Review of Darling Girls with Spoilers

My Review of Darling Girls with spoilers will look at this new book by Sally Hepworth, who wrote The Younger Wife and The Soulmate, among other Domestic Suspense Novels. Darling Girls is a slight departure for her, so will you like it? Let’s discuss!

Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth: Overview

• Published on April 23, 2024 by St Martin’s Press.
• An April Book of the Month Selection – see all my BOTM reviews here!
• More suspense by Sally Hepworth: The Family Next Door (2018) The Mother in Law (2019) The Good Sister (2020), The Younger Wife (2021), The Soulmate (2022),

Jen’s Quick Take on Darling Girls

• Content warning for themes (and repeated depictions) of child abuse
• A complex narrative with a past-present timeline and epistolary elements
• Well-developed main characters with a touching “found family” bond
• A twisty suspense book with some reveals and surprises along the way

Thanks to the publisher for the advance copy for review, which I accepted under FTC guidelines.

Review with Spoilers for Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth

I haven’t read every single Sally Hepworth book. But despite the cover, I feel like with Darling Girls, she has moved out of her usual Domestic Suspense lane and has written a book that leans more toward Psychological Suspense. Those links lead to my in-depth discussion of Domestic Suspense (which I’d argue peaked in the late 2010s) and Psychological Suspense, if you are interested!

But back to Darling Girls. Please note my content warning above, as some of these scenes were pretty tough to read. If you are okay with that, the book has a twisty plot and features a touching and well-portrayed relationship between a group of foster sisters. All three girls have survived their unbelievably tough childhoods, but not without some serious psychological damage. I thought the book did a great job of showing this.

The twists in Darling Girls might be predictable to most avid suspense readers but were still much-appreciated (and sort of required in a suspense book.)

Due to the past-present timeline and the reveals being loaded toward the end, I would not recommend Darling Girls to those who want a straightforward, fast-paced book OR a book where all loose ends are tied up.

Spoilers for Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth

There were a few things I found confusing, so let’s discuss in my Spoiler Discussion below!

• What was the identity of the victim found at Wild Meadows?
• Who was the mysterious patient in Darling Girls?
• What was the ending of Darling Girls?

Who was Dr. Warren’s mysterious patient in Darling Girls?

The main possibilities were one of the girls (Jessica, Norah, or Alicia) or Miss Fairchild. And I was not surprised that it was Miss Fairchild. But why was she in therapy?

Who was the body found at Wild Meadows?

• The girls are first convinced the body must be a toddler named Amy who arrived at their foster home. When Amy got too attached to them, she disappeared.
• Holly Fairchild seems to agree, and suggests that Norah must have killed Amy
• But the police say there no record exists of any foster child named Amy.
• At the end of the book, Zara realize she is “Amy” (the six toes clue.)

• Holly Fairchild then tells a terrible story to Dr. Warren of her sexually abusive stepfather and her resulting unwanted pregnancy. She says that her mother and stepfather took her baby, “Amy” and that she never saw her again. I felt sympathy for her and this somewhat explained (but not excused) her abuse of the “Darling Girls.”

• But at the end of the book, Holly Fairchild reveals THAT was a lie too. Amy was her half-sister, the child of her mother and stepfather. Holly is horribly jealous, both of their relationship and of Amy. She throws Amy against a wall and her mother protects her by burying Amy.
• Holly was manipulating Warren and spins a fake abuse tale to cover up her own crime.

What were your questions?

I think in her acknowledgments, Sally Hepworth explains that she interviewed women who’d been in the Australian foster care system. I found an article that explained how terrible the care system was in the 1990s and earlier. If you think about it, without computerized records, children could definitely just disappear.

I’m still a bit confused about how the real Amy (who did have two parents) could have gone missing and no one (the neighbors or the church congregation) noticed. And what happened to Holly after that? Did her mother and John just go on as if nothing happened??

PLEASE leave a comment! Spoilers are fine.