(3 / 5)
The Wrong Girl was an interesting psychological thriller. It was good, but I couldn’t help feel a little disappointed.
Janice receives a phone call unexpectedly from her daughter Suzie who she gave up for adoption 40 years ago. The phone call brings her to her childhood home where she meets Suzie and Molly, Suzie’s almost-neglected 10 year old daughter. Molly is convinced that she is in fact “Phoebe”, a girl who was taken from her parents when she was 3 years old and looks strikingly similar. Molly has found proof that she is in fact Phoebe, so plans her next move to get away from her neglectful mother and into the arms of the parents who have been desperately searching for her for 7 years. Meanwhile Janice has to deal with the emotional turmoil of finally meeting her child and “grandchild” and the death of her brother. When Molly disappears secrets begin to surface.
The two main characters that the narration focuses on in this novel are Janice and Molly. I found it interesting to have two such different ages in the focus characters. It was done quite cleverly. The language and mannerisms between the two characters were extremely different and I thought that it was done very well.
I loved Janice’s character. A wild young girl growing up in the age of Rock and Roll. Where free love was the way of life for the youth. Now an older woman with regrets and guilt. She was multidimensional and extremely likeable. “Conforming to nonconformity had, in many ways, been just as difficult as conforming to the old, repressive rules and however much everyone pretended otherwise, it had caused just as much heartache.”
Molly was another good character. I loved her innocence and the way her mind worked and the conclusions that she made from different events throughout the novel. Her mother Suzie was well written, I really disliked her… In a good way! She had so much emotional baggage that she took out on her daughter. The secondary characters were good. They all have their demons…
Overall it was a good read.
However… I was disappointed with how slow moving I found this book. It wasn’t until at least the 70% mark that it started to improve and had quite a good ending. But it couldn’t completely make up for the slow start. In the first 70% there was a lot of emotional stuff, which was interesting in its own right, but it got really repetitive and I found myself struggling to get through it.
The last 30% however was excellent. It was exciting and held my interest – I breezed through it.
The only other problem I had with it was I felt it was just a bit all over the place with the primary mystery. It was a bit confusing to figure out exactly who was related to who, who knew who, and there was a lot of mention of characters that didn’t have anything to do with the story, I felt it was slightly disjointed. However it got there in the end.
Would I recommend it?
Yes, it was a good read overall and a solid 3 stars.
Thanks to Hachette Australia via NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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