Book Review: The Broken Girls

THE BROKEN GIRLS | Simone St. James
03.20.2018 | Berkley
Rating: 5/5 stars

Vermont, 1950: Idlewild Hall is the home for girls who are no longer wanted. The student body is made up of girls who are refugees, victims of the war, pregnant, illegitimate, or just plain too troublesome for their parents to want around the house. Four roommates have found true friendship in this place, building a bond from mutually being shunned from society. One day their world is shifted and altered beyond repair. One of the girls has disappeared and the friends are convinced she has been murdered.

Mary Hand, Mary Hand, dead and buried under land. She’ll say she wants to be your friend. Do not let her in again!

Vermont, 2014: Meet Fiona Sheridan, a journalist obsessed over her sister’s murder twenty years earlier, she can’t stop herself from going to the abandoned site of Idlewild Hall. This is where her sister’s body was found and she believes it holds the answers to her death. Despite the killer being in prison, Fiona can’t shake the feeling that there is more to the story. With the news that Idlewild Hall has been purchased by a new owner who plans to rebuild and open a new boarding school for girls. Fiona sets out to write an article about the rebuild as a way to gain more insight in to her sister’s case.

She heard no sound behind her, but just like that, she knew. Even with the wind in her ears and the sound of her own feet, there was a murmur of something, a whisper she must have been attuned to, because when she turned her head this time, her neck creaking in protest, she saw the figure.

THE BROKEN GIRLS is a story what readers have come to know and love as a mystery thriller. Simone St. James changes the game with adding a fascinating paranormal aspect to the book, which effects not one, but both of the alternating timelines. Just when you think that’s enough to win any reader over, St. James also give you a chance to meet all of the roommates from the 1950’s timeline. These roommates and the character of Fiona who generally is the focus of the 2014 narrative come together to create a well-rounded and interconnected final product. Each chapter kept me wanting to know more and staying up way past my bedtime to accomplish just that! As a long time fan of crime fiction and thrillers, it’s fantastic to find an author that can keep you on the edge of your seat and add a new exciting element to the story. I highly recommend THE BROKEN GIRLS to fans of crime fiction, thrillers, mysteries, and even those who enjoy historical fiction.