Title: Little Darlings
Author: Melanie Golding
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Release Date: April 30, 2019
“Mother knows best” takes on a sinister new meaning in this unsettling thriller perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman and Grimms’ Fairy Tales.
Everyone says Lauren Tranter is exhausted, that she needs rest. And they’re right; with newborn twins, Morgan and Riley, she’s never been more tired in her life. But she knows what she saw: that night, in her hospital room, a woman tried to take her babies and replace them with her own…creatures. Yet when the police arrived, they saw no one. Everyone, from her doctor to her husband, thinks she’s imagining things.
A month passes. And one bright summer morning, the babies disappear from Lauren’s side in a park. But when they’re found, something is different about them. The infants look like Morgan and Riley―to everyone else. But to Lauren, something is off. As everyone around her celebrates their return, Lauren begins to scream, These are not my babies.
Determined to bring her true infant sons home, Lauren will risk the unthinkable. But if she’s wrong about what she saw…she’ll be making the biggest mistake of her life.
Compulsive, creepy, and inspired by some our darkest fairy tales, Little Darlings will have you checking―and rechecking―your own little ones. Just to be sure. Just to be safe.
Little Darlings is a creepy, engaging, hair-raising tale, one which I was happy to review. The addition of the dark fairy folklore regarding twins made this novel so much more sinister.
A new mother's worst nightmare is the premise of Little Darlings.
Lauren Tranter is the new mother of twin boys, Morgan and Riley. She's overwhelmed, experiencing postpartum depression and if that wasn't enough, one of the nights while she's still at the hospital, a young woman with twins wants to exchange/take her babies. Lauren runs away and hides in the bathroom and calls the cops. Of course, no one can find the woman and her babies. They all think it was Lauren hallucinating. She's tired, she was given medications during delivery so the conclusion is that she was imaging the whole event.
DS Jo Harper reviews the report the next morning and something about the event pushes her to meet Lauren and to further investigate it. Jo believes Lauren. She knows something happened to Lauren at the hospital. Sadly, her boss doesn't agree with her and using the police resources is not something he wants to agree on. Jo doesn't want to leave the case and she starts using her own free time to follow some leads.
Then the worst happens. While on an outing with the babies a month after they were born, Lauren falls asleep on a bench and when she wakes up, her babies are gone. Jo is called to help with the kidnapping. She finds the twins but when they returned them to Lauren, she shockingly screams that they're not hers!
I liked both Lauren and DS Jo Harper. It was interesting not knowing if Lauren was imagining it all or if it was real. The folklore at the beginning of every chapter really helps with the eeriness. Jo had her own reasons for investigating the case involving babies and she tried her best to help Lauren.
I liked both Lauren and DS Jo Harper. It was interesting not knowing if Lauren was imagining it all or if it was real. The folklore at the beginning of every chapter really helps with the eeriness. Jo had her own reasons for investigating the case involving babies and she tried her best to help Lauren.
Little Darlings reads itself. The whole story was spooky. It had my attention from beginning to end.
I heard this could become a movie. Perfect script for one.
Cliffhanger: No
4/5 Fangs
A complimentary copy was provided by Crooked Lane Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
No comments:
Post a Comment