I’m an in awe of Ronald Malfi. After having read his third book (in my time line of reading not the authors of writing) Little Girls, he has delivered thrice and has me wanting for more.
Little Girls starts out as a simple case of inheritance. Estranged daughter returns to the house she spent her youth in. She hopes to sell it and with it the fears and bad memories still haunting her. But the complexity of the story, the characters increases as we read on. It does so slowly without us quite realizing so. Events and characters initially appear innocuous, holding no mystery, then as we progress, we make connections but view them as merely coincidental. Then, finally, a murderous truth takes shape where nothing and nobody remains innocent or coincidental.
It says on the cover that this is a ghost story. And it may well be, if you interpret events in the traditional haunted sense. I, however, saw nothing that could not be explained by the terrible things our own and mind can do to us when we have reached a cracking point.
In sum, this is a great work of fiction, I would recommend without reservation to any lover of plots that expose our human nature with brutal honesty that can produce deep-seating emotions with the subtle but powerful tools of literature and archetypical fears. Recommended ( )

This was a slow burn haunting!

A little backstory:

Laurie Genarro along with her husband Ted and young daughter Susan make their way out to a house that Laurie has inherited from her father. Her father that she hasn't seen in many years fell to his death in what some believe to be a suicide. Laurie remembers things that happened in the past in that house and she also remembers the little girl (Sadie) that lived next door at that time. They use to be playmates.

When Laurie and her family decide to stay in the house temporarily there are some cold drafts in the house and noises through the house. The neighbor next door has a young girl that has an uncanny resemblance to Laurie's old playmate. The more Laurie stays in the house the more she remembers of things that not only happened there but also things that happened with Sadie and she has a feeling of dread that overtakes her soul. As Sadie was not a sweet little girl and things were not what they seemed for the memories of the past have come back to haunt Laurie.

Thoughts:

The story was a very slow burn and I was waiting for the house along with the little girl to start getting spooky. The book was more of a mystery than a "chilling ghost story" as I have read books that will "send shivers down your spine" and that have "creepy atmospheres that seep into your being", but this book did not have those ingredients at all and not once did I feel the spooky chills. Usually a ghost story about creepy children would be a recipe for disaster, but that was not the case here. Giving this story two "unimpressed" stars.
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Little Girls - Ronald Malfi

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The primary theme of the book is about Laurie and her family returning home after her father passed away. When she was a child, there was a room upstairs that always stayed closed, and she was not allowed to enter. Being back in the house brought back a lot of memories for her and the reader began to see that things were coming back for her that would have maybe been better to have remained buried along with her father. She also began to remember her childhood that included her friend who was her next-door neighbor. Then she started feeling as if someone was watching her while she was in the house. I found that there are really two stories going on here. The first is the paranormal element which seems to have plagued Lauri's father. This same malevolent spirit seems to be focused on Laurie, and her daughter, Susan now. The second revolves around the relationship between Laurie and her husband Ted, whose relationship seems to be spiraling out of their control. The psychological elements involved in this book were amazing. It created the twists of who is haunting Laurie and why. Once the plot of the book started to build with Laurie’s memories, the book became even more interesting because of her development. She went from thinking her father was one person to someone completely different. It began to seem as if Laurie knew bits and pieces of what her father was doing, but only recently was she getting the entire picture of who her father was. It was all weaved together smoothly and was intriguing once the truth was revealed. ( )

I received an ARC copy of this novel from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I would like to thank them for allowing me to read an advance copy of this very fine supernatural thriller.

Spectacular ghost story dripping, figuratively and literally, with atmosphere. Gothic in tone, yet modern in treatment of the characters, this is the work of an accomplished writer. Fans of Henry James will find themselves thinking of The Turn of the Screw as the tension slowly builds and the reader weighs the possible implications of each revelation. There are no cheap scares here. More like a creepiness that envelopes you as if the heat went out in your house and the cold slowly settles into your bones.

Great pacing keeps the story moving along and the tension mounting while saving the big payoff for later in the story. Believable and complex characters draw you in. A very well plotted story-line unfolds like the peel of an onion, taking you deeper and deeper into a growing menace that is either supernatural or psychological but, whatever it is, it is 100% horrifying. This is a masterful ghost story in the classic gothic style by an accomplished writer. One of my favorite books this year.

It would make a fantastic movie.
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