The Girls Before
- Judith D Collins
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
Narrators: Ina Barrón, Karissa Vacker Macmillan Audio
ISBN: 9781250343086
Publisher: Pine and Cedar
Publication Date: 02/24/2026
Format: Audio
My Rating: 4 Stars (ALC)
A search & rescue expert. A kidnapped woman. The lost girls who haunt them both.
“A superb mystery. . . Readers will be thinking about this long after they turn the last page.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
There is a girl in a basement.
The door has stopped opening.
The light is gone.
Stranger is trapped in the dark, with only her imagination and the scribbles on the wall left by long-dead girls to keep her company. Nearly out of food and water, she makes one last attempt to escape. But if the door opens at last, will it mean salvation, or only the beginning of her fight to survive?
Audrey is a search and rescue expert who never stopped looking for her ex-best friend, Janie, who disappeared when they were teenagers. Janie used to love the local legend of a forest witch who saves girls from bad men, but Audrey knows now that for every one saved, there’s always another one lost. When she stumbles upon evidence in the forest that a teenage runaway might have actually been kidnapped from land belonging to the town’s most prominent family, she will have to dig through decades of secrets to reveal the biggest one of all: what happened to the girls before.
Kate Alice Marshall, bestselling author of What Lies in the Woods, No One Can Know, and A Killing Cold, is back with the thrilling new novel Ashley Winstead calls, "magnetic, shocking, heartbreaking, and unputdownable."
My Review
THE GIRLS BEFORE by Kate Alice Marshall presents a gripping tale of survival, centered around search and rescue expert Audrey Dixon as she delves into the mysterious disappearance of a teenage girl.
This investigation not only leads her to uncover decades of secrets tied to a prominent local family but also forces her to confront the unresolved case of her own best friend, who vanished years earlier.
A search and rescue expert. A kidnapped woman. The lost girls who continue to haunt them both.
THE GIRLS BEFORE envelops readers/listeners in a truly emotional, atmospheric experience, showcasing the author's signature style against the backdrop of the vivid Pacific Northwest. This setting is not only haunting but also claustrophobic, enhancing the tension throughout the narrative.
True to Marshall's distinctive approach, the intertwining of these two narratives introduces unexpected shifts in perspective, ensuring that you remain captivated from the first page to the last.
About...
The Disappearances:
Franklin has a history of young women vanishing, often linked to a local legend and sometimes dismissed by police as runaways.
Connecting the Cases:
Audrey sees parallels between Janie's and Meghan's cases, and the "witch beads" connect the disappearances to local folklore.
Secrets of the Powerful:
Audrey's investigation into the town's influential family uncovers decades of secrets tied to the disappearances.
The Twist:
The alternating narratives merge, revealing plot twists that challenge initial assumptions.
My thoughts...
Propulsive, complex, creepy, and twisty, THE GIRLS BEFORE is a layered high-stakes survival locked room thriller with a strong study of collective trauma, which reminds me of Taylor Adams' books. (another favorite)
While locals attribute the town's alarming number of missing women to an urban legend, police frequently categorize these cases as simple runaways. This narrative conveniently obscures the true culprits—the town's most influential—allowing them to conceal their actions behind an enigmatic veil of "supernatural" mystery.
Steeped in captivating legends and folklore, these tales provide both the community and law enforcement with a convenient distraction.
The central themes in THE GIRLS BEFORE delve into female friendships, betrayal, survival, resilience, the burdens of secrecy, and the profound effects of past traumas on the present.
The author intricately examines unsettling subjects such as abduction and systemic violence, skillfully weaving in elements of folklore and witch beads to evoke a persistent, eerie atmosphere. This narrative tension is heightened by the harrowing perspective of a stranger confined in a basement, instilling a powerful sense of claustrophobia.
Themes...
~Survival and Resilience
~Secrets and Lies
~The Past Dictating the Present
~Memory and Trauma
~Small-Town Dynamics
~Justice and Misogyny
Dual Narratives...
The novel uses two alternating narratives and timelines:
~One perspective is from a captive young woman. Trapped in a basement, she finds carvings from previous victims and is encouraged to escape.
~The other narrative follows Audrey Dixon's investigation, which connects to the unsolved disappearance of her own best friend, Janie, years ago, and her regrets.
Both dual narratives explore how memory is shaped by trauma and guilt, and how characters grapple with the uncertainty of what truly happened versus what they remember or were led to believe.
The mystery delves deep into the dark underbelly of a small town, where local legends conceal real-life horrors and community pressures enable prominent families to cover up their terrible actions.
Twisty, shocking, and complex, the survival elements and the descriptions of the captive's environment are visceral, raw, and intense with unexpected twists. The overarching takeaway centers on the inescapable weight of the past and the high cost of survival.
A recurring moral through-line is that "for every one saved, there’s always another one lost". This skillfully explores the darker reality of survival—that the escape or rescue of one person often leaves others forgotten in the shadows.
Despite the horror, grim subject matter, and trauma, the focus on the resilience of the victims provides a sense of friendship, strength, hope, and empowerment, especially in the ending.
The title poignantly refers to the haunting legacy of past victims, whose stories and cautionary tales illuminate the path for current characters navigating the treacherous cycle of small-town violence and the struggle for survival.
The audiobook...
I had the privilege of immersing myself in this captivating audiobook, masterfully narrated by the talented duo of Ina Barrón and Karissa Vacker —one of my absolute favorites. Their performances skillfully captured the mood and tension, infusing the narrative with a rich Gothic ambiance. The emotional depth and passion they brought to the story created an extraordinarily immersive listening experience that I highly recommend.
Recs...
Readers who enjoyed the small-town secrets, dual timelines, and survival themes of "The Girls Before" should look for psychological thrillers by authors such as Megan Miranda, Jennifer McMahon, Stacy Willingham, Taylor Adams, Mary Kubica, Riley Sager, Chevy Stevens, Jennifer Hillier, and the author's previous books, particularly What Lies in the Woods.
Special thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for graciously sharing an advanced listening copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: Feb 24, 2026
My Rating: 4 Stars
Praise
“A superb mystery. . . Marshall takes a familiar premise and pushes it into exciting, experimental directions. . . Readers will be thinking about this long after they turn the last page.”
―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A smart and layered mystery with complex characters, a unique structure, and the ultimate in a creepy locked room setting. With its shocking twists and stunning final reveal The Girls Before is the ultimate page-turner.”
―Robyn Harding, bestselling author of The Drowning Woman
“Kate Alice Marshall is one of the best thriller writers working today, and The Girls Before might be her best book yet. Marshall writes haunting poetry about the darkest sins imaginable, gossamer webs made of stygian threads, each story unfolding like a seductive melody sung by a woman in the woods, irresistible as it lures you deeper. The Girls Before is magnetic, shocking, heartbreaking, and unputdownable. What a gift to read her work.”
―Ashley Winstead, bestselling author of In My Dreams I Hold a Knife
“Kate Alice Marshall’s The Girls Before is a chilling descent into memory, myth, and the hidden scars we all carry. Fans of Simone St. James and Jennifer McMahon are going to devour this one!”
―Jess Lourey, Edgar-nominated author of The Quarry Girls
About the Author
Kate Alice Marshall is the bestselling author of thrillers and horror for kids and adults. Her middle-grade books include the Secrets of Eden Eld trilogy and Extra Normal. In YA, she’s written the survival thriller I Am Still Alive, as well as supernatural suspense, including Rules for Vanishing and The Narrow. She made her adult thriller debut with What Lies in the Woods, followed by the USA Today bestseller No One Can Know.
She lives outside Seattle with her family, two very friendly (but not very smart) golden retrievers, and a growing collection of fancy pens. WEBSITE
