Little Darlings

The premise of the book is so interesting. It's based on the fairytale A Brewery of Eggshells but it covers so much more than that. It tackles the topic of children, motherhood, and the struggles that follow. It's creepy, there's a mystery, and there's the question if the narrator is reliable. All things that usually I love. However, I couldn't say I loved this one.

I'll begin by saying that I listened to this on Audible and highly recommend if you like audio books. The narrator did a great job and raised the creep factor for me. I so felt for Lauren and her journey becoming a new mother to twin boys. So many women are faced with hardships after birth but it's rarely talked about. And Lauren had twins! The author did a good job portraying that. There's a creepy story about a drowned village....I'm here for it! It was a ghost legend that had you wondering if it could be true. This book between two perspectives; Lauren Tranter (the mother of newborn twin boys) and Joanna Harper (the detective that gets wrapped up in the Tranter family as multiple issues happen that involve the police). I think this helped the book to set up the question if Lauren is a reliable narrator. I also really disliked her husband and I always think books that bring out strong emotions (either good or bad) are a positive.

The real issue I had with this one is that by the end of it I did not feel satisfied. There's a lot of questions I felt that were left open ended. I think this was done to leave up to interpretation of the reader but it didn't sit well with me. We went on this long journey and learned all of these things only for none of it to really be put to use. I wasn't sure if this was a ghost story or a story of a troubled woman. I may be alone in this and to others it was completely apparent, but I just think it fell flat for me.

Overall, I did enjoy listening to this and would recommend to people who like folklore, fairytales, ghost stories, and psychological thrillers.