writing does the very same: in Darling Girls, forced perspective is combined with unreliable narrators centering the mystery right through to the very end with a surprising, demented, and disturbing twist ending within the very last pages.

An absolutely delightful read the entire way through with distressing situations that made me cringe in horror.

Thank you Netgalley, Sally Hepworth, and St. Martin's Press for this arc!

Further thoughts and spoilers can be read on my blogspot: https://booksifixion.blogspot.com/2024/01/darling-girls-sally-hepworth-review-and.html

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Man I did not enjoy this. I think it was honestly misrepresented in advertising and as what Hepworth usually writes. For me, this was definitely not a thriller/mystery and wasn’t in the genre at all. It slogged on and switched between three characters and their past perspectives weaving a story of abuse, foster care, and child endangerment. As a survivour, this came across as a weird glorified story of children that are abused, are messed up as adults, and then by the end it’s all good to go. I had a hard time finding any interest in this as it was all just abuse, abuse, this child was abused. It wasn’t even triggering, it just lacked any sort of depth. It read more like a fucked up memoir of being raised by an abusive foster parent than any sort of thriller or crime story. And then at the very end, PLOT TWIST, this person was lying THE. WHOLE. TIME. This really missed for me and I honestly don’t think I’d read another by this authour in the future. 

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC

Expand filter menu Content Warnings