A review by emilymf
The Locked Ward by Sarah Pekkanen

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This was a really interesting thriller. I liked how it was told from both Georgia's and Mandy's POV, allowing us to know as much as possible and adding some dramatic irony when we knew something one of our narrators didn't. The second person POV for Georgia threw me off at first since it's not a super common POV to use, but I got used to it as I read. It's really easy to follow along -- there are plenty of details to keep you intrigued, but you're not disoriented by all the moving parts. The tension that we see in the psych ward helps to keep tension high during the exposition, which can then be replaced by the actual plot as we start learning what happened leading up to/the night of Annabelle's death. I was surprised by a lot of the reveals, and there were a few things that I thought "this could be x" and it ended up being x. I really wanted to keep reading to see what would happen next, especially past the halfway point when the plot gets more complex. It was also interesting to learn about Georgia and Mandy as characters, as well as their pasts. One thing I didn't love was the constant references to the twins' connection (sharing feelings, dreams, etc.); I know that some of that is documented for specific cases, but it felt a little overboard sometimes. There were also some minor things that felt slightly unresolved/dropped, but it wasn't anything major enough to the plotline to make me feel unsatisfied by the ending. I also thought the pacing was maybe a little unsteady in the beginning (it might've been that it felt a little hard to believe some of the choices?), but that began to smooth itself out further into the story. Overall I would recommend this book to thriller readers -- there were times when I didn't want to put this down (even to go to bed)!

Thank you so much to Net Galley and St Martin's Press for an advanced ebook copy in exchange for my honest review!
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