Review: The Wicked Girls

Title: The Wicked Girls
Author: Alex Marwood
Publication Date: July 30, 2013
Genre: Psychological Suspense
Recommend If You Like: secrets from the past, suspenseful flashbacks, explorations of human nature

The Book:

When they were children, Bel and Jade spent one day together, and by the time that day was through, the world would see them as murderers.

Now adults, living new lives under new names, the two women are brought together by the mysterious strangling deaths occurring in and around an amusement park--and they are forced to wonder just how much of their own pasts will be brought out into the present.

What I Liked:

This is a book that just flies by-I read three quarters of it in a day. It is extremely suspenseful, especially through the use of flashbacks. Marwood doesn't reveal to the readers what truly happened that fateful day until the end of the book, and the build up creates a real sense of absolute dread.

Marwood also does a thorough and fascinating job of exploring the dark side of human nature--in particular, just how much a person can (or cannot) change--and how much society and the people around them will allow them to change.

Anything I Didn't Like?

I did feel like there were one or two too many subplots and characters. The book could have been tightened up a bit.

So...?

This was a quick, suspenseful read with very little light and some real surprises (including one surrounding a side character that really stuck with me). While this is not the best of this genre I've read, Marwood will suck you into the story and you will not be able to put this book down.