This book was dark and haunting and it stayed with you after you finished it. There were two narrators and they both were unreliable in their own ways. I like the feeling of not getting the whole story. There were a few little things left unanswered that added to the intrigue and mystery of the book. The characters were vivid, compelling, and captivating. You had to keep reading to find out more. I normally prefer series to standalones, except when a fantastic stand alone like this one come around.

Megan Melvick is returning to her childhood home, the grand house on a Scottish estate. She is there to visit her dying sister, Melissa. However, her return has brought back many memories, not all of them good. In particular, will she ever find out what really happened on the night of Melissa's wedding, when someone ended up dead. I have to say I didn't find this book as riveting as I'd hoped. I didn't warm to the characters and I found the story to be quite far fetched.
Thanks to NetGalley for a preview copy.
Copied to Goodreads.

Brought up on the Benbrae estate into a world of privilege, Megan Melvick has tried to escape the confines of her family. Now she has been called home as her sister lies dying and she fears the family madness is so close to the surface. Profoundly deaf, Megan struggles with her mental health and events in the past seem to be colliding with the present, the disappearance of her mother and the death of her childhood friend.
I found this quite an annoying and 'long' read. I know there is a huge market for this sort of 'psychological thriller' and I think there was a good concept underneath it all but I didn't really engage. Megan was an unlikeable character to my eyes and overwhelming 'gothic' tone was too much

Well this was different but in a good way. I did enjoy the book and the twists and turns and understanding the family and how they interlinked.

I needed to keep reading to find out what happened once I got engaged in the book, I really didnt know what to make out in the start so there were lots of stops and starts in my reading journey of this book - but once I got engaged I really did.

I was given an advance copy by netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely my own.

Well written thriller that pulls you in deep

Megan Melvick has returned home after a three-year absence to visit her dying sister, Melissa, for the last time. As she approaches the grand Scottish country estate where she grew up, the memories come flooding back. Just what did happen on the night of Melissa's wedding five years before? Where has Megan and Melissa's mother disappeared to? And why does Melissa whisper that solitary word before she finally slips away: Sorry.

In order to overcome her demons, Megan must confront her painful recollections of that terrible night, the night of Melissa's wedding. The night somebody died. But can she really trust her memories? And who is so determined that she should forget?

A tense mixture of family secrets, murder and unsolved mysteries, told from 2 different characters perspective which keep it interesting and you guessing on the conclusion.
A great read, definitely recommended!
Thanks for NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

#TheCursedGirls #NetGalley

A psychological thriller that takes you on a ride. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me review this book.

Caro Ramsay always writes stories that are gripping and unputdownable.
This one is exception and I thoroughly enjoyed.
A thrilling and exciting plot, solid mystery and interesting characters.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Confusing set of characters with relationships that took a while to sort out. Basically a mystery of a missing wife & mother and who killed Megan's friend.

I could not work this book out. Megan Melvick returns to her family home - the Italian House - to be there with her dying sister. Megan’s return upsets the two ladies of the house - Deborah the hired help & Heather the best friend of her estranged Mother. Her Dad is getting forgetful, the local detective is poking around an old incident at the Italian house and Megan finds her own mental health suffering as soon as she is home. The Melvick family has been cursed for years - its well known. Megan and her Dad are the last of the Melvicks - so which one will fall victim to the curse next? I really enjoyed this book. It kept me guessing and I just could not work out what had happened and who was responsible. The first book I’ve read by Caro Ramsey and I’m really looking forward to reading more. A great thriller.

Now THIS was some psychological suspense.
I will say I went into this completely blind. I read the quick synopsis but that was about it. I haven’t read any other of Ramsey’s books so this was my first. Set in Scotland, Megan comes back to the estate she grew up on 5 years after her friends death, 3 after her mother walked out, and will be saying goodbye to her older sister at any moment. It’s safe to say tragedy follows the Melvick family including Megan, who’s family did not discover she was deaf until she was four years old.
With Megan’s return home memories are drudged up as well as many questions surrounding them. We find Megan to be an unreliable narrator with a history of mental illness. We also get the perspective of her friend Carla in both past and present timelines. As more memories unfold and secrets are revealed we learn whether the Melvick women really are cursed or if there’s more to it.
I really enjoyed this one. It definitely had a slow start and took me awhile to get into it, but around chapter 10 I was engrossed. Ramsey does a great job of giving you information to figure out without giving too much away. I can truly say I had no idea what was going on and found everyone to be suspicious. As everything was being revealed in the last few chapters I found myself having to play close attention and even needing to reread some pages as Ramsey unfurled the story. A lot of things are strongly inferred and instead of stated as fact. The air of mystery was held throughout the whole story. This was great twist on a suspicious and well-off family with a long history if tragedy.

A great intriguing mystery thriller, triggered by Megan Melvick returning to her Scottish island based ancestral home to say her goodbyes to her dying sister Melissa. Only this ancestral home harbours many secrets, strife and dark tragedies that include murder and suicides.
Megan is a complex character. She is deaf and tends to retreat into her own world. Seemingly she has mental issues that only really surface when she is back to her dysfunctional home.
My favourite character was the deceased voice of Carla. From a traumatic and far less privileged background, she provides a no holds barred account of the other characters letting you know what she makes of them. She has a different insight; is dry, and oozing sarcasm, which makes her highly entertaining. Carla died 5 years ago at Melissa’s wedding. Megan’s mother went missing 3 years ago also. Now Melissa is dying. There are lots of skeletons to come out of the closet.
Megan can’t quite recall what happened when Carla died, so slowly we need to unpick & discover what did occur. Hence we tread a path to unravel the whodunit. I found this book to be rather unique, intriguing and captivating. Chapters run quickly and the story has great pace. My biggest niggle was that a lot of the characters did not get developed enough. I wondered whether this was to sustain a sense of mystery, but it felt lacking in parts and to have done so would have helped the ending fix into place more effectively. The ending is good, with lots of loose ends pulled together – maybe too many in 1 go, making it hard to know whether all this could have been deduced from the patchy information available to us. Having said that I just went with the flow and found it be an entertaining read and remained keenly absorbed throughout.

3-4 stars. I found this to be well written, with quirky characters that were well developed, but I had the mystery figured out relatively early, which sort of made the story drag for me. Overall, I still would recommend, as I do think those that read less thrillers would find the twisty turns, chills, thrills, and shocks much better than the veteran thriller readers! It was definitely fast paced and uniquely written, which makes it easy to get through!

Will make sure to buzz around and use top Amazon reviewer number on release!

Having previously enjoyed her Glasgow-based Anderson and Costello detective series, I thought I’d give this standalone psychological thriller by Caro Ramsey a try. The Cursed Girls is very different but equally compelling. Set on a country estate in the west of Scotland, overlooking the Holy Loch, this story takes us behind the scenes at the Melvick family ancestral home, the Italian House. After an absence of three years, Megan has returned to say goodbye to her older sister Melissa who is dying; their relationship had always been difficult, but her father was keen for her to return.
There are a lot of unsolved mysteries surrounding this family, who believe themselves to be cursed, and a sense that everyone has something to hide. Why did Megan lose her hearing as a small child (she was not born deaf), where did her mother go when she vanished all those years ago, and who caused the fatal explosion at Melissa’s wedding?
The story is told from Megan’s point of view, with flashbacks from Carla, and they have very different narrative voices. Megan is trusting and naïve, and believes everything people tell her; Carla is tough, streetwise and trusts nobody. This way we get a much fuller picture of what went on.
The Cursed Girls is well written, with believable fully fleshed out characters and a wonderfully atmospheric setting in the wilds of Argyllshire. The slow beginning sets the scene, and the build-up of tension as secrets are gradually revealed lead to a kind of Agatha-Christie-style finale where DS Murray brings everyone together to reveal what he has discovered; there are other references to her as well if you know what you’re looking for.
Throughout the book there is a sense that nothing is as it seems on the surface. It starts off with a lot of questions, and under each layer that is revealed there is another, and another, until we finally get to the truth. I enjoyed this story immensely and kept on reading it late into the night.
Thanks to Black Thorn, Canongate and NetGalley for a digital copy to review.

A dysfunctional wealthy Scottish family. The suicide curse seemed too glibly presented to me, and some of the pieces just didn't fit together. I did enjoy the story despite the disjointed presentation. I hadn't worked out what was going on, and it was a bit of a shock, but overall some of the practices seemed too rooted in the past to work in the present day. #netgalley #thecursedgirls

I found this a very confusing & unhappy book. The characters were not very believable and the plot very weird

After many years, Megan returns the Benbrae, her family estate in Scotland as her elder sister, Melissa, is dying of anorexia. She feels that the house is cursed and bad things happen to people there. After all, her mum left, her best friend, Carla, died in an accident, her sister has an eating disorder. And then there's Trentor Woods with their dangerous faerie pools and the hanging tree.
Told by Megan and the deceased Carla, this family thriller unfolding the past should have been just my thing. However, I felt it rambled a bit aimlessly before the reveal at the end. I found that I didn't really care about either Carla or Megan. Carla, in particular was very shadowy. The reveal, however, did tie up the tale satisfactorily.

Megan returns to her family home after an absence of three years as her sister is dying. Her family home in Scotland is beautiful but the family seems to be under a dark cloud as there seem to be a lot of them that die early by their own hand- Megan's own earliest memory is of her Grandfather committing suicide on her fourth birthday.

I wanted to read this book because of the setting & the premise sounded interesting. The story is told from multiple points of view. This is usually a format I enjoy but I found that this time it was too confusing- I wasn't sure who was real & who was imaginary! I was engaged enough to finish the book but was left disappointed in it. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

Traumatised by an early childhood memory of a death by hanging, Megan Melvick returns to her family pile in Benbrae. Her sister is dying and her mother has abandoned them. Through flashbacks to the day of her sister Melissa's wedding which was also the day of a horrific death, we learn about her family from Megan's non hearing perspective and from her best (and only) friend Carla. I was gripped by the story of an outsider and her fear of inherited family insanity. The day of Melissa's funeral dawns and with it all the old ghosts, and there are many. Is Megan a reliable narrator? Is Carla? Who can Megan trust and who should she trust. Loved the denouement at the end and the final closing chapter.

Megan Melvick has reluctantly returned to the family estate near Dunoon to say goodbye to her dying sister. There she has to come to terms with the past. What actually happened on the night of her sister's wedding and why did her best friend Carla die? Slowly, we revisit the past through the eyes of both Megan and Carla to find out what happened not only to Carla but to Megan's runaway mother.

I liked the sound of this book but it didn't live up to my expectations. I wasn't engaged by the characters at all and did not find either Megan or Carla sympathetic. The story unwound slowly, so slowly that I thought at times I was reading a book about a thousand pages long. After such a drawn out story it was disconcerting to have a relatively minor character drop in at the end of the book, a 'deus ex machina' to tell us what had happened. This jarred with the rest of the book. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

An excellent standalone thriller by this seasoned author bringing us the story of a very dysfunctional family that would appear to have secrets around them and curses upon them. Told from two perspectives which dovetail neatly together to find the missing pieces and resolve the issues around this family. Excellent character portrayal, whether you love them or loathe the Merick family