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thisismybooknook 's review for:

The Locked Ward by Sarah Pekkanen
4.0
challenging hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced
Loveable characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

 When I tell you I squealed when I got my ARC approval for this one, it wouldn't be an exaggeration. Sarah Pekkanen has been on my auto-buy list whenever I see her books in stores ever since I read the first one. This book comes with a very interesting blurb, which drew me in as well. Finding out you have a sister when you're in your thirties and she's been put in the locked ward due to possibly offing her other sister? Count me IN!

I admit this book was a little slow in the beginning for me because I wasn't connecting to Mandy - but I absolutely loved the thrill of Georgia's POV's. I very quickly got engulfed into both storylines and kept turning pages because I needed to know what happened next. I think I finished the last 50% of the book in one sitting! As someone who's read a lot of thrillers, I feel like sometimes it feels easy to predict what's coming next... but with this book, there were so many things that made me go "what if" and in the end I still didn't know it, even though I could have.

The Locked Ward publishes August 5th, 2025. Thank you to NetGalley, Sarah Pekkanen, and St Martin's Press for the advanced copy. All thoughts are my own!