Regular readers will know what I believe…Changelings, obviously! What Golding does really well here is to make it possible for the reader to believe both views.Įach chapter starts with a quote about fairies and these are not your Tinkerbelle type of fairy these are the older and darker fairies that have existed in folklore for hundreds of years and these fairies don’t view humankind in a good light.Īs the book progresses the reader is given more and more evidence for both sides of the argument and the ending leaves it open to the individual reader to decide what they believe happened. This paragraph sets out the basis of the book, Lauren is convinced her twin sons have been changed while the rest of the world believes she is imagining it. They answered the question why would a mother think her children were changed even though, to everyone else they looked the same as they did before? This theory would also explain why after a while (or after a visit from the wise woman), everything was back to normal: puerperal psychosis is now known to be a temporary condition.” “When changeling tales began, in a time before modern understanding of psychiatry, they would have provided an explanation of a rare kind of mental illness. The most important part of the foreword for me was this: Personally I am sure I am a fairy princess who somehow ended up in a human family. Just to be safe.īook Worm’s Thoughts: Well with a synopsis like that how was I ever going to resist this book? I was sucked in from the foreword where the author explains where she got her inspiration and that tales of changelings are found in cultures throughout the world. But if she’s wrong about what she saw…she’ll be making the biggest mistake of her life.Ĭompulsive, creepy, and inspired by some our darkest fairy tales, Little Darlings will have you checking―and rechecking―your own little ones. As everyone around her celebrates their return, Lauren begins to scream, These are not my babies.ĭetermined to bring her true infant sons home, Lauren will risk the unthinkable.

The infants look like Morgan and Riley―to everyone else. But when they’re found, something is different about them. And one bright summer morning, the babies disappear from Lauren’s side in a park. Everyone, from her doctor to her husband, thinks she’s imagining things.Ī month passes. Yet when the police arrived, they saw no one. 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. And they’re right with newborn twins, Morgan and Riley, she’s never been more tired in her life. Synopsis from Goodreads: Everyone says Lauren Tranter is exhausted, that she needs rest. This ARC was provided by HQ (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review.

Little darlings melanie