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A Sharp Scratch

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Things We Do To Our Friends, comes a timely, gripping novel about the dark underbelly of wellness culture

We can fix you.

It's a promise that Betsy has heard far too many times. From the child psychologist, from her husband, and from the wellness trends that scream at her from her screen.

So far, it's been a lie.

But this time, she believes it. Because Betsy has been offered a place at Carn - a luxurious, unorthodox retreat, where healing really is possible. At Carn, she discovers that her imperfections make her unique, not weak. She isn't broken, just special.

All Betsy has to do is follow the rules . . .

'DARWENT HAS A GREAT CAREER AS A THRILLER WRITER AHEAD OF HER' SUNDAY TIMES
'Satisfyingly dark, cleverly plotted' Emma Flint, Little Deaths
'Smart, sophisticated, seductive' S J Watson, Before I Go To Sleep
'Startlingly lovely, like a fine, dark silk shivering on your skin' Julia Heaberlin, We Are All the Same in the Dark
'A deeply compelling story of friendships turned rotten' Rosemary Hennigan, The Truth Will Out
'Dark academia and twisted friendships in gothic Edinburgh - what more could you want?' Cailean Steed, Home

© Heather Darwent 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

 Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Suspense Thriller & Suspense Women's Fiction

Critic reviews

Darwent has a great career as a thriller writer ahead of her
A compulsive and unsettling read
Heather Darwent reinvents Gothic horror for the Goop generation in this seductive novel about wellness culture, psychological manipulation and the female body (Kate Brody)
An atmospheric and visceral read, reminiscent of Donna Tartt. Pacy, unsettling and wildly unpredictable, I loved it! (Callie Kazumi)
Heather Darwent's deliciously dark second novel has a real bite to it; I'm going to be thinking about THAT ENDING for quite some time. It's a fever dream of a book for fans of My Year of Rest and Relaxation and Earthlings. (Cailean Steed)
This book cements Darwent as the best modern thriller writer working today (Alice Bell)
Kept me guessing until the last page . . . I can't wait to read more from this author (Caroline Corcoran)
A compelling and original tale of chronic illness and obsession. A wonderfully dark satire on the wellness industry and modern living (Catherine Balavage)
So dark, so sharply written, pulsing with tension and weirdness... Unforgettable (Louise Beech)
A thrill ride of a novel: hugely original and absorbing and packed full of OMG moments (Niamh Hargan)
All stars
Most relevant
The story was intriguing at first but from the halfway point onwards I felt increasingly bored, and at some point I even struggled to stay awake. Even when a lot was happening in the story I felt I really numb to it all.
I think the main issue was that the main characters are central to the plot and take up a lot of space in the story, but they're so poorly developed that I feel very little curiosity towards them, so naturally I began to feel bored reading so much about them. it's actually surprising how much time the author spends writing about these characters, but I still don't have a real sense of who they are and why they do the things they do.
(I did skip to the end by the way to find out what the twist was. it was extremely random and made no sense in the context of the story. I wish I hadn't bothered)

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