The Broken Girls

Simone St. James Berkley

Simone St. James’ sixth stand-alone novel mixes a creepy supernatural tale with a gripping mystery.

The Broken Girls also works well as a story about unshakable friendship, parenting issues, obsession and sexism folded into a satisfying plot that straddles two eras of time.

The broken girls are those who end up in Idlewild Hall, “the boarding school of last resort, where parents stashed their embarrassments, their failures and their recalcitrant girls.” Four of the girls who are roommates in 1950 — Katie, CeCe, Roberta and Sonia — refuse to be broken by the school’s strict rules and the abandonment of their families.

Located in “the backwoods of Vermont,” the castle-like fortress is rumoured to be haunted by the ghost of Mary Hand, a young woman who once lived there.

In 2014, the nowshuttered Idlewild haunts Vermont journalist Fiona Sheridan, whose sister’s body was found on the school’s grounds 20 years ago. Deb Sheridan’s boyfriend was convicted and he is still in prison for her murder. But Fiona is obsessed with the murder and believes the truth didn’t come out in court.

The Broken Girls smoothly alternates between the two eras, capturing the idiosyncrasies of each. Fear and distrust permeate the scenes of the 1950s, while Fiona’s terrors come from within her. Sure, there are clichés of supernatural and horror, but St. James makes the tropes seem fresh.