The Locked Ward
The Locked Ward
By: Sarah Pekkanen
[Fulfilled ‘Book with a square on the cover’ prompt as part of Shelf Reflection’s 2025 Reading Challenge]
[On my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2025]
“‘I didn’t do it,’ you tell your sister. ‘And if you don’t get me out of here, they’re going to kill me.’”
You gotta love a psychological thriller with twins separated at birth and the mystery of nature vs nurture— who is the dangerous one? who is the manipulator? or are they both being played?
If you enjoy that kind of premise, this book is for you, and you should also read Jessica Patch’s thriller, The Other Sister, which I did like better than The Locked Ward, but they’re both good books.
Imagine hearing the news story about a wealthy socialite who was allegedly murdered by her older sister, now in the psych ward at a hospital awaiting trial… and it turns out: the suspect is your twin. A twin you never knew you had. And a twin who has requested your presence at the hospital.
Told in two different POVs— Mandy (first person) and Georgia (second person)— the reader must figure out if Georgia really did kill her sister and is exploiting her familial connection to Mandy as a way of getting out of it or if her reaching out to Mandy is a genuine, desperate plea for help.
You may think that Mandy would be crazy to think about meeting with Georgia considering the circumstances. But Mandy is in a vulnerable situation having lost both of her parents and being one who craves deep connection. To think of a long-lost sister, a twin that is connected to her at her core, is enough to send Mandy to the locked ward to hear what her sister has to say.
“Georgia is the only family I have left.”
Georgia’s chapters are told in second person, well kinda. It’s like a first/second person combo where she is referring to herself, not the reader, but she calls herself ‘you.’ We find out early on that she’s pretending to be in a dissociative state to avoid awaiting trial in prison.
“The only way to survive is to be like the others and fade into a ghost. To embrace the strange rhythms of this place. To completely lose track of time in the hopes that it will go faster until one day, you can convince the doctors and judge that you’re rehabilitated and no longer a danger to anyone.”
The first/second tense used feels like another way that the author is showing that Georgia is having almost an ‘out of body’ experience. Perhaps Georgia is intentionally having internal dialogue like that to help her remain in character. Or it could just be a tool of the author to keep the reader at a distance from Georgia, unsure of her real mental state, questioning what is real and what is exploitative.
“You don’t make mistakes. Until the night of Annabelle’s party. You never saw the events of that night coming.”
The reader continues to waver in our judgments about Georgia because although we feel disconnected to her, her experiences in the locked ward— particularly with one predatorial man— evoke compassion from us. What a terrifying place to be! You have no way to defend yourself against certain attacks and if nurses aren’t watching or interfering, you have no recourse.
It’s these types of psychological thrillers that play into some of our biggest fears— to be trapped somewhere with no hopes of getting out. To be misunderstood and imprisoned for it. To be taken advantage of with no way to defend. We know from history that many people were sent to asylums and drugged when there really wasn’t anything wrong with them; books like these remind us that we fear that and so we have a connection point to Georgia. We have conflicting feelings— sympathy because we can imagine the fear, but also a sliver of us that wants her to be guilty because we don’t like the idea of an innocent person being trapped like that.
This book also reminds us of another fear— being on the wrong side of the corrupted elite where people can be bought off and problems can be ‘handled.’ This book explores a little bit about how that can play out which may turn off some readers who hate reading about rich people. Or it may just feed into your suspicions about what things are happening in the real world with fixers and the like.
Because we can’t truly get into the mind of Georgia, we, readers, are left to follow Mandy around as she tries to infiltrate Georgia’s wealthy little bubble of people and determine if someone else killed Georgia’s sister or if she had the motive and opportunity to do so. Mandy discovers how different their lives really were. This life could very easily have been hers if they had switched the babies around. She feels like she doesn’t belong and would hate for her naivete to aid in a killer going free.
”I’m through with hiding and sneaking around, trying to find out the truth. Every single person in this tangled, sordid mess seems like a twisted liar— including my twin, who dragged me into it and complicated my memories of my parents.”
Hopefully Mandy can figure out what really happened and justice be served!
I enjoyed this book. Stories with twins are always compelling to me, especially since I have twins of my own. I do think the first big twist was a bigger surprise to me than the actual big reveal, but that’s okay.
It was a little slow in parts and I’m not sure we got a full enough wrap up for Colby.
We are left with a little open-endedness which isn’t usually my favorite ending to a book, but I was pleased that Pekkanen was able to have some redemptive arcs for a couple of the characters. Some psychological thrillers focus so much on the dysfunction that there’s no room for restoration and you leave not really feeling like you got a good resolution. That doesn’t mean I loved all the characters, but I did like the redemption parts.
I do also have a million questions about locked wards now so if you work on one and can shed light on what parallels real life, feel free to educate me!
Recommendation
This is my second book by Sarah Pekkanen (not co-authored). The other one was House of Glass. I do recommend both books. It’s nice to have clean psychological thrillers that are still suspenseful and enjoyable to read.
I’ll be on the look out for her next book!
As I mentioned before, I would also highly recommend The Other Sister to you as well. Two other books that The Locked Ward reminded me of were The Clinic (which I would recommend) and The Push (which I recommend with caution). Both are linked to my reviews so check them out and you may have a whole pile of books to read next!
[Content Advisory: 2 f-words, 3 s-words; a mention of a rape incident but not described]
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
This book just released in August, 2025. You can order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.
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