Review | Little Darlings by Melanie Golding

After giving birth to twins, Lauren is exhausted and alone in the maternity ward. When a woman appears in her hospital room attempting to steal her children, she becomes afraid for their lives. But no one believes that an attempted abduction took place, except PC Joanna Harper. When the police claims Lauren’s precarious mental health is the source of the problem, Harper decides to pursue the case on her own. Soon, Lauren says she is being stalked and that the same woman is after her children. Harper will have to figure out whether there is someone who means to harm Lauren, or whether it’s all in Lauren’s head.

From the other side of the curtain she could hear a cooing, a mother talking to a baby. The voice was low, muttering, somehow unsettling. Lauren couldn’t work out why it sounded odd. She listened for a while longer. Just a woman, murmuring nothings to her baby – why was it troubling her?

I love fairy tales, and the story of the Changeling is really fascinating. The horror of a child being secretly swapped with a creature, unknowing to the parents, is one that endures. Just one of many scary stories about children in fairy tales! Little Darlings attempts to mix the fairy tale with a domestic thriller, and the result is mixed.

I’m not a mother but my family is from South East Asia where confinement after birth is still practiced until today. Basically, for weeks or until 40 days (it varies according to traditions), the new mother is cared by a confinement lady or family members, so that she can heal her body and bond with the baby. Unlike Western customs, she isn’t expected to be up and running mere days after birth, with the expectation of taking care of the baby and cooking meals for the family. So reading this book made me feel bad for Lauren, whose traumatic birth and after birth is swept aside by her own husband and friends.

Not only did Lauren has to contend with taking care of two babies, she also has a frightening encounter with a strange woman. Her fear of wanting to protect her children and not wanting to mess up as a parent is palpable. Her situation is described in sympathetic detail, and her post-partum depression is heartbreaking. I think for pregnant woman and mothers who has been in her position, reading this book might be particularly painful so readers should take note.

In terms of the mystery, this book is less successful. I didn’t expect for PC Joanna to have a major part but half of the book deals with police procedural and it’s very slow going. There’s a side plot about her dalliance with a reporter that I felt add nothing to the book. I found Joanna’s behaviour confusing as she was adamant to investigate Lauren’s claims of abduction but at the same time refusing to admit Lauren could be right. I thought Lauren’s husband, Patrick, is a terrible person and I wasn’t sure if it’s meant to be that way. Despite his dodgy behaviour and disregard for Lauren, the book keeps extolling his virtues. He also made numerous mistakes, and never paid for them.

I’m not a fan of the ending where many questions remain. There are all kinds of red herrings and clues, but nothing is resolved. I don’t mind vague endings or ones that force readers to make up their own minds, but there should be something left for the reader’s interpretation. Either Lauren had been suffering from a mental illness, or something really happened to her children. The book doesn’t seem to be able to decide one way or the other.

Despite the dreary mystery, there were moments that gave me chills when Lauren keeps seeing visions of the strange woman. I wish these fairy tale elements had been woven deeper and more consistently into the story. There are jumbled elements of the Changeling, spirits, witches, and the horror doesn’t quite reach the level I expected. Instead, the book is strongest when it speaks about the pain of motherhood and the societal pressure on new mothers. In some ways, that can be scarier than any fairy tale.

About the author: Melanie Golding

Photo by Marie Despeyroux