Desperate to enjoy their empty nest, Penny and Andeep downsize to the countryside, to forage, upcycle and fall in love again, only to be joined by their two twenty-something daughters, Asha and Camille.
Living on top of each other in a tiny house, with no way to make money, tensions simmer, and as Penny and Andeep focus increasingly on themselves, the girls become isolated, argumentative and violent.
When Asha injures Camille, a family therapist is called in, but she shrugs off the escalating violence between the sisters as a classic case of sibling rivalry… and the stress of the family move.
But this is not sibling rivalry. The sisters are in far too deep for that.
This is a murder, just waiting to happen…
Chilling, vicious and darkly funny, Keep Her Sweet is not just a tense, sinister psychological thriller, but also a startling look at sister relationships and the bonds they share… or shatter.
Helen FitzGerald’s last novel Ash Mountain was a standout read of 2021 with its thrilling plot and darkly funny writing. Now she’s delivered a similarly tense and hair-raising novel, Keep Her Sweet is a riveting look at an intensely dysfunctional family trying to make ends meet before it all comes crashing down.
The Moloney-Singhs family at the centre of this story is about as flawed as you can get. While Penny and Andeep are trying to bring a spark back to their relationship, daughters Asha and Camille are at each other’s throats, and nothing seems to be helping. FitzGerald crafts the dynamic between the family members in a way that keeps the tension slowly rising, making it hard to see what might come next. This is truly a story of worse case scenarios and a family in rapid decline.
FitzGerald explores some darker themes in the novel, such as loss, addiction and religious obsession. It was fascinating to see these characters navigate their various trials and tribulations, making for some highly engaging and thought-provoking questions that encourage the reader to ask themselves what they would do in that situation.
An utterly engrossing story of just how far a family can fall, Keep Her Sweet is one of FitzGerald’s best works yet. If you love dysfunctional family stories, this is one you just can’t miss.
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