I’ve been a fan of Hanna Alkaf for a while and I can’t believe I totally missed this release! But no longer! This thrilling horror is for fans of the dark side of schools and secrets. It is a page turner! Keep reading this book review of The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette’s for my full thoughts.
Summary
For over a hundred years, girls have fought to attend St. Bernadette’s, with its reputation for shaping only the best and brightest young women.
Unfortunately, there is also the screaming.
When a student begins to scream in the middle of class, a chain reaction starts that impacts the entire school. By the end of the day, seventeen girls are affected—along with St. Bernadette’s stellar reputation.
Khadijah’s got her own scars to tend to, and watching her friends succumb to hysteria only rips apart wounds she’d rather keep closed. But when her sister falls to the screams, Khad knows she’s the only one who can save her.
Rachel has always been far too occupied trying to reconcile her overbearing mother’s expectations with her own secret ambitions to pay attention to school antics. But just as Rachel finds her voice, it turns into screams.
Together, the two girls find themselves digging deeper into the school’s dark history, hunting for the truth. Little do they know that a specter lurks in the darkness, watching, waiting, and hungry for its next victim…
Review
Ghosts, hysteria, and sisters. The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette’s is about the knowledge that authorities, those who should protect us, don’t always have our best interests in mind. Who will protect us? Who will speak up? When we can’t count on anyone, can we find solidarity, the truth, the strength to speak up? The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette’s balances being a compelling horror story about secrets, while also delving into the ways girls are silenced. It blurs the lines of supernatural and terrifying in fantastical ways and also the truth of what society does to ignore girls and women.
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Quickly we witness that The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette’s explores the feeling of our voices being stolen. We can’t put our head in the sand forever at some point something will come for us. Multiple POV, Alkaf weaves a story about abuse, complicity, and silence. If you love an eerie horror that examines these themes in a fantastical lens, then you have to read The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette’s. I’m so glad I didn’t miss this one! Find The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette’s on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.