What an amazing book! I literally couldn't put it down and at no point could I predict the outcome of this book...which is always a bonus in my eyes.
The characters were believable and well formed. The main character Fiona was the kind of character that you're going to love but still raise an eyebrow at every now and again. The switch between now and the 1950s is smooth and not disturbing the flow of the story. Its the kind of book, you're going to read in as little time as possible and when you finally read the last word you will shut it and say "oh wow, that was amazing".

The question here is: what, about a single patch of ground in Vermont, has remained constant from 1907, through 1950 and to 1994?

The answer is: the bodies of dead girls.

St James spins a moderately compelling story centred on Idlewild Hall, a twentieth-century boarding school for unwanted girls, and the fates of four of its students. Interspersed between chapters set in 1950 are those of 2014, where Fiona Sheridan is becoming increasingly obsessed with working out whether the police got the right guy in the 1994 murder of her sister. Her search for answers leads her to a 64-year-old murder mystery and nearly results in her own death.

Fiona's relationship with Jamie, her policeman partner, and her retired-journalist father Malcolm are definitely the best parts of the book, alongside the depiction of strong female friendships. The supernatural aspect falls a little flat though. So does the climax, unfortunately.

3/5.

This is the first novel I have read by this author and will be seeking out more now. ‘The Broken Girls’ is a paranormal thriller which kept me engrossed from beginning to end, and what an ending!

The story combines two timelines, one from the 1950s where four friends shared a dorm at Idlewild, which is at the centre of the story, and learnt to deal with their awful situation and 2014 where Fiona, a journalist who is writing an article on Idlewild and still trying to come with her sisters death from there.

The story is unsettling and eerie but totally addictive reading.

Thanks to NetGalley, Headline, Wildfire and Simone St James for the ARC in return for my honest review.

Highly recommended.

I’m going to jump right in and start this review with the thing I loved most about this novel. I loved the 1950’s timeline, I love reading about any place people were sent in the olden days, hidden from the rest of the society. Idlewild Hall, a boarding school for wayward girls is a good a place as any. Not only is it interesting to see how these girls lived, but it’s a great location to create unsettlement in a reader. I found this storyline to be incredibly unsettling, and as the timeline switches back and forth, I’d just about recovered from the creepiness of it all, then I’d turn the page and I’d be right back there again listening to the girls recount their days.

“Mary Hand, Mary Hand, dead and buried under land…”

No thank you, not today, Mary, if you could just return under land and stay there, that’d be much appreciated! Yep, I, in equal measures, loved and was disturbed by, the paranormal aspects in this novel. When I wasn’t being tormented by Mary Hand, I loved the relationship between the four girls we hear from; Katie, Ce-ce, Roberta and Sonia, all shared a dorm at Idlewild Hall, and their friendship was a survival and an escape from the hellish way they were living.

In the present day, well 2014, Fiona is writing an article about Idlewild, like me, she was baffled by the notion that someone would want to restore that building. Still struggling to come to terms with her sister’s death, Fiona finds herself amidst another investigation when a body is found not far from where her sister was found, and Fiona is about to learn all about “the broken girls”. What also struck me in this timeline was that Fiona, a journalist, was dating a third-generation cop – if you know anything about crime novels – you just know that that’s going to cause some ripples!

The Broken Girls is a fantastic novel. The plot is super interesting, it’s eerie and gothic, with an unsettling atmosphere that never quite goes away. It reads fluidly; the two timelines come together for a brilliant conclusion to the mystery. This novel will have you hooked – enough paranormal horror to unsettle you, an old boarding school to deliver the gothic vibe, and enough suspense to keep you turning the pages well into the night!

Full of action and suspense. Will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Expertly written.

This is a thriller, mystery book,that keeps you gripped and second guessing yourself all the way through it.I enjoyed how the author intertwined old with new and fact with fiction.
The description of the boarding school and the lives of the pupils attending it was expressive and pulled at my heart strings.I could virtually feel the strength of their hardships and the friendships that grew between them.
A sad book in many ways.

What more could you ask from a thriller? It has suspense, mystery, characters that you care about and stakes that actually feel real- and high. This book is going to be one of those I press onto family and friends like the book-loving nerd I am, because it is so good.

At the centre of the story is Idlewild, an abandoned old girl’s school with a vivid, horrifying history. Supposedly haunted by the ghost of Mary Hand, a woman who died on the site before the school was built, the site was also the place where Fiona Sheridan’s sister, Debs, was killed twenty years ago- and where other crimes lie, waiting to be discovered. When Fiona, a journalist, stumbles across the scene of a crime, a decades-old mystery starts to unravel- and with that, the mystery surrounding the story of her sister’s death.

I loved the way in which St. James skilfully brings past and present together. Not only do we get to see Fiona trying to solve both cases in the present day, but we’re also plunged into the lives of four girls who actually lived at Idlewild as students, fifty years ago. From Katie, the rebellious teen, to Sonia, the girl with a past far darker than any of them imagined, we see their friendship develop, their vulnerabilities revealed- and then them struggle to cope as their lives take a sudden, dark turn. It’s really well paced, with the discoveries of the girls coinciding with the discoveries of Fiona in the present day, linking the two together and giving the overall mysteries a sense of dread and context they might not have had otherwise.

I also loved Fiona as a character. She’s broken by her sister’s death, but she’s also fierce, determined and unwilling to give up on the truth. It’s also really refreshing to see her relationship with Jamie, a cop who is ten years younger than her: rather than being played as a cougar-type situation, it’s a real, flawed, loving relationship that you don’t see that often in novels- and neither is ashamed of it. Points for that alone!

As she digs deeper into the truth, the story becomes ever darker and murkier. Kudos to the author for the way in which she manages to up the tension so skilfully- so that you don’t even notice it at first, but are staring into corners, suspecting everything by the end. It’s like watching a shadow approach in a fogged-over mirror: you hardly see it at the start, until it’s too late. That goes for the people in the town- some of whom don’t appreciate Fiona digging into either murder- and Mary Hand, who looms out of the darkness like some kind of nightmare.

I can see why people like this book so much: I loved it, too. It’s suspenseful, tautly plotted and unsettling in the way that fingernails down a blackboard are unsettling. St. James is a master at blending the everyday with the tragic and the supernatural: if you’re looking for the next big book this summer, this is it.

Three word review: unsettling, mysterious, dark.

Brilliant!! All the right ingredients of a perfect ghost story make this so hard to put down.... Especially late at night!!

Thank you to netball and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Set between the 50s and 2014 this focuses on a girl's boarding school and the family after math of a death 20 years prior.

I'm just not sure on this. I think it was the ghost tones that put me off. Good story nevertheless

An unusual thriller, there are two main stories running through this book, one set in 1950’s concerns the disappearance of a young teen from a boarding school for difficult girls. The mystery of what happened to her has never been solved or well explored due mainly to prejudice that was rife at that time.
The second is set in 2014 the empty school has been bought by a developer when a body is found in an old well. A reporter Fiona Sheridan is witness to this and decides to look in to who it may be and what happened. She can’t believe that this is the second body found on this site, her own sister was murdered and dumped here twenty years previously.
The stories are cleverly interwoven and whilst we know all along that Fiona’s sister was murdered by her boyfriend there is still some mystery with the circumstances. The book is fast paced and easy to read, there is a supernatural element which, for non believers, may be a little hard to accept.

One of the best books I've read in a long time! Normally I'm not keen on books the go between two different tike periods but it worked perfectly for this book. The twist was unexpected, would definitely recommend!

It’s 1950 Barrons, Vermont, an all-girls school called Idlewood hall. It’s where troubled teenagers go as a last resort. Four girls from different backgrounds become friends. But one day one of them goes missing and no one looks for her because they think she has run away with a boy.
In 1993 a girl is found murdered in the abandoned school grounds as the school closed down in 1979 and her boyfriend was accused of her murder. Twenty years later, the sister of the murdered girl Fiona starts investigating what happened at the school with the missing girl and also what happened to her sister Deb as Fiona is convinced something still isn’t right about her murder. There is also the problem of the ghost of Mary Hand. What is her story?
I found the Broken Girls a bit of a slow burner for me. Yes, I like the premise of the story and the burb said that it was supernatural ghost story. But for me I was expecting more. I did though think that it was well written and I like the part of the girls in the school but It didn’t wow me sorry.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

After reading house of spines last month I have been on the hunt for an eerie ghost story and I certainly wasn't disappointed with this ghost story that has been on my wish list since joining good reads in February, it is gripping, creepy, full of unexpected twists and I was immediately drawn in from the opening chapter. The story is set between two timelines 1950 and 2014, in 1950 Idlewild is a boarding school where girls who no longer fit into society are sent, the story concentrates on Katie, CeCe, Sonia and Roberta who are terrorised by Mary hand a ghost who haunts the school. We are also introduced to Fiona in 2014 who is a journalist working on a story of the restoration of Idlewild, Fiona's older sister was sadly murdered and her body was dumped on Idlewild in 1994, Fiona has never gotten over this and feels something dosent add up in regards to the night her sister was murdered. The story from 1950 and 2014 works very well together, the twists are breath taking that happens in both 1950 & 2014, I thoroughly enjoyed this ghost story and would like to thank net galley for my copy it certainly lived up to my expectations.

Every small town has at least one creepy old building, a place that inspires ghost stories and inflicts nightmares upon all those who dare venture beyond its rusty gates. Idelwild Hall is one such place. This former boarding school for ‘problem girls,’ may lie abandoned and in ruins, but for one local woman, journalist Fiona Sheridan, Idlewild Hall is a living nightmare with ghosts that are all too real.

It’s been twenty years, but ever since her sister was murdered in the grounds of Idlewild Hall, Fiona Sheridan’s life has been stuck on pause. Fiona knows this has to change, if not for her own sanity, then for the sake of her relationship with her boyfriend, Jamie, a local cop who Fiona keeps at a distance, even though the two have been dating for a year. Fiona knows she has to make peace with the fact that her sister is gone, but she can’t – not until she knows the whole truth of the night her sister died. When she hears that Idlewild Hall is being restored, Fiona decides to use her journalistic credentials to dig deep into the past, so that she can finally bury it.

Cut to 1950 and Idlewild Hall where a group of school girls bond over their troubled pasts and their shared fear of Idlewild’s resident ghost, Mary Hand, who terrorises the girls night after night as she roams the dark halls of the school. Spoiler alert: Mary Hand is no friendly ghost! It’s all fun, games and ghosts stories, until one of the girls goes missing, never to be seen again. Until, that is, journalist Fiona Sheridan, witnesses a shocking discovery at Idlewild Hall, one that will uncover the past – and change Fiona’s present – forever.

An ambitious book that spans decades and genres, The Broken Girls by Simone St. James was a bit of a mixed-bag for me due, at least in part, to its dual-timeline structure. While dual-timelines can be great, I feel that each part of a story should hold my attention equally, and that just didn’t happen here. With each journey into the past, I felt myself disconnected from - and longing to get back to - the present. Meanwhile, the supernatural element of the book, while well done, felt out of place in relation to the rest of the storyline, and really didn’t work for me.

In short: A multi-layered supernatural thriller that strives to be different from the rest. The Broken Girls didn’t totally work for me, but it is genuinely creepy and atmospheric at times – one for readers who like a mystery that goes bump in the night!

“Mary Hand Mary Hand,
Dead and buried understand.
She’ll say she wants to be your friend.
Do not let her in again.”

This is the rhyme that, in 1950, the girls at Idlewild Hall, a boarding school for girls in Vermont, were singing about the ghost who haunted the school’s gardens.

Although I was a little put off by the ghost element, of which I am not a big fan in thrillers, after reading the blurb, I was really drawn to this book. I loved that the novel is set partly in a boarding school and even the alternation between the past and the present which is always good in a mystery book.

In 1950, Idlewild Hall is a boarding school for troubled girls, girls whose families found difficult to deal with, the ones who caused troubles, the ones who were illegitimate, the ones who had no family left, the ones who were going through a traumatic event. Among them, four girls, roommates, and best friends, Katie, CeCe, Roberta, and Sonia. As each is going through their own personal problems, they also have to deal with Mary Hand, the ghost who haunts Idlewild Hall’s gardens and who reveals each girl’s worst fear.

In 2014, Fiona Sheridan is a freelance journalist who is writing an article about Idlewild Hall. After the boarding school closed in 1979, the place was left abandoned until now that a rich woman has decided to renovate it. The place is personal for Fiona because that’s where her sister’s body had been dumped after being killed by her boyfriend twenty years earlier. Fiona has never gotten over her sister’s death and she still visits the place, even in the middle of the night.

Moving between 1950 and 2014, between the four Idlewild Hall girls and Fiona, I was completely immersed as a I read about creepy and scary ghosts and legends, mysterious disappearances, homicides, prejudices against women, and small-town politics.

THE BROKEN GIRLS is dark and disturbing with a gothic atmospheric and characters with rich personality. As I said, I am not a big fan of ghost presences in novels, but somehow the paranormal elements (although not really necessary to the story) work perfectly well in this novel and give it another touch of suspense and thrill.

Haunting, sharp, and atmospheric, THE BROKEN GIRLS is one of these books that I couldn’t wait to go back to read.

A book which deals with ghosts of both the spiritual and metaphorical kind, this is a smartly written and absorbing book that I couldn't get enough of. Journalist Fiona Sheridan is still struggling with the murder of her sister that took place twenty years previously. She still has unanswered questions about that night and when she learns that an out of towner is buying the deserted boarding school near where her sister's body was found, it only reignites her curiosity further. 50 years previously and the now dilapidated building was Idlewild, a boarding school for troubled teens whose families had run out of other options for them. Four roommates form a close blond and when one of their number goes missing, the others vow to bring her killer to justice.

The material here is so strong. Either one of these stories could have been a book on its own and put together, the two timelines really compliment each other. Fiona finds herself crashing up against the secrets a small town holds and the girls of Idlewild find themselves let down by those who should be caring for them. The brutal nature of a post war society laid bare as the girls are continually told to be thankful for the little that they have regardless of how poorly they are treated. Gradually the two stories merge together and it's smoothly done with a fitting finale.

This book is a mixture of genres. On the face of it, it seems like a straightforward crime novel but theres a healthy dose of gothic horror thrown in that makes it stand out from the crowd. It's no small feat to mix all these things together within two timelines and this makes it such a good read. I couldn't wait to get to the ending but at the same time I was quite sad to leave this world! A really original idea combined with excellent writing, you'd do yourself a disservice not to check this book out.

I received a ARC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for a fair review.

This is a well-written thriller with some great creepy elements.It is split between 1950 and 2014.Whilst I enjoyed both stories,I preferred the 1950s story of girls in Idlewild Hall boarding school.Maybe I'm a bit grumpy with my stars today,but it wasn't quite a 4 star read for me.Will definitely be following the author though as the book flowed really well and had an interesting storyline.

An amazingly clever book with three stories woven into a very pleasing whole. Expect the unexpected with many unanticipated twists and turns. A book which combines the heart warming with the heart wrenching and takes you on a journey through the changing times, perceptions and emotions of the characters within. I loved this book and it will probably be one I read over and over again.

A story about love, loss, life and friendship during the most difficult times. It was hauntingly sad, especially the story of Sonia and Mary Hand. I started reading it today and could not put it down.

really enjoyable once started to read unable to put down. will recommend