A fast-paced thriller filled with unreliable characters that will leave you wondering who to trust. The book flips between two POVs with have the book taking place in a psychiatric ward creating an eerie setting that will instantly grip you. I was hoping hoping for a little more from the final twists, but this was a very fun read that's incredibly hard to put down.

Just the title THE LOCKED WARD had me saying yes and then saw it was author Sarah Pekkanen and it was a hell yes!
Unreliable characters are my favorite and this book is full of them! Plus, seperated twins, murder, rich folks acting badly and a Locked Psych Ward, with it own cast of characters! What else do you need? Twisty, fast paced, a lot of moments of , "wait a minute..." did that just happen?
I read it in two sittings and the ending *chefs kiss" 💋
Excellent! 5 stars.

This is quite simply Sarah Pekkanen at her best! The fast pace, the family dynamics, and the jaw dropping ending made this book absolute perfection. Thank you Sarah Pekkanen and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advanced copy of The Locked Ward.

I was so excited to get my hands on this one! The story had my mind going from the beginning trying to figure out the family dynamics on both sides, the who dunnit, and Georgia and Mandy and how they fit in to everything. However I did not like Georgia's pov written in 2nd person. I found that to be really annoying and kept thinking there had to be a reason for it. I figured out the murder and everything with the family. And was somewhat disappointed with the ending. I was expecting more twists or something and didn't get that. Overall though, I still enjoyed the book and am thankful for the opportunity to read it.

I felt like this book started just a tad slow and then really picked up once you had all the info. You follow these two different girls from two different worlds as they collide and things begin to unravel. It’s a twisty tale with lots of details to consider. I liked the final twist. It wasn’t a too 10 mystery but it was still good. You get two completely different personalities and a timeline that switches from past to future and person to person. It’ll definitely keep your attention.

Wow!!!!! This book had twist and turn after twist and turn. The Locked Ward completely shattered my reading slump — I couldn’t put it down once I started! Sarah Pekkanen delivers a fast-paced, gripping thriller that hooks you from the very first chapter and never lets go.

The short chapters made it nearly impossible to stop; “just one more” quickly turned into flying through the pages deep into the night. The psychological tension, the eerie setting, and the mind-boggling reveals kept me guessing the entire time. Just when I thought I had it figured out, another twist hit me out of nowhere.

If you love thrillers that mess with your mind and keep you on the edge of your seat, this is a MUST READ. I’m still reeling from the ending — in the best way possible. Bravo, Sarah Pekkanen!

A twisty and fun story. I love when I don’t figure out the final twist and I didn’t here! It wasn’t my favorite by this author, but I enjoyed it.

There were a few problems I had with the plot. Some things just did not make sense. I think the idea was good, and I liked the twist, but I didn’t enjoy much until the last 20%. The whole “twin connection” thing being repeated so much felt frustrating. Some side characters or plot lines were unnecessary (such as Josh in the ward). Overall, wouldn’t recommend. There were also errors that hopefully get fixed before it publishes.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Did Georgia finally snap and murder her entitled and adored little sister? The evidence is quickly piling up against her, but Georgia knows how to survive intense sibling rivalry and has an ace up her sleeve that her adoptive mother doesn't know about. While being held in a psychiatric ward pending her evaluation for competency to stand trial, Georgia plays the mute traumatized daughter but knows that the only one who might be willing to help her is her long-lost twin sister. Split up at birth, Georgia and Amanda have lived very different lives, each one believing that they were a single at birth. It is only when Georgia is accused of murder that the P.I. she hires discovers the truth. Will Amanda (Mandy) be willing to lose everything to help a twin she's never known? Exactly how politically connected is Georgia's family and to what lengths will they go to protect their family secrets?
Told in alternating chapters between Georgia and Mandy, the author gives readers insight into how these two women developed into the people they are today. As the days to her competency hearing draw closer, Georgia's story becomes more intense. "Trust no one" is the advice she gives to Mandy, but fails to follow her own advice placing her surely on death row. Readers will struggle along with Mandy as she tries to figure out the relationship between the two families and why they were split at birth, realizing that although Georgia comes from a family of wealth and power, Mandy is not a helpless character who has her own resources.
Be sure to set aside some time to read this in one sitting....you won't want to put it down! Here's hoping that the twins story will continue as they have some unfinished business to attend to.....

I loved this authors last title, House of Glass, and was looking forward to this one!

Georgia is in a “locked ward” for the murder of her sister Annabelle. She requests a visit from her twin sister, Mandy, only Mandy didn’t know she had a twin.

Plenty of plot twists and suspense.. but also a lot of unnecessary characters who don’t further the plot in anyway. Alternating POVs make the plot hard to follow at times.

A decent read, but I didn’t find it as captivating as some of her other work.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC. While I normally love this author, this one didn’t resonate for me at all. It was an incredibly quick read that I basically read in one sitting but it was written as if it was one train of thought and I basically did not care what happened.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters are likeable and the story is engaging and has a few twists !!!
Thank you to the author , Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I just binged this one. I love how those author writes, it doesn't matter the theme it's always tense, captivating, page-turning, and with great twists. This one was a bit mean but also a great read for siblings who understand what it is to have a twin.
I loved that we had the different POVs of both twins. I was always fearing but also doubting my certainties.
I need to collect and read the previous books I haven't read.

Thank you so much publisher and netgalley for the early access.

This was a great read! Dual perspectives, short chapters, edge of your seat story. The ending was really abrupt, but I did not see the twist coming, so it was all that more enjoyable!

Amanda has no idea she has a twin—until her twin is arrested for the murder of her adopted sister. When Georgia reaches out to her from the psychological hospital where she has been incarcerated since the murder, Amanda cannot resist meeting the twin she didn’t know she had—but whose existence explains so much about herself.

Georgia has been pretending to be in a catatonic state since the murder, trying to buy time to figure out what really happened to Annabelle. She is convinced that Amanda—the sister she had tracked down through a private investigator—is the only person who could help. But would Amanda agree?

To get to the bottom of this tragic crime, Amanda has to immerse herself in Georgia’s upper class world—while maintaining the bar she inherited from her parents. She cannot believe her beloved parents never revealed that she was a twin. Why did they keep it a secret? Unfortunately she cannot ask them.

This is a both an absorbing mystery and a fascinating story about the bond of twins, and sisters in general. The story is told alternatively by Georgia and Amanda. The only thing that keeps this from being 5 stars for me is the use of the 2nd person in Georgia’s chapters.

I have read a couple of books by this author and liked them, so I was excited to get a chance to read this one early. Unfortunately this one didn't really feel the same to me and I ended up finishing it begrudgingly. The concept of this book was good but the execution didn't really work for me. I can say that this one does have a creepy and mysterious vibe to it which I think is what kept me going and I think this will be a hit with many readers. I didn't really care for the 2nd person narrative as other have said so this could also be a factor to my lack of love for this one.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Mandy and Georgia, twins separated after their birth, are reunited when Georgia is accused of murdering Annabelle, the biological sister of her adoptive parents. Georgia pulls Mandy into her life to help investigate who really murdered Annabelle. Was it the senator Annabelle is supposedly having an affair with? Was it his wife, family, or employees? Or was it Georgia herself all along? People are vicious in their high-society circle when matters of appearance and reputation are on the line, after all. During the investigation by Mandy, Georgia tries to survive her involuntary admission to a psychiatric unit where other patients are dangerous and where friends are even more so.

There were twists and turns in this book that I didn’t see coming and I was really pleased with the discoveries in the last several chapters as everything was revealed and the murderer was unmasked. I give this a 4 out of 5 stars solely because of the epilogue. The epilogue does round out an earlier part of the story. However, I feel like it tried too hard to bring even more shock factor to the story and ruined the shocks we had just experienced from the primary plot in the process. Had the epilogue been omitted, this book would have been 5 stars for me. Regardless, this is an excellent read that I will definitely recommend to friends!

What a fantastic book. I love all the twists! Definitely didn’t see it coming. Was a book that was hard to put down!!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sarah Pekkanen is one of those authors who I pick up every time I see she’s published a new book. She excels at fast-paced thrillers, and The Locked Ward is another entry in that category.

The chapters are very short and flip POVs between twins Mandy and Georgia. While there were times the story dragged, the quick chapters led me to finish this in just a few sittings.

Overall, this was a fun read but likely to not be memorable in the long run. I did notice the decision to have Mandy’s chapters be first-person, while Georgia’s were second-person, highlighting her dissociative state. I quite appreciated this touch and thought it lended itself well to the plot.

Not up to Sarah Pekkanen's usual standard, I'm afraid.

1. The whole "twin bond" thing applies to IDENTICAL twins, not fraternal! Look, sorry to burst any fraternal twins' bubbles, but being a fraternal twin isn't a big deal! You share the same amount of DNA you'd share with a sibling NOT born at the same time. Identical twins share all of their DNA, since that they're formed from a single fertilized egg that splits.

2. I wasn't crazy about the characters in this. They were kind of blah and undeveloped. I liked Amanda's (adoptive) parents the most, and they weren't even alive in this book!

3. I HATE it when authors use the second person point of view. What was the point in making Georgia's sections in second person? It added nothing to the book. In fact, it was distracting because I hated it so much!

4. Please, please, PLEASE can we stop using "clocked" as a synonym for "notice"? I think this book only did it once or twice, which is a vast improvement from many books I've read lately.

Thank you NetGalley for the free review copy.