Having read and enjoyed The Marsh King's Daughter I was delighted to get an advance copy of this title. I do wish there was not so much blurb on the book, although I didn't read it before I read the story.
Again very well written, atmospheric and well described rounded characters. Set in two time frames helped to draw out the suspense and set the scene for the climax. It was immediately obvious who the wicked sister was but there were still twists and turns to the tale. Parts of this title were not always easy to read - after all it was about a psychopath! but it was compulsive reading for me.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Karen Dionne/Little, Brown Book Group UK for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC! Unfortunately I have to DNF due mostly to formatting issues so trying to give a fairly neutral review as what I did read was super promising and gripping - a shame but will definitely look out for more from this author in future as the writing style was gritty and thrilling from the get-go.

An absolute must read and ha ha i thought my family was dysfunctional and a tad crazy. After reading this they are all relatively normal me thinks now lol. Its an intense thriller that will keep you reading well into the night and have you thinking long after you have put it down.

This is so very chilling, Karen Dionne is an exquisite writer who managed to keep me reading until I was finished. The story is disturbing but very well written.

I would reccomend this to all.

This was a creepy and disturbing book which was a great read for a holiday. It is based on a child with a serious mental health issue which makes her dangerous.

The book flips backwards and forwards through time, so that we get a different perspective on the development of a family from different members. This also helps to pull the reader into the story, as different people describe the same events and you are left wondering which is the more accurate account.

Because there is also an extended family member involved, the 'wicked sister' can in fact refer to more than one character. And there are enough uncertainties dropped in to make you wonder who really is the 'wicked' one at times, especially because the central character, Rachel, is confused herself.

This book kept me gripped for much of the time, although I did flick through some passages that I felt were quite detailed in their description of places and such like, mainly because I wanted to get to the bits I found more interesting.

Although lots of people will no doubt really enjoy the author's descriptions of landscapes, wildlife and nature, which do really help to set the scene and bring the family to life.

I would recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book!

Firstly, Diana was an absolutely heinous character with absolutely no understanding or empathy. A true killer. A real psychopath. I’m surprised she survived, but I guess this leaves a second book possibility... but anyway, this character hasn’t a single redeeming feature.

Rachel & Diana’s parents kept making excuses for Diana’s dreadful acts — knowing their child was killing animals for fun and then letting her practice taxidermy? What? Why would you ever—? And Charlotte was just awful too. Deserved what she got.

I liked Rachel a lot. The fact she could communicate with animals was a saving grace for her, and I liked that. I liked how she was desperate for the truth, no matter what happened, and that she was responsible enough to own up to what happened to the girl in the park, and then to her parts in what happened to others.

The animal cruelty though... it almost stopped me reading. Throwing rocks at a cub was bad enough, then when she actually killed White Bear, I wanted to cry. It’s the sort of thing that unnerves me (I’ve a rescue dog who was a stray and most likely abused, going by the scar on his leg, and he’s untrusting of many people.)

A chilling read. Very chilling indeed.

The Wicked Sister is not going to be for everyone, but I found it illuminating.
Our story begins with Rachel, a young woman who has spent the last fifteen years in a mental hospital as she is convinced she killed her parents, discharging herself and heading for her childhood home. Police reports determine that at the age of eleven she could not have committed this crime, but having been found in the woods two weeks after their deaths in a catatonic state it’s easy to see why nobody pushed her to try and recall any details of that day. She heads there with a journalist desperate to find out more about this incident, but bizarrely she doesn’t want to let her sister or aunt know she’s there. Of course, we want to know why.
Once we get this teaser we jump back in time and have a character called Jenny narrating a shocking incident. She recalls the moment a neighbour’s toddler drowned in their pool, and her discovery that her daughter’s clothes were wet though she claimed to know nothing about what happened. This is followed by what seems a rather knee-jerk reaction to take her daughter and move the family to an isolated family hunting lodge. Her rationale is that she and her husband - both biologists - can undertake research and keep their ‘wild child’ away from others.
Initially I found this shift confusing as I wasn’t sure who Jenny was, or her significance. In-between following Rachel through her exploration of her family home in search of clues as to what happened, we learn more about Jenny’s family and their new life.
Watching Jenny and her husband deal with this eight year old manipulator was hard to read. There were so many odd signs about her behaviour and interactions, and I found it odd that they didn’t do more to try and understand their daughter Diane or manage her behaviour. Watching as she throws a stone at a bear cub to see how it reacts might be seen as childish curiosity, but when she is found putting a pillow over her baby sister’s face and reveals she’s done this on countless occasions the alarm bells were ringing loud and clear!
Before too long we work out that the baby sister in this incident is the Rachel also narrating our story. Knowing that whatever we’re reading Jenny talk about will end in the deaths of her and her husband lends a poignancy to so many of these incidents.
The story develops in a way that seems inevitable, though there are indications that different choices along the way could have resulted in a different story. Though there are some graphic depictions of animal cruelty that felt rather unnecessary, I was fascinated by the attempt to portray the mind of a psychopath and to show the impact of this condition in those around the person who has it. What I found frustrating was the countless opportunities so many had to prevent such awful things happening, and I was scared witless by the revelation that sometimes the truly wicked can be hiding in such plain view.
Huge thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this prior to publication.

My favourite thriller of the year so far. I genuinely could not put this down - having started it in the morning, I had to take the day off work as I had to keep going. Rachel has been in a psychiatric hospital for 15 years, following the tragic murder/suicide of her parents when she was 11. Deaths she is convinced she is responsible for. As a reader, meeting her older sister, Diana, through the story told from their mother's viewpoint we see some very disturbing behaviour from her early days. Through talking to trainee journalist, Trevor, Rachel realises she did not kill her parents and discharges herself to go home and find out what really happened. This is a story so disturbing, so chilling that you can't leave it until you find out the ending. I'm still shaking! #netgalley #thewickedsister

In terms of entertainment I would rate this novel highly. It is fast paced, very well written, has a great setting and touches on compelling themes such as what motivates a psychopath and the effects of childhood bullying. In terms of believability, not so highly: I couldn’t understand how the two main protagonists allowed themselves to be hoodwinked to the extent that they were, the ‘talking to animals’ thing was bizarre, and I couldn't make sense of the Charlotte character. The novel starts with the main protagonist, Rachel, in a mental institution as a result of blaming herself for the death of her parents. But - very quickly - she realises her feelings of guilt are misguided and, through flashbacks and the action that follows, an intriguing tale of a loving couple’s life being upended by the birth their psychopathic daughter unfolds. I must admit, however, that despite the novel’s predictability and implausible elements I really did enjoy it!

Rachel has spend 15 years in a mental health facility after she believed she had shot her mother as a child.
Chapters switch between Rachel and her mother, past and present, family secrets are revealed and all is not as it seems.
Rachel checks out of the facility and to the place where she was raised - in search of answers - what happened to her mother?
This was such an intriguing book, with so many heart in your throat moments - read it now!

I loved The Marsh King’s Daughter and so was never going to turn down the opportunity to read The Wicked Sister. The story centres on Rachel Cunningham, a 26 year old young woman who voluntarily committed herself to a psychiatric hospital at the tender age of 11 years old. She did so because she was responsible for her parents’ death and knew she deserved to be locked up.

Set in the wilds of remote wild, Michigan, this is the story of Rachel and her highly dysfunctional family. Rachel’s parents, Jenny and Peter, had taken her and her sister Diana to a hunting lodge in a remote location while they used their scientific skills to study the biology of the wildlife around them.

Rachel receives no visitors and has one friend at the Newberry Psychiatric Hospital and that’s Scotty, whom she looks after. She has also got to know Scotty’s brother Trevor quite well on his regular visits to see Scotty. It is Trevor, a journalist, who shows her the Police and Medical Examiner’s reports of her parents’ deaths and she realises that all along she has been innocent. Her self-imposed 15 year isolation was all for nothing as she could not have been responsible.

So she checks herself out of the hospital and with Trevor’s help, travels back to the family home in the wilds of Upper Michigan where her sister Diana and Aunt Charlotte are now happily ensconced. Rachel’s memories are distorted by the trauma she has endured, coupled with the passage of time and she needs to return home in order to understand exactly what happened. If she didn’t kill her parents, who did? Why didn’t Charlotte and Diana tell her what really happened? Secrets abound and Rachel is determined to find answers.

Utilising a dual timeline, Dionne shows us through Rachel’s mother’s eyes, the events that led to the family moving into a wild isolation and what then ensued. Two sisters, who only had each other as playmates, with a huge natural canvas to play in as their parents grew ever more anxious about their futures.

What we learn is incredibly chilling as Jenny tries hard to reconcile her parenting with the development of one of her daughters from a demanding bright child into a deeply cruel and manipulative psychopath without empathy. It is heart-breaking to read of Jenny and Peter’s struggles with their domineering daughter as they first of all seek to downplay the signs and then realise that nothing they can do will halt what’s happening and many more will be hurt unless they take action.

Jenny is relieved when her sister Charlotte comes to live with them, providing her with help and support. At last she will not have to bear the burden alone, for Peter is rather an absent parent.

The return of Rachel to the cabin unannounced is the catalyst for a host of revelations as a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues. Dionne does a remarkable job of building a layered picture of cold and calculating acts of cruelty which ultimately and inevitably leading to death.

She creates an atmosphere in which the landscape and its beasts play an integral part in showing the brutality of nature and this book is a clear advocate of nature not nurture when it comes to psychopathy.

Her portrait of psychopathy is incredibly well done and very scary as we see the characters develop from childhood onwards and the terrifying impact it has on the whole family as they try and fail to deal with the hand they have been dealt.

Though there are moments when for plot purposes a suspension of disbelief is required, this does not detract from one of the most trenchant description of psychopathy I have come across. Add to that the wilderness setting which is at once vast and yet claustrophobic, a lot of action and a rapid pace and what you get is a book that you will race through as you hold your breath waiting to find out what will happen.

It is unnerving, twisty and full of some pretty gruesome moments but the overall depiction of mental health issues is a riveting one as we find Rachel talking to the animals and getting answers.

Verdict: A gripping, twisted and propulsive thriller with bags of atmosphere which is enhanced by strong writing making for a very enjoyable read.

Dark and creepy and really well written. This is a totally convincing story. The characters seem so real and I had shivers down my spine reading some of the details.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the arc of this book.

This is told through two POV’s which Jenny from the past whom is the mother of Diana and Rachel, they live in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula I loved this book for the very brilliant descriptive writing of the background of the book. An immense lodge built by Jenny’s great-great grandfather becomes their family home, in which it sounds such a like a museum!! you can actually picture it and imagine yourself there

3 stars due to the descriptive animal cruelty which saddened me but apart from that great story and well written and very descriptive!

Disturbing and strangely enjoyable. This excellently written psychological thriller had me gripped from the start with the tension continuing right to the end. I do think I even gasped out loud a few times! Highly recommended.

i love this book, in fact its my best read so far this year. I visited Canada a couple of years ago
and encountered a bear, so it brought back the whole holiday which was amazing. Lots of twists and turn but easy ton follow and not too many characters to get to grips with.

Oh, I was so torn by this book!!! Karen has a brilliant writing style, and although the "plot" was guessed early on, I found that I could not tear myself away from her prose....so the only problem was that it was too easy to decipher, and I found the ending a little 'twee'...still loved reading this though. Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and Little Brown Books for allowing me an Advanced reading Copy.

The Wicked Sister is Karen Dionne’s latest psychological thriller after she rocketed to international success with The Marsh King’s Daughter back in 2017, and whilst not quite as gripping as that was, this is still a thoroughly enjoyable thriller. It's not immediately clear at the start of the story the depth and insight the fictional narrative is about to provide as it delves into some very dark and disturbing topics.

It follows 26-year-old Rachel Cunningham who since the age of 11 has been a voluntary resident and firm fixture of the psychiatric hospital known as Newberry Regional Mental Health Centre. She believes that she was responsible for the death of her parents, Jenny and Peter, by gunshot and this is what precipitated her descent into chaos, however, when her closest friend at the asylum, Scotty, receives a visit from his brother and trainee journalist, Trevor, he draws her attention to a discrepancy in the Medical Examiner’s report which shatters her the world and reality as she knows it. Armed with this earth-shattering information she makes contact with two remaining family members: her sister and her aunt, Diana and Charlotte respectively, and travels to the family’s secluded cabin in the stunning wilderness of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in order to seek clarification on why they would abandon her to a fate of abuse at the facility. Have her repressed memories of the incident and her fractured psyche led to her living a lie for over a decade?

This is a gripping, moving and hard-hitting look behind the closed doors of a dysfunctional family unit and most importantly the devastating and far-reaching impact it can have on those involved often fostering a deep-seated hatred which continues exists between family members. I didn't realise quite how profound this was to become as it offers startling and authentic depictions of psychopathy, mental health, domestic abuse and the trouble of knowing just how to deal with close relatives who have major psychiatric issues. Couple a few creepy moments with an equally creepy setting, in a sparsely populated area surrounded by dense woodland and the type of location in which the likelihood of seeing another human is improbable, and it has you hooked; the descriptions create a tense and incredibly claustrophobic atmosphere, which serves to keep you eating into the page count. It's a powerful gut-punch of a thriller with a plethora of twists and a complex yet wholly engaging cast of characters. Manipulation, narcissism, deception and secrets and lies abound in this unique read. Many thanks to Sphere for an ARC.

I really loved this book. Although you know how it ends from the beginning, it's still gripping. You see from Jenny's point of view what it's like to grow up with a psychopathic child and with all the measures she puts in place to protect her and her family, over the years, trying to prevent further disasters from happening. It's also seen from Rachel's point of view, who's blamed herself for the death of her parents for 15 years and how she regains her memories of what actually happened.

Compelling psychological thriller that explores the mind and persuasive powers of a psychopath over loving parents and an aunt who try to hide their child from the world in the hope that they can contain evil with love. But where there's a normal child and a psychopath death and murder is never far away.

Where to begin in a story that defies any assumptions. Our chief protagonist ,Rachael, a patient in a mental hospital for fifteen years convinced she committed murder as a child. A slow beautifully written introduction into the hell that has formed her life through fear, loneliness, isolation and terror only to discover through a seemingly random incident that it would have been physically impossible for her to be the perpetrator of the crime. Moving between the “now” as she attempts to regain her memories, and the “Then” when the events of the past replay do we the reader begin to comprehend the horror unfolding many years before our victim became a patient in a mental hospital. The loving mother, desperate to shield her family by hiding from the world family secrets. The various innocent victims forming collateral damage in her efforts to hide an unpalatable truth. A young woman, innocent and naive in the ways of the world determined to unearth the story that was her past and come to terms with her demons . A five star highly recommended read with a conclusion defying all expectations. Will certainly investigate other books by the incredibly talented author Karen Dionne. Many thanks to publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this brilliant book.