Little Darlings

Books | Fiction / Thrillers / Psychological

3.4

(97)

Melanie Golding

A Refinery29 Best Summer Thriller · An Amazon Best Book of the Month The anxieties of motherhood take center stage in this “atmospheric and very creepy” debut psychological thriller that reinvents the changeling myth with the flair of Angela Carter (Guardian).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. 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 of our darkest fairy tales, Little Darlings will have you checking—and rechecking—your own little ones. Just to be sure. Just to be safe.“Chilling story, beautiful prose.”—Clare Mackintosh, New York Times bestselling author of I Let You Go

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More Details:

Author

Melanie Golding

Pages

304

Publisher

Crooked Lane Books

Published Date

2019-04-30

ISBN

1683319982 9781683319986

Ratings

Google: 4.5

Community ReviewsSee all

"I loved Little Darlings! This was such an intriguing story, and I had so much fun reading it. I really enjoyed trying to sort out what was real, and then folklore aspect was intriguing. I would love to read more books like this in the future. If you're into this as well, check out Matt Wesolowski's Six Stories series. <br/><br/>Little Darlings had such a spooky tone, and in case Melanie Golding ever reads this, you should totally write a horror novel. I really enjoyed the unsettling aspects of the story. <br/><br/>I wish there would have been a few more answers, but I still feel like everything was wrapped up well. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more books from this author, and I highly recommend picking up Little Darlings when it comes out on 4/30!"

Emily

"I loved the use of a folktale being the main idea of this story. I related to the main character and really felt for her plight. However, the book dragged for me. It seemed like much of what was said could have been reduced significantly. The ending was a bit predictable."

Tara Rice

"It honestly felt unfinished. Lauren is still in the mental hospital, she doesn't leave. Does she ever get out? The Harper and Ruby thing felt ridiculous and useless. Does Patrick ever tell her about the affair? Some of the writing was kind of hard to follow. My original rating was going to be 3 stars, bc I had a hard time staying engaged, like I had to check out the book twice from my library in order to finish reading it. But I bumped it back up a star bc it is a good book that I ultimately would recommend to someone for a fantasy."