Reviews with content warning for Torture - Darling Girls

This book features dual timelines, three narrators, including one incrediby unreliable one, and a *major* twist at the very end. One I surely didn't see coming. It is so good. Definitely add it to your TBR.

Content Warnings

kelly_e's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Title: Darling Girls
Author: Sally Hepworth
Genre: Domestic Suspense
Rating: 3.75
Pub Date: April 23, 2024

I received complimentary eARC and ALC copies from St. Martin's Press and Macmillan audio via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #Gifted

T H R E E • W O R D S

Bingeable • Unsettling • Heartbreaking

📖 S Y N O P S I S

From the outside, Alicia, Jessica and Norah might seem like ordinary women you'd meet on the street any day of the week. Sure, Jessica has a little OCD and Norah has some anger issues. And Alicia has low self-esteem that manifests itself in surprising ways. But these three have a bond that no one can fully understand. It's a bond that takes them back decades, to when they were girls, and they lived on a farm with a foster mother named Miss Fairchild.

Miss Fairchild had rules. Miss Fairchild could be unpredictable. And Miss Fairchild was never, ever to be crossed.

In a moment of desperation, the three broke away from Miss Fairchild, and they thought they were free. But the reach of someone with such power is long, and even though they never saw her again, she was always somewhere in the shadows of their minds.

When bones are discovered buried under the farmhouse of their childhood, they are called in by the police to tell what they know. Against their will, they are brought back to the past, and to Miss Fairchild herself.

💭 T H O U G H T S

Darling Girls was an easy add to my TBR when it was announced. I can always count on Sally Hepworth to bring the drama and keep me turning the pages. Marketed as a thriller, in my opinion, her books landed more on the domestic and/or psychological mystery/suspense side of the coin. No matter how you choose to classify them, they tend to be the type of 'thriller' that works for me.

Told from the POVs of three sisters - Jessica, Norah and Alicia, and with mysterious physiatrist sessions interspersed throughout, the plot in this one was deeply haunting. The push and pull of the past and present day timelines came across more as if information was being withheld rather than the slow reveal of the necessary pieces.

Each of the girls had their own distinctive personality, yet their relationship with one another was solid. They bonded over their awful circumstances and it really showed how, even years later, their relationship is strong with a need to stick together. As for Mrs. Fairchild, she was an absolute monster! Sally has done a phenomenal job with her character arc because she definitely had the ick factor. Her lies and gaslighting were so cruel and manipulative, and narcissistic actions churned my stomach, culminating in one final revelation in the last chapter which was absolutely revolting.

While the setting has played a huge role in some of Sally's previous works, I didn't find that to be the case here. There was some much atmospheric potential to make Wild Meadows its own character and I think it would have added a whole other layer to the story if she'd chosen to go that route.

The audiobook read by Jessica Clarke was fine. It added a layer of tension, yet there was also room for improvement. Given the story is told from multiple POVs, and especially with the mystery character therapy sessions interspersed throughout, having multiple narrators or at the very least a clear distinction between each would have elevated the audiobook experience.

While I know some people are going to love this book because of the final chapter, unfortunately, it has the opposite effect for me. In all honesty, it felt like it was added simply for shock value and to leave the leader with their mouth hanging open. To me, the book would have been stronger without it and it lowered my rating.

Darling Girls is certainly not my favourite Sally Hepworth book, yet I enjoyed it significantly more than her 2023 release The Soulmate. It opens up the conversation surrounding a foster care system that doesn't always protect the children involved. Yet it's important to keep in mind, that for every horror story like this one there are many stories filled with love. Sally continues to be an auto-read author for me and I will be curious to see where she goes next.

📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• strong sister bonds
• found family
• mysterious bodies

⚠️ CW: child abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, domestic abuse, sexual abuse, sexual assault, rape, sexual violence, pedophilia, neglect, abandonment, toxic relationship, gaslighting, bullying, confinement, kidnapping, torture, body shaming, violence, injury/injury detail, adoption, death, murder, child death, death of parent, mental illness, drug use, prescription drug abuse, addiction, attempted suicide, overdose, PTSD, panic attacks/disorders, pregnancy, vomit, alcohol, cursing

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"Love and security were the most basic of rights. Forcing these kids to believe they were lucky to have that was even more damaging than what some of them experienced in care."

Content Warnings

kimveach's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Dark, creepy, and I couldn't put it down.

Content Warnings

rashmipmenon's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth is a masterfully crafted slow burn psychological thriller that keeps you hooked till the end. Set in Australia, the story is told in multiple POVs focusing on three women—Jessica, Norah, and Alicia—who met as children in their foster home, Wild Meadows. They form an unbreakable bond of sisterhood borne out of necessity and the urge to protect each other from their maniacal foster mother, Holly Fairchild. Miss Fairchild runs a tight ship often employing cunning manipulations and psychological games to control the girls, leaving them with lifelong scars. Twenty five years after leaving their foster home, the women continue to stay close and keep each other protected as sisters. A haunting phone call from law enforcement forces them to return to Wild Meadows. A set of bones unearthed from under their old foster home now threatens to dig into their past and shared ordeals that they each have been trying to forget.

The best aspect of this book are its unique and complex characters. Jessica, the oldest of the three women and Miss Fairchild’s first foster child is the most complex of them, battling her internal struggles and a drug addiction. Norah is the strong one with an affinity to violence. She joined the foster home at the age of ten after being in a series of foster homes and enduring trauma in every way a young girl can. Her violent behavior controls her adult life as she often gets in trouble with law enforcement and relies on her sisters to bail her out. Alicia was a soft gentle twelve-year-old who was forced to join the foster home when her grandmother and primary caretaker passed away. Her traumatic experience led her to become a social worker, helping young children, often getting emotionally attached to her cases. I love how Sally Hepworth managed to keep each character’s voice and personality unique. It is hard to select a favorite because I loved all three characters, be it Norah’s blend of sarcasm and vulnerability, Alicia’s sweet and caring nature, or Jessica’s complex layers that is unraveled slowly throughout the book.

Despite being a slow burn, the pacing of the book is just right, managing to hit all key notes at the exact intervals. The story unfolds in dual timelines as each woman narrates their past and present. There is one additional POV between an unidentified woman and her therapist that is sprinkled in between chapters. The story, as it unraveled, kept me on my toes and the twists were all added in the right moments. The climax was one I thought I had seen it coming but the ending proved me wrong. I have never been happier to be wrong about something!

I listened to the audiobook version of the book. The narration by Jessica Clarke was good. Because this was a multi-POV novel, I would’ve preferred a cast of narrators for the three women instead of a single narrator. That is not to say that Jessica Clarke wasn’t enough. She was great and brought the needed depth and personality to the characters in each chapter.

Overall, I give this a 4.75 stars rounded up to 5.

Thanks to @Netgalley and @MacMillanAudio for the audiobook arc of the book. All opinions stated above are my own.

Content Warnings

kaylasbookgram's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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 👏🏻

Content Warnings

nanirump's review

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dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

holdenwunders_'s review against another edition

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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

2.0

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

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