Darling Girls

How it reads

Darling Girls is thriller (psychological thriller, specifically), and its dominant mood is dark. It goes to difficult places and doesn't look away. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in a rural setting, in the present day, told in the first person by several narrators. Its central concerns are family, loss and grief and secrets. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending resolves happily. At 359 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.