Kate Alice Marshall returns with a chilling psychological thriller that plunges readers into the depths of human darkness and the fierce will to survive. The Girls Before by Kate Alice Marshall weaves together two narratives that slowly converge into a devastating revelation about trauma, identity, and the lengths people will go to protect their secrets.
The novel follows Audrey Dixon, a search and rescue expert haunted by the disappearance of her teenage best friend Janie fifteen years ago. When evidence surfaces that a missing girl named Meghan Vale may have been kidnapped from land owned by Franklin’s most prominent family—the Hills—Audrey finds herself pulled into an investigation that will unearth decades of buried horrors. Simultaneously, we follow Stranger, a young woman trapped in a basement bunker with nothing but messages carved into the walls by girls who came before her—all of whom died there.
Marshall crafts a narrative structure that mirrors the disorientation of trauma itself. The dual timelines—Stranger’s desperate present in the dark, Audrey’s investigation above—create a tension that tightens like a noose around the reader’s throat. The author’s prose is spare yet evocative, particularly in Stranger’s sections where sensory deprivation becomes almost palpable on the page.
The Architecture of Fear
What elevates this thriller:
Atmospheric tension: Marshall transforms the basement bunker into a character itself—the twelve concrete steps with their cracked bottom stair, the toilet tank hiding desperate tools, the walls inscribed with ghostly warnings become as vivid as any human character
Dual narrative mastery: The alternating perspectives between Stranger’s captivity and Audrey’s investigation create a mounting dread that keeps pages turning compulsively
Psychological depth: Rather than relying solely on physical horror, Marshall explores how trauma reshapes identity and memory
The folklore framework: The legend of Jenny Red-Hands—a forest witch who saves girls from bad men—adds mythological weight to what could have been a straightforward thriller
The novel’s exploration of the Jenny Red-Hands legend showcases Marshall’s understanding of how communities process violence against women through story. The folklore becomes both protective mythology and dangerous distraction, a theme that resonates throughout the narrative.
Where Ambition Meets Execution
While The Girls Before by Kate Alice Marshall demonstrates considerable craft, it occasionally stumbles under the weight of its own complexity. The plot’s intricacies—involving multiple Hill family members, decades of secrets, and shifting identities—can feel convoluted in the final third. Some readers may find themselves rereading passages to track which character knew what and when.
Areas where the novel falters:
The revelation about Emily Hill’s true identity, while shocking, requires significant suspension of disbelief regarding how thoroughly one person could assume another’s life
Certain secondary characters, particularly Dev and the search and rescue team members, remain underdeveloped despite their narrative importance
The pacing in the middle section drags somewhat as Audrey conducts internet research and interviews, creating moments where the momentum flags
The novel also struggles occasionally with exposition dumps, particularly when explaining the Hill family’s complicated history and the scope of Mason Hill’s crimes. Marshall’s otherwise elegant prose gives way to information-heavy passages that feel more functional than artful.
The Power of Voice
Marshall’s greatest achievement here is Stranger’s voice. In the darkness of the bunker, surrounded by the “gossamer girls”—her name for the ghosts of those who came before—Stranger develops a narrative voice that is simultaneously childlike and ancient, broken and resilient. Her descent into psychological fragmentation as food and water dwindle is rendered with uncomfortable authenticity.
Audrey’s sections demonstrate Marshall’s range; her voice is measured, analytical, carrying the weight of unresolved grief. The author deftly shows how Audrey’s search for Meghan is inseparable from her search for Janie, how fifteen years of not knowing has shaped every relationship and decision in her life. Barry, Audrey’s massive dog, provides unexpected emotional grounding—his protective presence becomes crucial in ways both practical and symbolic.
The Hill siblings—Melinda the politician, Andrew the former football star, Liam the fading actor, and Emily the reclusive artist—are drawn with varying success. Melinda emerges as the most fully realized, her pragmatic ruthlessness and capacity for rationalization making her perhaps more chilling than openly violent characters.
Literary Lineage
Readers of Marshall’s previous works—What Lies in the Woods, No One Can Know, and A Killing Cold—will recognize her signature blend of domestic suspense and psychological horror. The Girls Before by Kate Alice Marshall shares DNA with these earlier novels while pushing into darker territory. The book invites comparison to Gillian Flynn’s exploration of damaged women and small-town secrets, though Marshall’s folkloric elements distinguish her work.
For readers seeking similar atmospheric psychological thrillers:
The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing
Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica
Memory as Both Weapon and Wound
The novel’s meditation on memory—how it distorts, protects, and betrays—provides its thematic backbone. Stranger creates elaborate mental landscapes to survive her captivity, populating the dark with the voices of dead girls. Audrey has mythologized Janie to the point where she can barely separate memory from invention. This exploration of how trauma reshapes the past feels particularly resonant.
Marshall also examines how families construct shared mythologies to survive unbearable truths. The Hills’ elaborate conspiracy to protect their father’s legacy (and their own futures) speaks to the human capacity for rationalization. The question of whether Emily Hill and Stranger are the same person becomes less important than what each identity represents—the girl who was trapped, and the woman who escaped into someone else’s life entirely.
The ending, which I won’t spoil, offers a ambiguous resolution that will satisfy some readers while frustrating others. Marshall refuses easy answers about justice, survival, or identity. Stranger and Meghan Vale disappear into the woods together, modern incarnations of Jenny Red-Hands, leaving Audrey—and readers—to wonder whether this represents freedom or a different kind of imprisonment.
A Verdict Written in Blood
The Girls Before by Kate Alice Marshall is an ambitious psychological thriller that succeeds more often than it stumbles. While the plot’s complexity occasionally undermines clarity, and some revelations strain credibility, Marshall’s atmospheric prose and psychological insight create an genuinely unsettling reading experience. This is not a comfortable book—it lingers in dark places, asks uncomfortable questions about complicity and survival, and refuses to provide cathartic closure.
Fans of Marshall’s previous work will find her continuing evolution as a writer on full display. Newcomers drawn by the compelling premise should prepare for a narrative that values mood and psychological realism over neat resolutions. The novel works best when read as a meditation on the stories we tell ourselves to survive—whether trapped in a basement or in the aftermath of loss.
The Girls Before by Kate Alice Marshall reminds us that the most terrifying monsters are often those who look like family, friends, pillars of the community. In Franklin, where Jenny Red-Hands supposedly protects girls from bad men, Marshall reveals that sometimes the witch in the woods is the only honest thing in town—because at least a legend doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not.