Darling Girls Book Review: A Thriller by Sally Hepworth

Darling Girls is the latest book release by Australian thriller author Sally Hepworth, and it’s a bit of a doozy. I figured that it was going to be dark after reading the book description, but I didn’t realize how dark.

But when I say it gripped me, I mean it! The story jumps back and forth as it follows the three sisters in present day, but also explains their past and how they all came to stay with Miss Fairchild at her property.

This story dives deep into foster care and how not everyone who takes on foster children has the best of intentions.

Sally Hepworth’s Darling Girls is an absolute page turner, and I would recommend it to any of my friends. But it does discuss some darker topics like child abuse, so please be careful and look into the trigger warnings if you are sensitive to these issues.

Keep reading for my honest review of Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth. And for more thriller recommendations, click here.

What is Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth About?

SISTERS, SECRETS, LOVE, AND MURDER… Sally Hepworth’s new novel 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. (from Amazon.com)

My Thoughts

Darling Girls is the latest release by thriller author Sally Hepworth, and it shocks in more way than one. What starts out as a story of three sisters trying to get closure from the most difficult time of their lives becomes a story of uncovering serious childhood traumas and trying to find the truth. When they go back to revisit the farmhouse of their childhood to figure out what happened, so many awful memories come to light.

Alicia, Jessica, and Norah are sisters who grew up together in less than ideal circumstances. Although these women are not biological sisters, the experience of being foster sisters under the care of Miss Fairchild helped them form an unbreakable bond. So when each of them gets a call from the policy saying that human bones were found underneath their childhood home, the first thing they do is group together and figure out what to do next. That seemed fishy to me. If you’re innocent, why do you have to figure out what to do next? Why can’t you just ignore it?

That’s something that we find out as the women put a pause on their adult lives and travel to Port Agatha for the truth. They are finally going to find out the truth about the home that held such power over them as children.

The Characters (& Character Development)

This story surprised me because I really, really liked all three of the main characters. It was really difficult to read the heart breaking scenes of their childhoods and I wasn’t expecting for them to be so put together as adults. I mean, that’s not to say the don’t have problems. Because they definitely do. But they all seem to hold down jobs and maintain their friendships and those are important things to do.

The scenes with Miss Fairchild at wild meadows farm were so sad, but so good. I felt so emotional during some of the story and I think that’s because of Sally Hepworth’s writing. She really focuses in on what’s important in the scene and then goes from there. It makes me sad to think that there are really people like Miss Fairchild out there who somehow get approved by the foster system.

I hope that the background and mental health checks are much better now. It’s scary to think about how someone like Miss Fairchild could have such a crucial role in the lives of so many young people, although hopefully some of the scenes in this book were just for shock value.

But it’s not all Bad

One of the things that I really enjoyed about this book was the sisters. Although much of the content of this story is dark and sad, it’s a rare story that also has humor. Norah’s unique blend of bluntness and aggressiveness may have been because of her painful past, but some of her more outlandish decisions were a little funny. Plus Jessica and Alicia’s responses were great too.

I thought Norah was really funny and I loved when Alicia was trying to crack the girls up with jokes in the beginning. It was very sweet and it made it even hard to read what was coming next.

There’s no doubt about the fact that this story is filled with topics that are triggering, so please read the trigger warnings before diving into this book. It’s a fantastic story that kept me on the edge of the seat. There were times where I didn’t know who trust which made for a really exciting ending. If you enjoy dramatic thrillers that are told through both modern day and flashbacks, this story is for you.

Although some of the childhood scenes in the foster home are difficult to read about, they really help add to the story and make this an unforgettable read. I think that’s part of what made this an absolute page-turner.

In Conclusion

If you enjoy domestic thriller novels, I would recommend this book as your next read. It’s a fascinating story with an unreliable narrator and I could not believe how everything ended up. It’s a quick read because you will not want to put it down! By the end of the book I was so flummoxed by what I was reading.

All of the Sally Hepworth books that I have read have been good, but this one really engrossed me with it’s darkly charming tone. Although it would have been preferable to never have been in Miss Fairchild’s care, I’m glad that the girls had each other. Their situation would have been much worse without the support of their sisters.