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The Locked Ward
By: Sarah Pekkanen
Publication Date: August 5, 2025
Published By: St. Martin’s Press
320 pages
Find It On: Amazon | Goodreads
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Georgia wakes up in a locked ward in a mental hospital. She’s been accused of killing her sister, the biological daughter of her adoptive parents. She stays quiet, does not say a word to the nurses, the doctors, or anyone else around. But she does tell her lawyer one thing.. Find Mandy. Mandy… her twin sister. When her twin visits, she whispers, “I didn’t do it.” Mandy then goes and tries to find out who did it if it wasn’t Georgia. The more Mandy starts to dig, the more her life is in danger. Is Georgia telling the truth, or is she manipulating Mandy?
I really enjoy this author, so it was a no brainer to read this book. This was another 4 star read by Pekkanen! The book starts off completely drawing you in, making you want to keep reading. I went into the book blind, so I actually didn’t know that Amanda/Mandy was going to be her twin! From there, the scenes in the ward are perfect. The descriptions of the ward really are spot on. They make you feel like you’re actually in the locked ward. I actually thought it was very interesting that Pekkanen chose to use the second person POV for Georgia’s chapters. The other chapters are told from Mandy’s POV, told in the first person POV. I would love to be able to ask Pekkanen what drove her to make this decision.
I didn’t find the book particularly suspenseful, but I did find it enjoyable. I wanted to know how it was going to all play out. The chapters were short and easy to read. The best part of the book were the scenes inside the ward – I would have loved more of them!
There was one twist that got me – I was completely shocked. It wasn’t the big one, but it was still shocking. As for the big reveal, while I didn’t guess it outright, I had some suspicions – I just had a different reason for them. So I would say that the author was successful in tricking me! This is out now, so get your hands on a copy!
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