I’ve just finished the second book of my 26 in 26 challenge, and the third book of this year. This book has been on my tbr the end of 2023, which is a long time but also a shame since it was a really good book.

I’m talking about Sally Hepworth’s Darling Girls that was released in September of 2023 and is a psychological / crime book. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a thriller even though the subject is something else.

Jessica remembers snippets of her real mother, the little apartment above a shop and the whirring of a sewing machine. When the police came to her school, she thought nothing of it, until a police officer told her, her mother died of being really sad. She didn’t know you could die from that. A social worker came to collect her and drove her to Port Agatha to bring her to her foster mother Miss Fairchild on a beautiful ranch like house with a pool, her first year was very special and she felt very loved by her foster mother until she went to school and made friends and Miss Fairchild wasn’t the center of Jessica’s universe anymore. That’s when everything changed.

You better not misbehave in the slightest because the punishments were severe, mental abuse was a common thing. But until Jessica’s 10th she was the only foster until she wasn’t. Next came Norah, a girl a little younger than Jessica but one with anger issues. A girl that would be on Miss Fairchild’s bad side very often. A house rule was to wake before the crack of dawn an clean the house until it shined before breakfast, eating rations were very meager to say the least, but school was there escape and they both were rather smart.

Then another girl came, a respite case which meant that she would be going back to her caregiver once that was possible. Alicia, a girl that has been loved and was allowed to be a child. She had to adjust to the house rules and poor rations as well as the unloved environment she was placed in. At least she had the girls looking out for her.

Miss Fairchild became more and more abusive, leaning on what the girls feared most for punishment. Locked in a dark basement because you’re afraid of the dark. Almost letting you drown because you need to learn how to swim.

Now, many years later the property is sold but after demolishing the house a body has been found. That of a baby. After years of trauma the “girls” need to go back to port Agatha where the investigation takes place. Are they suspect? Who is the baby and what happened to it?

I’m giving this book a solid ⭐⭐⭐⭐.5 stars!