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Little Darlings: A Novel Hardcover – April 30, 2019

by Melanie Golding (Author)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 2,099 ratings
Editors' pick Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
See all formats and editions
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A Refinery29 Best Summer Thriller  ·  An Amazon Best Book of the Month  

The anxieties of motherhood take center stage in this “atmospheric and very creepy” debut psychological thriller that reinvents the changeling myth with the flair of Angela Carter (Guardian).

Everyone says Lauren Tranter is exhausted, that she needs rest. And they’re right; with newborn twins, Morgan and Riley, she’s never been more tired in her life. But she knows what she saw: that night, in her hospital room, a woman tried to take her babies and replace them with her own...creatures. Yet when the police arrived, they saw no one. Everyone, from her doctor to her husband, thinks she’s imagining things.

A month passes and one bright summer morning, the babies disappear from Lauren’s side in a park. When they’re found, something is different about them. The infants look like Morgan and Riley—to everyone else. But to Lauren, something is off. As everyone around her celebrates their return, Lauren begins to scream, These are not my babies.

Determined to bring her true infant sons home, Lauren will risk the unthinkable. But if she’s wrong about what she saw...she’ll be making the biggest mistake of her life.

Compulsive, creepy, and inspired by some of our darkest fairy tales, Little Darlings will have you checking—and rechecking—your own little ones. Just to be sure. Just to be safe.

“Chilling story, beautiful prose.”
—Clare Mackintosh, New York Times bestselling author of I Let You Go
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    304 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Crooked Lane Books
  4. Publication date
    April 30, 2019
  5. Dimensions
    6.38 x 1.06 x 9.56 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1683319974
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1683319979
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Little Darlings:

One of:
Amazon's Best Books of the Month for May: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Refinery29's "Best Summer Thrillers 2019"
Bustle's "10 Horror Retellings Of Your Favorite Classic Stories"
The Nerd Daily's "14 Debut Authors to Discover This April"
Goodreads' "Spring's Most Anticipated mysteries & Thrillers"
The Guardian's "The Best Recent Crime and Thrillers"

"Unforgettable . . . One suspects that the real sorceress here is Golding, whose writing has given a voice to every wronged mother."
—The New York Times Book Review

"A lyrical and atmospheric folktale for the modern age, Little Darlings is a gorgeously crafted story that makes even the grimmest of subjects shine."
—Bustle

“Atmospheric and very creepy indeed.”
—The Guardian

"Golding's novel will strike true fear into the heart of any parent. At the same time, the novel explores the fierce and desperate love we have for our children, written with beautiful intensity . . . A gorgeous, creepy, modern fairy tale reminiscent of Angela Carter."
—Kirkus starred review

"A modern story of ghosts and fairy tales . . . Golding beautifully blends the supernatural with the everyday, keeping readers riveted to the page as they question what is true."
—Booklist starred review

"Sinister and sickeningly real, Little Darlings is fairy tale-inflected horror . . . that touch[es] on our deepest, most instinctive fears and fairy tales."
—Foreword Reviews starred review

"Haunting . . . Fans of psychological thrillers will look forward to Golding’s next novel."
—Publishers Weekly

"It'll make you question whether mother really does know best or if motherhood is truly the dream it's made out to be."
—Fangoria Magazine

“Chilling story, beautiful prose. Little Darlings is stunning.”
—Clare Mackintosh, New York Times bestselling author of I Let You Go

"Ingenious, chilling, and completely absorbing, Little Darlings is destined to be the hit of 2019. The scariest book I have read in many years."
—A. J. Banner, bestselling author of The Good Neighbor

“Deep. Dark. Utterly addictive. I read this extraordinary book in one breathless gulp...Be warned—you can't unread this story. It will haunt you.”
—Teresa Driscoll, author of I Am Watching You

“I love this book! Compelling from the first page to the very last, Golding took me by the hand and pulled me softly but persistently through mystery and myth...A masterfully-told story and a beautiful and nuanced work of art.”
—Susan Crawford, author of The Pocket Wife

“Dark, compelling and terrifyingly relatable, Little Darlings takes every parent’s worst fear and deftly twists it into something even more horrific. It will have you checking every shadow for what you hope isn’t really there.”
—Megan Hart, New York Times bestselling author

"Little Darlings is the perfect marriage of taut psychological thriller and nail-biting horror. A changeling-inspired page-turner of note with a highly satisfying ending, it'll stay with you long after you've read it. I loved it and can't wait to see what Melanie Golding does next.”
—Sarah Lotz, author of The White Road

"A twisty, chilling exploration of the dark side of motherhood, brilliantly told by a debut author whose skill is evident from the first page. Any parent—any human, for that matter—will have a hard time putting this book down once they start."
—Brad Parks, international bestselling author of The Last Act

“A story that is in turn enthralling, creepy and downright sinister, Melanie Golding turns fairy tales on their heads in Little Darlings, making this one to watch out for in 2019. A brilliant, heart-pounding read.”
—Lisa Hall, author of Between You and Me

“Rich and satisfying, this is part who-done-it, part fairy tale, part psychological thriller...Will continue to rattle you, long after you have put it down.”
—Felicity Everett, author of The People at Number 9

“Riveting, terrifying and at times heartbreaking...Melanie Golding’s disturbing portrait of a new mother’s paranoia is superbly written, cleverly plotted and gruesomely beautiful in an unforgettable way. A stunning debut.”
—Annie Ward, author of Beautiful Bad

“Little Darlings is brilliant—beautifully written, disturbing and deliciously creepy.”
—Roz Watkins, author of The Devil’s Dice

"Dark, richly evocative, tense, and thought-provoking. Taps into every woman's fear that she will not be believed."
—Mel McGrath, author of Give Me the Child

"Viscerally creepy and compelling—a contemporary dark fairy tale that reeled me in like tales of old."
—Angela Clarke, author of Follow Me

"Little Darlings gives a thrill so deep it dips at times into pleasure, at Golding's sheer creativity, at her ability to take our most natural and primal life experience and weave into it our most ancient myths, transforming it into high horror. She keeps the reader spellbound until the very end . . . The psychological intensity of this novel is on par with the best."
—Katherine Forbes Riley, author of The Bobcat

"A psychological thriller with a suggestion of the supernatural . . . Golding provides enough reasonable doubt about Lauren’s view of events to keep readers guessing."
—Library Journal

About the Author

Melanie Golding is a graduate of the MA in creative writing program at Bath Spa University, with distinction. She has been employed in many occupations including farm hand, factory worker, childminder and music teacher. Throughout all this, because and in spite of it, there was always the writing. In recent years she has won and been shortlisted in several local and national short story competitions. Little Darlings is her first novel, and has been optioned for screen by Free Range Films, the team behind the adaptation of My Cousin Rachel.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Crooked Lane Books; First Edition (April 30, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1683319974
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1683319979
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.08 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.38 x 1.06 x 9.56 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 2,099 ratings

About the authors

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  1. Melanie Golding

    Melanie Golding

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    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Melanie Golding grew up in Leicestershire, UK. Her first novel, Little Darlings, which has been optioned for screen by Free Range Films, became an e-book bestseller and won the DragonCon award for Best Horror Novel 2019. Her second novel The Hidden, (titled The Replacement in the UK), was a B&N monthly pick in March 2023. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University which examines the use of folklore in contemporary thrillers.

    See more on the author's page
  2. Melanie Golding

    Melanie Golding

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Melanie Golding grew up in Leicestershire, UK. Her first novel, Little Darlings, which has been optioned for screen by Free Range Films, became an e-book bestseller and won the DragonCon award for Best Horror Novel 2019. Her second novel The Hidden, (titled The Replacement in the UK), was a B&N monthly pick in March 2023. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University which examines the use of folklore in contemporary thrillers.

    See more on the author's page
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Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
2,099 global ratings
A Must Read
5 Stars
A Must Read
I finished this book within 24 hours. Believe me when I say I don’t scare easily when I read books, but this one just gave me the creeps from the get-go. Melanie Golding does such an amazing job at drawing a perfect picture of what the characters are feeling, thinking, and experiencing. The creepy undertone that crawls under your skin and messes with your head plus the uncertainty of what’s going to happen will definitely keep you up at night.
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Top reviews from the United States

MrsLeif
4.0 out of 5 stars Creppy!
Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2019
Verified Purchase
Little Darlings is a creepy, engaging, hair-raising tale, one which I was happy to review. The addition of the dark fairy folklore regarding twins made this novel so much more sinister.

A new mother's worst nightmare is the premise of Little Darlings.

Lauren Tranter is the new mother of twin boys, Morgan and Riley. She's overwhelmed, experiencing postpartum depression and if that wasn't enough, one of the nights while she's still at the hospital, a young woman with twins wants to exchange/take her babies. Lauren runs away and hides in the bathroom and calls the cops. Of course, no one can find the woman and her babies. They all think it was Lauren hallucinating. She's tired, she was given medications during delivery so the conclusion is that she was imaging the whole event.

DS Jo Harper reviews the report the next morning and something about the event pushes her to meet Lauren and to further investigate it. Jo believes Lauren. She knows something happened to Lauren at the hospital. Sadly, her boss doesn't agree with her and using the police resources is not something he wants to agree on. Jo doesn't want to leave the case and she starts using her own free time to follow some leads.

Then the worst happens. While on an outing with the babies a month after they were born, Lauren falls asleep on a bench and when she wakes up, her babies are gone. Jo is called to help with the kidnapping. She finds the twins but when they returned them to Lauren, she shockingly screams that they're not hers!

I liked both Lauren and DS Jo Harper. It was interesting not knowing if Lauren was imagining it all or if it was real. The folklore at the beginning of every chapter really helps with the eeriness. Jo had her own reasons for investigating the case involving babies and she tried her best to help Lauren.

Little Darlings reads itself. The whole story was spooky. It had my attention from beginning to end.

I heard this could become a movie. Perfect script for one.

Cliffhanger: No

4/5 Fangs
23 people found this helpful
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Helene Stephens
5.0 out of 5 stars That Creepy Evil Crone of Fairy Tales!
Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2019
Verified Purchase
LITTLE DARLINGS by Melanie Golding

It is difficult to review a book that is this good. Not good – It’s absolutely brilliant. To me, this strange and chilling tale stands as one of the most incredible reads of 2019. This book combines reality with fable, and as I read further, the fable became more solid, more likely, than the actual reality. This author can twist a reader’s mind. She is exceptional and so is her book.

If you’ve ever read Grimm’s Fairy Tales, you know that the original stories are extremely dark and bear little resemblance to their popular revisions. They are chilling and creepy and often considered too frightening for children. This book is almost like living one of Grimm’s nightmares. The evil crone of some of those fairy tale stories seems to come alive and nudge her way into Little Darlings.

What an incredible book! It took all the logical order of the “unreliable narrator” of book club discussions and tossed it out the window. Amazing! Can this really be the author’s first work? Five Stars for an exceptional experience.
3 people found this helpful
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Guinevere
3.0 out of 5 stars needs work
Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2023
Verified Purchase
It’s not that the writing is bad - it’s that the author didn’t seem to know which book she wanted to write. What genre is this?
It was listed as a good horror/ suspense read, but the first third is a kind of near-memoir that would put anyone off getting married and having kids forever (I am in full support of this), and then it becomes a procedural police type mystery, with psychological drama and a tiny bit of supernatural woven in.
Then there’s the messy, unclear, romance subplot which is extremely off-putting, mainly because the woman the main character has a crush on us so manipulative and shallow.
Then at the end, there’s an attempt at a twist, but it’s not really a twist - it’s another jab at a truly repugnant man who has no redeeming qualities.

With an editor, this book has some interesting threads, but my God, how did the poor thing go out into the world in so many uncared-for pieces?
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Laurel-Rain Snow
4.0 out of 5 stars SURREAL & SINISTER TALE
Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2019
Verified Purchase
Everyone says Lauren Tranter is exhausted, that she needs rest. And they’re right; with newborn twins, Morgan and Riley, she’s never been more tired in her life. But she knows what she saw: that night, in her hospital room, a woman tried to take her babies and replace them with her own…creatures. Yet when the police arrived, they saw no one. Everyone, from her doctor to her husband, thinks she’s imagining things.

A month passes. And one bright summer morning, the babies disappear from Lauren’s side in a park. But when they’re found, something is different about them. The infants look like Morgan and Riley—to everyone else. But to Lauren, something is off. As everyone around her celebrates their return, Lauren begins to scream, These are not my babies.

Determined to bring her true infant sons home, Lauren will risk the unthinkable. But if she’s wrong about what she saw…she’ll be making the biggest mistake of her life.

My Thoughts: From the opening pages of Little Darlings, I was drawn into this creepy and sinister tale, a story with characters that made me want to root for them. Lauren, as an exhausted new mother to twins, felt like someone with whom I could empathize. I also liked DS Jo Harper, who is diligent and goes beyond the call of duty.

Patrick, as the new father, was unlikable, in my opinion, although some might view him as a man standing by his “sick” wife.

The story was hard to believe, but when we saw the events from Lauren’s perspective, we could almost buy into her fears. Who doesn’t imagine things when exhausted and disconnected from a real support system? I liked suspending my disbelief until the very end. 4.5 stars.
7 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Silvija
5.0 out of 5 stars Buch.
Reviewed in Germany on March 15, 2021
Verified Purchase
Alles bestens.
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Mary R
5.0 out of 5 stars Melanie Golding’s brilliantly chilling, haunting and satisfying story is a must-read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 2, 2019
Verified Purchase
Lauren gives birth to twin boys. She’s exhausted, yet somehow the deep fierce love inside her keeps her caring for her babies as endless hours and days merge into each other. Then Lauren’s life is flooded with terror when suddenly the long-ago past erupts into the present time with devastating consequences.

Is Lauren suffering postnatal psychosis, or is she telling the truth? The folk tale embedded in the story’s DNA gives another twist, another dimension.

DS Joanna Harper has to go deeper than she’s ever gone before to investigate the dark heart of the crime she uncovers. But first, she must face up to the truth about herself.

Beautifully written, this chilling story grips the reader and will not let you go. When the book is finished you’re still lingering inside the world where the old stories, the dreams and fables and nightmares, they’re real. They’re here right now.
7 people found this helpful
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İryna Prushkovska
3.0 out of 5 stars Very creepy and dark
Reviewed in Germany on January 29, 2023
Verified Purchase
It was quite disturbing, I had chills through out most of the book. If you are a mom and you have newborns, you shouldn’t read the book, it would definitely make motherhood much harder,extra stressful . All in all quite nice.
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Miss T
4.0 out of 5 stars It is chilling and very creepy
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 16, 2020
Verified Purchase
Lauren Tranter goes through a horrific birth with her twin boys. A forceps delivery with complications, following a second surgery she's awake in the hospital late at night trying to care for her boys when she hears a strange woman singing. She begs Lauren to exchange one of her son's for one of her own twins or face losing them both.

The woman returns and Lauren flees with her boys to lock herself and them into the bathroom calling the police for help. But the hospital security team can't find any trace of the mysterious intruder and de-escalate the call.

Detective Joanna Harper sees the log and, swayed by her own lost child, tries to follow up but is stymied by her boss trying to keep within a tight budget. She collects the video evidence but isn't able to do much more.

Lauren finally goes home, but paranoia about the safety of the children sets in which is heightened when an old book appears full of tales about changelings.

Lauren's husband is not helpful, he doesn't want to assist with the boys, and leaves Lauren overwhelmed and struggling while he returns to work and his "social" activities.

Under strain Lauren appears to break.. but did she really? Joanna continues, despite being called off, to look into the case and she finds some startling anomalies.

To say more kind of gives it away but if you don't have any ability to accept the otherworldly then it's not the book for you.

My only complaint is that I really wish Golding had given more of a conclusion for Lauren.
One person found this helpful
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k
4.0 out of 5 stars Good fun
Reviewed in Australia on August 1, 2020
Verified Purchase
Spooky and compelling, with flawed characters and some interesting twists! I will read this one again one day... word word word
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