I was really intrigued by the idea of this book. I always enjoy when a story delves into the darkness within people and The Flower Girls absolutely made me think about the nature of good and evil and the question of nurture versus nature. The story follows two women who were part of a horrific crime when they were children. They are the titular flower girls and are both fascinating characters. They are the driving force of this novel.
Despite being about the two flower girls, the author gives us multiple perspectives of them and the way they behave. It was something I loved about this book as I felt these different personal experiences made the question of evil and morality all the more complex and intriguing. The Flower Girls made me consider the prevalent question of whether someone can be born evil and if not, what sort of mentality could lead a child to commit such a violent act. I honestly couldn’t decide who to empathise with most within this story and the way I felt about certain characters was frequently changing as I learnt more and more of the real truth of what happened in the past.
The writing was also particularly good, most of the chapters are quite short and snappy which kept the momentum going all the way to the end. The Flower Girls has an incredibly tense and rather sinister atmosphere to it even when the situation seems amicable, this creepy feeling is ratcheted up as we barrel towards the skilful ending. I actually really didn’t want the book to end as I just wanted to know more and more about these characters.
Overall, I think The Flower Girls is a fantastic, thought-provoking and clever psychological thriller which I enjoyed from start to finish. There were a couple of twists that I did see coming but the execution was so great that this didn’t bother me at all. I would definitely recommend this one to anyone who enjoys dark atmospheric books.
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I received an e-arc of this book from Netgalley. My review is my own honest opinion.