Book: The Women in White
Author: Sarah Pekkanen
Thank you, NetGalley, and Macmillan Audio, for an advanced audio copy.
This one took a little while to sink its hooks into me, but once it did I could not put it down.
The Women in White follows two timelines. In 1964, four young women at a prestigious university become the subjects of parapsychology experiments. Testing for things like telepathy and precognition under a researcher who grows increasingly controlling and disturbing. Then in the present day, Riley Bell, newly divorced and looking for a fresh start, takes a caretaker job for an elderly widow named Betty. She quickly realizes Betty’s home is frozen in 1964, and that Betty has spent six decades haunted by what happened to her three closest friends.
The dual timeline structure works really well here. The 1964 sections are genuinely unsettling and the present day storyline gives you someone to root for while the mystery slowly unravels. Once those two threads started pulling together I was completely locked in.
It does take some patience in the early pages to get your footing, which is the only reason I am not giving it five stars. But stick with it because the payoff is absolutely worth it.
A really unique premise that I have not seen done quite like this before.
Final score: 4/5



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