The Wicked Girls

By: Alex Marwood

Narrated by: Anna Bentinck

Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Edgar Award Winner, Best Paperback Original, 2014

On a fateful summer morning in 1986, two 11-year-old girls meet for the first time. By the end of the day, they will both be charged with murder. Twenty-five years later, journalist Kirsty Lindsay is reporting on a series of sickening attacks on young female tourists in a seaside vacation town when her investigation leads her to interview carnival cleaner Amber Gordon.

For Kirsty and Amber, it's the first time they've seen each other since that dark day so many years ago. Now with new, vastly different lives - and unknowing families to protect - will they really be able to keep their wicked secret hidden? Gripping and fast-paced, with an ending that will stay with you long after you've listened to it, The Wicked Girls will appeal to fans of the Academy Award–nominated film Heavenly Creatures and the novels of Rosamund Lupton and Chevy Stevens.

©2012 Alex Marwood (P)2013 Tantor

Beautifully written, hideously sad, terrifyingly real.

Alex Marwood has got to be my new favorite writer. I can't tell which I enjoyed more, the wicked girls or the killer next door, but the writing is just phenomenal. This book definitely hit me harder, and even though the plot involved a series of remarkable coincidences, as Marwood writes in the book, just because you've defied the odds once doesn't mean you won't win the lottery tomorrow.

Both women were hard to like, even though I found myself rooting for them. To me, this made them all the more real - people have flaws, but aren't completely evil or completely good. The book had a unique point of view on how the media distorts events to fit it's agenda, which was a real eye opener.

The only comment I have against the plot is how didactic one of the women's stories was - she was truly cursed. She was never able to catch a break, not even a tiny one, and for me that made the story just a hair less believable.

All in all, the performance was wonderful and I'm really obsessed with this author at present. I'd recommend any and all of their books for anyone looking for stories that will keep you listening, keep you guessing, and will stay with you long after they conclude.

Gritty, Suspenseful Study of Human Nature

There are no mysteries here. The reader knows from the start that two little girls killed an even younger girl. We don't know for sure if it was intentional or accidental, but we can make a safe assumption. We meet the girls again, 25 years later, when their lives coincidentally intersect. (Covering a news story about a serial murder brings one into a seaside town where the other woman lives.) Guessing who the serial murderer is not hard either.

What drives the story are two things: repeatedly negative portraits of human nature and the powerful sense of panic and impending doom.

A negative view of human nature almost serves as a main character in this book. The blood-thirsty public that immediately categorized two children as "evil," families that abandoned children, co-workers who turn on one another, violent and domineering men, useless or dangerous authority figures, vigilante neighbors, selfish and self-centered women ... it is almost over-whelming.

But somehow Marwood keeps me from being revolted by the story. I held out to the very end for goodness and kindness and decency.

The narrator is fabulous. I highly recommend this book.

Makes you think about the course of people's lives

First, the admin: Anna Bentinck is being added to my list of favourite narrators, as she did such a wonderful job of changing her voice for each character, without giving the impression that she was "acting" the book. Also, not ONCE was there an instance of a character's voice spilling over from dialogue into narrative (and if you listen to may audiobooks, you know this is a common narration error).

Now, the business: while I was disappointed by the ending, I thoroughly enjoyed this book to the point where I was actively listening in short sessions so as to put off reaching the end. The plot really made me think about how one event can change the course of a life and have permanent affect. In this case, it was the murder of a small child by two children only a few years older. It was never clear to me exactly how the small child came to be murdered - I really had a hard time believing that the series of events described could reasonably take place. Never mind that though: you must suspend disbelief to give yourself over to fiction of any kind.

Executive summary: worth a credit, highly enjoyable and thought-provoking story, excellently performed.

Brilliant! A thinking persons novel. WOW!

More please, Alex Marwood! Brava! A tale that draws you in slowly, slyly...and then whacks you on the head with the main event in the story. It is revealed as slowly as the characters are developed...-finely drawn and very, even brutally, realistic. As a writing and English Language Arts teacher/professor, I am familiar with great story arcs. Marwood excels here. A masterful job of drawing us in, revealing each complicated step in the story with skill and precision. This is not a story for those who struggle with a time order of present day characters and former life flashbacks. Also,I was impressed that Marwood respects her readers enough to use wonderful, dark, juicy, heavy, delicious vocabulary and subject matter. The narrator was great. I noticed some readers/listeners were irked at the fact that there is no "tidy" little ending. This is life. Things don't end with a gift-wrapped box for you. The ending is exactly as it should be. A great, intellectual listen that demands your attention; not a breezy beach read. I can't give this novel higher praise and look forward to Marwood.

A good story with excellent narration

I very much enjoyed this audiobook. It held my interest all the way through, and was a compelling and sometimes sad story. Anna Bentinck gives an excellent performance. I would highly recommend this book to people who enjoy listening to psychological thrillers.

Great story and performance!

Good story! Kept me engaged and interested! loved the performance/reading! Who says you can't escape your past? Or that your past dictates who you will become in the present?! This story explores both if those cliched stereotypes with mysteries both past and present.

It’s just that...

Love this very well written book, and the very skilled narrator. The sudden dangling ending... less so
Wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye to these characters.

Slow start but a strong finish.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend the book to others.

Any additional comments?

Loved the ending. I was surprised.

Well worth it!

Good, kept your interest thru the whole thing. Sad story and a good mystery. Thumbs up

I didn't want to like these girls...

...but somehow, I found myself rooting for them anyway.

Belle and Jade are notorious for a horrible crime they committed when they were only 11 years old. Now it's twenty years later. One is a journalist writing Sunday Supplement "in depth" pieces. The other is a cleanup crew supervisor at a local amusement park. Both have spouses as well as new names.

They've moved on--kinda. Neither has told any of the people in her life about the past, and neither wants to. But when a string of murders brings them back together, their deception may have to be revealed.

This book was definitely a page-turner. With so many lies going around, something is always on the edge of being uncovered! There's also the suspense of finding out what really happened on that horrible day twenty years before--that story is mixed in throughout the book.

But even such an exciting story can touch on a lot of different themes. Besides deception, you'll find such topics as social inequality, relationships, parenting, and passing judgment on others. Marwood deals with all these competently, without hitting us over the head.

The most amazing thing about this book, though, is that I ended up liking people I didn't want to like, and hoping they'd come out all right, no matter what they might have done. Only careful character development can do that, and this book has it.

There are some grisly scenes here, but nothing you wouldn't find in your average crime novel. The narrator is just plain excellent. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, but she varied her voice for each. Two characters have changes in social class, and their accents change appropriately according to what time period the book is currently in.

Overall, a great, suspenseful listen and well worth the credit! Five stars all around.