Difficult to read as the formatting was terrible and probably should have been corrected before getting to this point. However this review isn’t about the look of the book in the form it comes to reviewers. It’s about the story which was excellent and had me gripped throughout.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion.

Wow what an incredible book. I was hooked from the first page and couldn't put it down. A must read.

I really enjoyed this book, but the formatting of it was wrong. The characters were entising, and the detail around Diana were great. Maybe there could have been more detail when Diana was confronted though. A good book with lots of action.

Very incredible book. Impossible to stop reading. Super recommend. Many twists and turns. Thank you Netgalley for the book.

The Wicked Sister is a modern day fairytale with an evil twist. Will there be a happily ever after?
Great read.

This book, from the very beginning, sets up the external/internal conflict that is found in many great books, with it’s “flashbacks” as the reader realizes, through these flashbacks, what happened the day Rachel’s parents died. Rachel’s parents made the same mistakes that any loving parent might do when faces with a psychopathic child - the denial, the giving into manipulation, etc. - and these mistakes ultimately lead to not only their deaths, but Rachel being held in a mental facility for 10 years, believing SHE was the one who killed her parents. When Rachel sees an original police report, she realizes that she could not have killed her parents, and this sets into place a struggle between Rachel and her sister, Diane, literally AND figuratively, as Rachel comes to terms with memories long forgotten and previously suppressed. The question become WILL she find and figure out a solution before it is too late?

A very enjoyable read! Very good storytelling that keeps you entertained from the start. Here and there some things seemed a bit unrealistic but I still enjoyed it very much.

It's the story of 2 sisters. The 1 good and the 1 diagnosed as a psychopath at a very young age. It's a story about family and how far you will go to try and protect that family and how that can backfire.

Sometimes you have to be bad to be good.

Thank you to NetGalley, Little, Brown Book Group UK and Sphere for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book lives up to its title and then some. There is certainly a sister, Rachel, the chief protagonist, who has an older sister, Diana, the chief antagonist. They have a mother, Jenny, the second protagonist, who has a younger sister, Charlotte, the second antagonist. Both antagonists are wicked but Diana is a full-blown psychopath from her first action as a child, while Charlotte is merely delinquent for most of the book.
The story unfolds as two overlapping first person narratives related by Rachel and Jenny. When it begins, Rachel’s parents are dead as a result of a murder-suicide. Rachel is a voluntary patient in a Mental Health Center (sic) suffering from traumatic memory loss, conversing with animals, and convinced that she, at eleven years of age, had shot both of them; one of the few memories she retains. Then she discovers that this memory is false. Her attempts to recover her past and find out what really happened to her parents occupy the rest of the book.
Overall, it is extremely well written and the characterisations are strong. It is an easy read, in the sense that it carries the reader along without stumbling. It is an uneasy read, in the sense that the personality and actions of the coercive psychopath are revealed unemotionally, without the over preoccupation with ‘blood and guts’ which a lesser writer might have used to sustain interest. I recommend it.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a prepublication draft for the purpose of this review.

Explosive!

Fifteen years ago Rachel shot and accidentally killed her mother, her father then shot himself. Now she’s working out the truth.... who was responsible for her parents deaths?

It’s pretty obvious where this book was going, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable. It was a nice change to know who the antagonist was early on and to see how they try to set their trap! The location is amazing, I could pictures scenes perfectly and it sounded like perfection! I liked the magical stuff as well! Made The Wicked Sister really stand out from others on the market.

A strong 4/5.

Rachel has been living voluntarily in a psychiatric hospital for 15 years. When she was 11 her parents died, although the police ruled their deaths as murder/suicide, she remembers standing over their dead bodies holding a gun!!

When Rachel is shown police evidence that she could not have shot her parents, she is keen to leave the hospital and discover the truth about their deaths.

Rachel returns to the family’s remote log cabin to see her sister and aunt, hoping that being back home will bring back memories of the day her parents died.

This is my first book that I have read of Karen Dionne but after being gripped by this it will definitely not be my last.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.

Found this very difficult to read due to numbers being inserted on every single line disrupting the text,and interrupting the flow of story.

Karen Dionne knocked my socks off with her brilliantly different psychological thriller, "The Marshking's Daughter" that has moved on to become an international bestseller and quite deservedly so.
With this book, she takes the reader back to Michigan's Upper Peninsula with an equally disturbing thriller about parents dealing with a psychopathic daughter by removing her from contact with others and isolating her and the family in a remote setting filled with nature, animals and quite.
As in her previous book, Dionne switches between the past and the present and different points of view, which slowly but surely adds more and more pieces to an intricate puzzle that makes the book impossible to put down. Especially the development in the "past" chapters is terrifying, although the reader right from the beginning knows what is in store. That shows Dionne's skill as a storyteller, and fans of psychological thrillers will be thrilled by this book. Five stars in my book!

I enjoyed this book many twists and turns. Imagine being locked away at the age of 11 in a psychiatric hospital for 15 years for something you didn't do cant wait to read more by this author

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.
Excellent book and good story line

Intriguing thriller with many twists. The main character believes that she killed her mother,but did she? The story gradually unravels as she remembers more. A good read.

A great read - I did not want to put this down. Rachel locked away in a psychiatric hospital for fifteen years at age just 11 for killing her parents. the only family left are her older sister Diana and her Aunt Charlotte, neither visit or correspond. Rachel remembers nothing of what happened as the shock of it shut her mind down. At the age of 26 Rachel is allowed to leave and return home. During her time there she built a realationship with Trevor, a journalist and brother of her friend Scottie in the institute. He shows her the police reports and medical records relating to her parents death and so she learns that she was not responsible.
On arriving back home she hides from her sister and Aunt to try to uncover what really happened. The fear and terror is portrayed brilliantly within her character and her sister's mental instability hard to read. The setting for the book is very fairytale like but not in a nice way.
I would highly recommend this book, it is certainly heartwrenching and hard to put down.

Wow, that was a rollercoaster ride of a thriller, a totally gripping and tense read. Very excited to have discovered this author and I look forward to reading more,

The wicked sister? That’s an understatement. This book had me gripped from the beginning it was set in two timelines which once you’ve got into the swing of it was quite easy to read. However the formatting was quite difficult to read. Still a very exciting and fast pace book which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I was delighted to be given the opportunity to read an advance copy by Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK in return for my honest review.

This was a pretty steady thriller. Not the best I have ever read but no the worst either. A few twists and turns, but i found it hard to connect with the characters. Also, the formatting was off and I would it very difficult to read around all the random numbers and letters what were popping up all over place!

Thanks netgalley for the ARC

Rachel has been in a mental institutional for 15 years, since being traumatized at age 11. The police say that her father shot her mother then killed himself; she believes that she accidentally shot her mother, causing her father’s suicide. She determines to return to the wilderness home of her childhood, and try to recover her memory about what really happened. Part of the story is told in the past by her mother Jenny, who gradually realises that her older daughter, Diana, is different to other children- and possibly very dangerous. A gothic fairy tale/psychological crime drama, I felt that it was obvious early on who was behind the deaths, and the police investigation at the time must have overlooked lots of evidence or done a very poor job not to be more suspicious at the time. My credibility was stretched further by the magical realism touches- Rachel can supposedly talk to animals and is guided and saved by them both at the time of the deaths and in her search for the truth. What I felt did work well was the consideration of what it would be like to have a child who is at best lacking in human empathy and emotion, and at worst possibly evil. Jenny tries to love and help Diana, but is increasingly faced with the challenge of how to do this while protecting others and even her own family, a struggle no parent should ever have to face. A little more realism and suspense would have improved the book for me, but I felt that it became more fantastical as it reached the conclusion, and it lost me along the way.