Book Review: The Cursed Girls by Caro Ramsay

By Erica Wiggins

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Content warning: suicide, eating disorders, childhood abuse

The Cursed Girls is a standalone novel. It follows Megan Melvick as she comes home to see her sister Melissa, who is dying. Megan left her family’s estate after several tragedies and has been gone for three years. When she arrives back home, memories surrounding the tragedies start to flood back and Megan is left to sort through what really happened. The story switches perspectives between Megan and her childhood friend, Carla.

“It takes me a while to get to the faerie pool where I see Papa at the overhanging trees on the bank at the far side. He’s putting a necklace on, then he takes a step out over the water.”

This snippet, from a quick three-page prologue set in 2004 at Megan’s fourth birthday party, sets a dark tone for this story. It had me intrigued and wondering where the story would go next.

Fast forward fifteen years to 2019, and Megan begins the journey home to see her sister. Over the next eight days, Megan tries to make sense of the loss of her childhood friend, the loss of her sister, and the disappearance of her mom. I was excited by the prologue of this story, but moving into the body, I found it challenging to get into it. It was a little confusing at first and the unreliable narrators only add to this. Megan has hearing loss and picks and chooses when she wears her hearing aids. She seems to have a distorted view as to the events that have occurred, and this makes it difficult to relate to her as a character. 

I did enjoy the portions narrated by Carla. She appears to give a clearer view of the events that happened, and is able to give more perspective. She had a rough childhood and was forced into unsafe situations by her mother. I was able to relate to her tough upbringing, and her desire to fit in.

While I enjoyed this story overall, it moved slowly and only picked up about three-quarters of the way in. It felt like there was a great deal of extra information given that was not necessary to the story and at the same time, like something was missing. I wanted more excitement—more thrills. The story is wrapped up neatly in the end. I would recommend this book to mystery lovers who enjoy a slow build up to the resolution with plenty of detail along the way.

Overall, this was a three-star read for me and I would be open to reading more from this author.

Thank you to Publishing Group Canada for the complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.