Title: The Cursed Girls

Author: Caro Ramsay

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Publisher: Black Thorn

Publication Date: 3rd June 2021

Rating: 4/5

Cover:

Summary:

Megan Melvick has spent years avoiding her inheritance, the dark and disquieting family estate Benbrae, now home only to her distant, aristocratic father, and her sister Melissa, dying quietly in an upstairs bedroom. Trapped behind her unreliable hearing aids and vulnerable to what others want her to see, Megan is unable to find the answers she wants: why is there a new woman on her father’s arm? And why has their absent mother not returned to say a final goodbye to Melissa?

Benbrae has always been a place of loss and misfortune for Megan, but as the Melvick family diminishes still further, she must ask one final question. If there is a curse on the house, will she be its next victim?

Review:

The cover of The Cursed Girls totally drew me in and the book turned out to be equally atmospheric. The story follows Megan, returning to her ancestral home to see her elder sister, Melissa, who is on her premature deathbed. However, after her sister passes, she finds herself drawn back into the dark mysteries of her relations and the curse that supposedly blights both their home and family.

The Cursed Girls has a fantastic sense of setting which really permeates the whole story from start to finish. There’s a classic mystery gothic quality to the palatial and decidedly creepy Benbrae which creates a real feeling of unease. The narrative is split between Megan and Carla, whose father works for the Melvick family and who was a childhood friend of Megan’s. Getting both their perspectives on the past and present keeps the pace moving along nicely and gives two sometimes differing versions of events which keeps things continuously intriguing. It took me a little while to get into this book but once I was hooked I was desperate to figure out how everything would be resolved. I’d definitely recommend this one to fans of classic and slightly spooky mysteries.

Thank you so much to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for inviting me on this tour and organising it. I kindly received a copy of the book from the publisher. My review is entirely my own honest opinion.