Darling Girls

by Sally Hepworth

SISTERS, SECRETS, LOVE, AND MURDER... Sally Hepworth’s novel Darling Girls has it all.

For as long as they can remember, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia have been told how lucky they are. As young girls they were rescued from family tragedies and raised by a loving foster mother, Miss Fairchild, on an idyllic farming estate and given an elusive second chance at a happy family life. 

But their childhood wasn’t the fairy tale everyone thinks it was. 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 thought they were free. Even though they never saw her again, she was always somewhere in the shadows of their minds. When a body is discovered under the home they grew up in, the foster sisters find themselves thrust into the spotlight as key witnesses. Or are they prime suspects?

A thrilling page-turner of sisterhood, secrets, love, and murder by New York Times bestselling author Sally Hepworth.

• ISBN10: 125028452X
• ISBN13: 9781250284525
• Publish Date: 23 April 2024
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 368
• Language: English
• URL: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250284525/darlinggirls/

Reviews

[Quirky Cat]

Book Summary:

Jessica, Norah, and Alicia may not be bound by blood – but they are sisters nonetheless. The woman that brought them together is no longer in their life and with good reason. They escaped from Miss Fairchild and never looked back.

Until now, a body has been found on the farm they once called home. The sisters think they know who it is, but given how young they were when it happened, it will be a challenge to get anyone to take them seriously.

My Review:

Hrm. What to make of Darling Girls? Well, it's a complex web of stories, that's for sure! Things never seemed to go how I expected, for better or worse. Overall, I'd say that this was a compelling read – but perhaps not the strongest I've read this month.

Darling Girls has four different perspectives, the three sisters and one surprise (left intentionally vague until the end). Their tales help to intentionally obfuscate the truth. I don't mind this writing trick, and I certainly enjoyed how different each sister was.

That said, something bothered me throughout this book. It took me until the end to put my finger on it—the blasé relationship with reality. I get it—it's a thriller! But sometimes, what was described is not how things would go down in real life (again, for better or worse). But that's just me nitpicking, so I won't let that affect my overall review that much.

I do think the three primary perspectives were stronger than the fourth. There's a reason I feel this way, and it has a lot to do with the big reveal at the end. Naturally, that means I can't go into too much detail.

Long story short, Darling Girls is another fascinating read from the mind of Sally Hepworth. Be sure to check it out! (But also, check the trigger warnings first).

Highlights:
Suspense/Thriller
Multiple Perspectives
Unreliable Narrators

Trigger Warnings
Child/Domestic/Sexual Abuse
OCD
Childhood Trauma

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[Jeff Sexton]

Excellent Twisty Thriller With Uniquely Broken Characters Will Be Far Too Difficult For Some. Straight up, I loved this one. It was so *oppressively* dark, yet done in such a way that even though there is truly little light to be had and also with no supernatural element to the darkness at all... you still want to see exactly what happened to make this tale this way.  

 

The reason it will be difficult for some, perhaps many, is because of the *rampant* child abuse, including some sexual abuse and even a rape - though while "on screen" it is more "dark room" based. Still described, but not as... vividly... as it could have been. Showing that Hepworth *does* show restraint when going even more explicit doesn't add anything further to the actual story. There is also a rather horrifying birth scene, though this is far from the "splatterpunk" / "horror" that one reviewer described it as. Though going further would perhaps spoil what happens there *too* much, so I'll show the same restraint in the review that Hepworth did in the text. If such scenes are difficult for you... this may not be the book for you.

 

The reason I actually enjoyed the book though was because of how the central characters - three chosen sisters bound not by blood, but by shared trauma and survival- were both broken... and how they used that brokenness as adults, showing that even some of the most difficult times, the darkest times of someone's life, *can* be overcome to varying degrees. Not that any of our adults are truly "normal" healthy - again showing a great deal of reality here - but that they're still, to use a term used to describe Autistics that I truly despise but fits here, "functional". Ish.

 

Ultimately this is one of those books that will likely prove divisive in at least some groups, but I thought was done well, with the author using so many real world horrors (and yes, in my own work through my church as a teen and just generally being an observant adult, I've seen this and so much worse on occassion) to craft the story she is trying to tell... while showing restraint where further graphic details don't add any more needed information to extract the desired emotions from the reader. Showing that Hepworth truly is a master of her craft, even when she is somewhat intentionally pushing some buttons of some people.

 

Very much recommended.

[chymerra]

I am a big Sally Hepworth fan and have reviewed several of her books. If she has a new book coming out, I add it to my Goodreads “Want to Read” list. And that was the case with Darling Girls. So, when St. Martin’s Press reached out with a widget, I immediately accepted. I was so excited and couldn’t wait to read this book. Thankfully, it didn’t let me down.

The main storyline of Darling Girls is told in three parts. The first part contains chapters that show how Jessica, Norah, and Alicia dealt with growing up in foster care. The author labeled those chapters with the name of who the chapter was following, and all of these chapters started with just their name. The second part details how each girl ended up at Miss Fairchild’s, the abuse they suffered, and what happened when Amy came into the picture. These chapters also start with the girls’ names, but “before” is written underneath. These are significant chapters because everything is explained, and I mean everything. The third part is told in first person by an individual (revealed to be Miss Fairchild) during sessions with a psychiatrist. Those chapters (labeled The Office of Dr. Warren, Psychiatrist) are also critical because they reveal how and why Miss Fairchild was shaped into who she was.

At the end of the book, the author states that Darling Girls’s idea came from speaking to women raised in the foster care system in Australia. She also spoke to foster parents and social workers. I will assume that some of the more awful scenes were those that actually happened. She also acknowledged that villains (such as Miss Fairchild and Scott, the social worker) in the foster care system need to be fixed. I agree wholeheartedly with her.

This is not an easy book to read and it was not an easy book to process. Norah’s trauma, how she processed it, and how it affected her as an adult particularly struck a nerve with me. I read her chapters with tears in my eyes because of what she went through. Now, I know that she is a fictional character, but I couldn’t help but want to reach through the book, hug her, and put her in freaking therapy like yesterday.

The storyline with the body of an infant found under the house was compelling. We are introduced to Amy through the girls’ “before” storyline. How and why Amy was brought to Miss Fairchild wasn’t disclosed (remember, these girls were in their early teens). The treatment that they went through and what they saw Amy going through prompted all three to do something that would affect them for the rest of their lives. I felt so awful about the aftermath of that and what the police/Miss Fairchild implied. What is even worse is when, in the present-day chapters, the police were willing to entertain their story because a body was found.

I am not going to go into each girl’s backstory. But I will highlight what I thought was interesting. As an adult, Jessica was super uptight and had a type A personality. She ran a successful business. But Jessica was also a benzo addict and would steal them from her client’s houses. Norah had a temper on her, and she wasn’t afraid to use her fists to make her point. Because of her past, Norah has a hard time connecting with people. She used her temper and sex to keep everyone but her sisters at arm’s length. Lastly, there is Alicia. Out of the three, she has the most minor trauma. But, she does have body issues and low self-esteem due to the abuse she endured during her time with Miss Fairchild.

I loathed Miss Fairchild. The author truly wrote a villain who got under my skin. But, for a little bit, I felt bad for her. She also endured awful things, and they shaped her into who she became. Still, reading what she said to the girls and her treatment of them slowly stole away any pity I had for her. Even years later, she still got such reactions from the girls. She also got what she deserved in the end.

The mystery angle of the book was excellent. I liked how the author brought the bones of the infant found under the house and what happened that last day with Miss Fairchild together. It was freaking explosive. There were a couple of twists in that storyline that dropped my jaw. I also loved that Miss Fairchild finally got what was coming to her. Her lies collapsed on top of each other.

A twist at the end of the book took my perception of Miss Fairchild in another direction. I couldn’t believe what I read and the implications that were hinted at. I also loved seeing how Jessica, Alicia, and Norah were starting to heal from their childhood.

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and Sally Hepworth for allowing me to read and review this ARC of Darling Girls. All opiniond stated in this review are mine.