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The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood - Review

Friday, January 31, 2025


This book was on my wish list, although I can't remember why, but one of my Secret Santas sent me it for Christmas and I was pleased to get it and be reminded that I wanted to read it! I picked it up at the beginning of January which I realise is a common refrain at the moment because I am desperately trying to read all my Christmas books. It's a noble effort - let's see if I manage it this year when I never normally do. 

So this book has two time periods, now and twenty five years ago. Twenty five years ago there are two eleven year old girls. One of them, Bel, is from a well to do family, being brought up in luxury by her mum and stepdad. She has a little sister. They have horses, etc, all of that. The other girl, Jade, is from a rough family. Her dad owns a pig farm. She has several siblings, some of whom are petty criminals. The two girls do not know each other, but on one hot summer day they meet up while bored and by the end of the day they are charged with the murder of a little girl, Chloe. She ends up left with them and over the course of flashbacks dotted throughout the book we read what happened to her. 

In the now period, the two girls are both rehabilitated and released from prison. They are each thirty six years old and obviously do not know where the other is or what happened to her. Kirsty is a journalist living in London. She has two children, Sophie and Luke. Her husband is currently unemployed so that is putting a strain on the relationship while Kirsty is trying to keep the family afloat. Kirsty is doing really well in life but obviously she keeps her secret from everyone in her life. 

Meanwhile Amber lives in Kent. She is a cleaner at a funfair. It's a dull job but she's manager and she's good at it and takes pride in her work. She lives with Vic, who works on the amusements at the fair. He's very good looking and a bit of a flash boy; all the girls fancy him and Amber isn't really sure why he's with her. Their house is well cared for and loved. Amber's colleague, Jackie, moves in with the two of them because she's basically being stalked by her ex, who is creepy. But Amber starts to distrust Jackie. 

Then Amber finds a dead body in the house of mirrors at the funfair, which is currently out of bounds. Police make connections with the murders of some young women previously, and begin to think they have a serial strangler on their hands. Kirsty, in her job as a journalist, ends up travelling to Kent to report on the story. She meets Amber and recognises her, making her tumble back twenty five years to that fateful day. But then someone else clearly knows who both women are, and their lives are in danger. 

To begin with it's not clear which girl is which, which I found interesting and intriguing. I am interested in ideas around justice and rehabilitation so I found that part interesting too. Both girls were let down by their caretakers and their childhoods, and it is obvious that Chloe's death wasn't premeditated in any way. Both women are strong survivors and it's hard to not root for the both of them. 

I did find there was a lot of fatphobia when describing some characters, which I found unnecessary and unnecessarily cruel. It seemed like lazy writing. I also think there were a few inconsistencies in the plot which should have been caught. One of them was that Chloe was six at the beginning but then four? It annoyed me. 

But overall I did like the book and am giving it four out of five. It is very intriguing and kept me reading. 

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