Title: The New Girls’ Patient

Author: Ruthann Jagge

Release date: January 14, 2022

Ruthann and I connected a few years ago via social media and over that time it’s been great seeing all of the anthology acceptances she’s been having. She’s always been super encouraging and positive and now, seeing the announcement of her debut novella, I’m over the moon with excitement for her.

Huge thanks to her and Dawn at D & T Publishing for sending me a digital ARC to dive into.

I got this yesterday and flew through it last night, in about 40 or so minutes. Yes, I am a fast reader, but at the same time, Jagge definitely has crafted a story that made me want to fly through it and see what happens.

What I liked: ‘The New Girls’ Patient’ follows a trio of nurses working in a care home. It is in a small town, where everybody knows everybody, but for one of the nurses, she’s newer, both to the area and to the job. She befriends a patient, which she cherishes, up until that patient dies.

From here, things take a turn. At the end of one shift, two men attack the trio, brutalizing them and kidnapping them, all for a singular purpose (a purpose I won’t share – spoiler, duh! ha!). But it’s this singular purpose that drives these backwoods hicks to do horrible things and the story goes from being a story about a small town nurse trying to fit in, into a survival story.

I will say, there is a third element to the story, one that arrives at the end and is really well done, that adds another aspect, but once again, I can’t really say too much about that, but it was great to see this additional ingredient added and it really worked to connect the start of the story with the ending.

Jagge has created some great characters here, a few you root for, a few you despise and as I mentioned, she really does pull you along, even if you’re kicking and screaming against what’s happening in a few places.

What I didn’t like: As I mentioned, the story takes a significant turn when the two men attack the women. I found the story seemed to battle itself as to whether it wanted to be a small town survival story (starting out it reads closer to literary fiction) or an extreme horror story. When the men arrive, it definitely goes from you riding along with our main character, to suddenly really extreme, revolting things are occurring and I’m not totally sure how to match the two parts up. This may work really well for some, or it may turn others off. As always, reader mileage may vary.

Why you should buy this: If you go into this with the mindset of it being an extreme survival story, this will hit all of the notes for you. I went in completely blind, so I was lulled a bit I think with the humble beginnings. Ruthann has really created a galloping, pedal-to-the-metal story here, one that will have you squirming while wondering just what’s going to happen next.

4/5

**This goes live on Godless on January 14th and on Amazon January 28th – I will update with purchase links then**