A Guide for Murdered Children 👼 Book Review





Written by Thelonia


In Sarah Sparrow's new debut novel, the souls of murdered children possess the bodies of the recently dead to find those who killed them and achieve a 'moment of balance'. But in periods when the children's 'Watcher' gets replaced, there comes a great imbalance which sees all the rules and normal circumstances become topsy-turvy.

A Guide for Murdered Children has many characters that are all on their own paths following their own goals, though they all converge eventually. Most are adults who've died and had their bodies taken over by murdered children's souls, some are regular humans involved in the investigations into the children's death, and one is the Watcher.

The 'Watcher' guides the children as they return for revenge in the world before they finally move on. Annie is the group we follow's Watcher, but her time is coming up and she must watch for her replacement. Meanwhile, things are unbalanced for the children, who start getting strange visions which are sometimes shared amongst the group.

As is pretty evident from the title, the subject matter is somewhat heavy in that most of the characters are children who were murdered (in rather gruesome ways). The whimsical tone contrasts heavily with the plot and details revealed, which is not accidental, but could be upsetting to those who find that sort of material too dark to be joked about or treated lightly. And because the world-building is so gradual and complex that it takes a very long time for things to not be incredibly muddied. The narration doesn't help either, since it switches pretty wildly between all these characters as well as skipping around in time, making the whole reading experience can be somewhat confusing if you're trying to keep track of what's going on. Really, to enjoy this one, you may need to let go and just go with it and trust that things will clear up (which they eventually do).

A Guide for Murdered Children is a fun read for those who like dark humor and are interested in letting themselves get immersed in this strange world narrated by some sort of off-putting characters.


A Guide for Murdered Children will be released on March 20, 2018

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