Was it…
Bitter, all-consuming jealousy?
Pathological sibling rivalry?
Pure insanity?

Whatever the cause—and everyone has a theory—it’s the Crime of the Decade when glamorous Georgia Cartwright, who was adopted as a newborn, is accused of killing the biological daughter of her wealthy, Southern family.

Georgia is locked in a psychiatric institution where the most violent offenders are held while she awaits trial. The only words she whispers when her estranged twin sister Amanda visits are, “I didn’t do it. You’ve got to get me out of here.”

Amanda doesn’t trust Georgia, but she can’t abandon her in a place so eerie and menacing that it seems to exist in another dimension. Is Georgia the victim of a powerful family that’s so depraved murder is the least of their crimes? Or is Amanda being led down a path of madness into the web of a master manipulator?

Nothing is as it seems in Sarah Pekkanen’s The Locked Ward, a shocking psychological thriller about the complex bonds of sisterhood—and what happens when they are stretched to the breaking point.

Some doors in the Locked Ward should never be opened.

I received an advance galley of this book courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.

After thoroughly enjoying Sarah Pekkanen’s House of Glass last year, I was quick to request an ARC of this book as soon as I saw it hit NetGalley. The premise intrigued me. We have twins, a murder, a psychiatric institution, and a web of family secrets. Sold. I’m always up for a tense, twisty psychological thriller, especially when it promises complex sister dynamics and a potentially unreliable narrator. Unfortunately, while this one had all the ingredients I usually love, the final result didn’t quite land for me.

The setup is compelling enough: Georgia Cartwright, the adopted daughter of a wealthy Southern family, is accused of murdering her sister. While she waits for trial, she’s being held in a psychiatric hospital reserved for the most violent offenders. Her estranged twin, Amanda, shows up for a visit and is quickly pulled into the swirling mystery of whether Georgia is a wrongfully accused pawn in a twisted family game, or something far more manipulative. It’s juicy. It’s atmospheric. It should work. And it mostly does. The plot moves at a decent pace, and there’s enough tension to keep the pages turning.

But where the book stumbled for me was in its execution, particularly the choice of narration style. Georgia’s chapters are told in second-person. Now, I understand what Pekkanen was trying to do here. She wanted the reader to embody Georgia, to experience the psychological breakdown and claustrophobia of confinement firsthand. But second-person is a tough sell. It rarely works for me, and in this case, it created way too much distance between Georgia and I instead of bringing me closer. I kept stumbling over lines like “The smell of bleach fills your nose” or “Your arms and legs ache,” and thinking, “No, it doesn’t”, or “my arms and legs are fine, thanks”. I know it’s a weird personal quirk, but I think it comes from a pet peeve of being told how to feel, speak, or act. I always push back against that. If a book starts telling me what I should be feeling or thinking, it pulls me right out of the story. It totally breaks the spell.

This won’t bother everyone. Some readers may find the second-person approach haunting and immersive. For me, it pulled me out of the story every time it showed up, and that made it hard to feel emotionally invested in Georgia. I never quite connected to Amanda either, which is disappointing since so much of the book relies on her shifting perceptions and unraveling sense of trust. I was more of a passive observer than an active participant in her story.

The mystery itself is fine. Solid, but not particularly shocking. I guessed most of the major beats well before they were revealed. There’s no real gut-punch twist, no gasp-worthy moment that resets your understanding of the plot. That’s not to say it’s poorly done, it just plays things pretty safe for a psychological thriller. The atmosphere is eerie, the pacing is steady, and there’s a few unsettling scenes, but it never fully grabbed me the way I wanted it to. If you’ve read widely in the genre, this one won’t surprise you.

Now, on a more positive note: the audiobook is fantastic. January LaVoy is one of my favorite narrators, and she does an outstanding job here. Her delivery is precise, emotionally nuanced, and she gives distinct voices to each character without making it feel performative. She brings energy to the narrative and smooths over some of the pacing dips in the middle. Honestly, her narration probably added an extra half-star to my reading experience. If you’re going to pick this one up, I’d recommend the audio format for that reason alone.

So where does that leave me? It’s not a bad book. Not by any stretch. It’s readable, well-paced, and competently written. It just didn’t click with me on a deeper level. Between the second-person narration and a plot that didn’t quite deliver on its dark promise, I walked away feeling lukewarm. That said, I’ll still read Pekkanen’s future work. She has a strong sense of mood and clearly knows how to structure a thriller. This one just wasn’t the hit I hoped for, but that doesn’t mean it won’t work for someone else.