The Favorite Girl: A gripping psychological thriller

I am an avid reader of crime and psychological thrillers, but this is in a category all of its own. Yes, it is difficult to read at times with sensitive material, but it is also difficult to put down. I started this book today and finished this book today. It is also the first time that I read a book where the author seems like an old friend … her personal message to the readers at the beginning and end. Her openness and eagerness for her readers to reach out to her, she had me hooked then. Lastly, there are seriously so many amazing and deep quotes and thoughts in the book that I need to go through it again and write them down.! Thoughts that make you go WOW, just like the story that she created and book that she wrote … WOW. This is a book that I will never forget.

HOLY CATS you guys. It's been 2 weeks since I read The Favorite Girl by Monica Arya and I still can't think of the words to express all of my feelings. The author is not kidding when she mentions triggers galore, and my bestie told me she had to put this book down multiple times because it was getting to her so badly. I didn't have to do this, but I had a great many WTF moments as I read, and this was incredibly unique and all kinds of disturbing.

I still don't even know what I want my rating to be, but I settled on a 4/5 for now. It is probably a 5 ⭐ read in reality since it's been an age since I read an eBook this fast, but I really struggled with Demi's character until about halfway through. Her survivor persona didn't fit with the decisions she was making in the Ivory household, and I was about ready to lose it. A certain something made things turn around for me and after that, I connected with her much better. If you love all things dark, chilling, and horror, don't want to read The Favorite Girl. Arya has a crafty mind, and this book was WILD.

Hmmmm … The Favorite Girl. I had been seeing this floating around social media, folks saying how dark it was, how good. I just had to give it a try. Okay … yeah, this is pretty dark. I don’t have triggers, so I didn’t find this one too disturbing, but … yeah, I can see where some folks might not be able to stomach this one. The one thing that I feel the author should do is include her trigger warnings in the front of the book and not just on her web site. That’s really my only criticism. Demi – I like the character Demi. Even though she wanted to give up, she did not. She knew, deep down, there had to be a way out of her situation. She just had to hold onto that hope and her inner strength. I actually enjoyed the darkness of this one, sometimes thinking – well, that’s creepy. The ending though? That I certainly did not see happening. If you like deeply disturbing, darker-than-most reads, give this one a try. The trigger warnings include – sensory deprivation, self-harm, woman degradation, human trafficking, medical experiments, bone garden, cages, violence, graphic scenes, sexual assault, parent abandonment.

Really enjoyed this book, It’s definitely a page turner. Loved the story, and the development of the characters. My only negative was I felt the ending was rushed , we were hit with this big twist at the end and the story was over, leaving us with questions about the background of one of the main characters. I could have easily continued reading more chapters of this book. It left me satisfied but not full in a sense. Definitely going to check out some of her other titles.

‘24 - 2 STARS

DESCRIPTION : Every family has secrets—dark ones, twisted ones, ones they hide. The Ivory family is no different. From the outside of their gated estate, one would see a beautiful, wealthy family. But the more perfect they seem, it only shows how many imperfections they are trying to bury. When Demi Rao, a young woman is at her wits’ end and on the run from escaping her captor, she comes across an employment ad from the Ivory family, looking for someone to help maintain their elaborate estate. Although the ad is strange with meticulous directions to wear all-white, no makeup and speak quietly, Demi applies. With no choices, Demi gets and accepts the job and when she does, she quickly realizes she’s not there to clean, she’s there for a purpose. They picked her. They chose her. They’ve always known her. Behind the doors of the pristine estate lies secrets, a lethal human experiment and Demi’s entire life planned out for her.

REVIEW :

Facebook Group - “Psychological Thriller Readers” had many many recommendations for this. Warnings galore from the author herself. Even with the warnings many said they couldn’t stop reading. Tons of good reviews on Goodreads and Amazon too.

Earned Double Kindle Rewards for this purchase.

Suspend all rational thinking RIGHT FROM THE START. It does move along quickly. At 50% wish they covered more about her past before jumping into the main story. The abuse of the trafficked women just got worse and worse. At 65% I was totally disgusted and felt I was wasting my time. Once in awhile, I like a good horror/bloody killer book. This was just sick to me ! I would be scared to try another.