The Women in White
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Author: Sarah Pekkanen
Published: 2026
Genre: Other Genre
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IBC Editorial Rating: 4/5
This book is handpicked by the IBC Editorial Team. If you are an author, publisher, or reader and would like to have a book reviewed by IBC, you may reach us at editorial@indianbookclub.com — we’ll be happy to review it.
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Editorial Review:
In 1964, four remarkable young women at a prestigious university became the subjects of a visionary scientist's parapsychology experiments, standing on the edge of a discovery that could have rewritten history. Then they vanished, and the program that studied them was erased as though it never existed. Decades later, newly divorced and desperate for a fresh start, Riley Bell takes a caretaking job for Betty, an elderly widow whose home has remained frozen in another era, untouched by television, the internet, or the passage of time. As Riley steps deeper into Betty's isolated world, she begins to uncover the truth behind a sixty-year-old disappearance, one that Betty has carried in silence for longer than Riley has been alive. Sarah Pekkanen weaves past and present into a haunting story of gifted women, buried secrets, and the sisterhood that outlasts them.
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Book Summary:
Riley Bell arrives at Betty Sadler's door with almost nothing left to lose. Her marriage has collapsed under the weight of her husband's gambling debts, dangerous men are circling, and a live-in caretaker position feels less like a job than a lifeline. Betty, reclusive and confined to a wheelchair but sharper than her age suggests, chooses Riley over far more experienced candidates, and Riley soon realizes the position offers her more than income and shelter. It offers her a mystery she cannot walk away from. Betty has not left her home in nearly six decades, and what she seems to need from Riley is not caretaking so much as companionship, and eventually, help uncovering a truth she has kept buried for most of her life. Riley learns that Betty was once part of a university parapsychology study in the 1960s, alongside three other young women, each gifted with a different extraordinary ability. Whatever unfolded in that lab bound the four of them together more tightly than family, and whatever happened afterward has haunted Betty ever since. As the novel moves between Betty's 1960s experience and Riley's present-day investigation, both women are drawn deeper into a decades-old disappearance that raises more questions the closer Riley gets to the truth. Was Betty a victim of what happened in that lab, or something more complicated? Pekkanen builds this dual-timeline mystery around the bond between the two women, weaving a story of female friendship and hard-won survival that spans sixty years.
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Key Takeaways:
“Sisterhood forged under extraordinary pressure”: The bond between Betty and the other three women in the 1960s study becomes the emotional heart of the novel, showing how shared vulnerability can create connection deeper than blood. Pekkanen renders their friendship with real tenderness, making the mystery of what happened to them feel personal rather than purely procedural. “The exploitation of extraordinary gifts”: The parapsychology experiments at the center of the novel raise pointed questions about who benefits when remarkable abilities are studied, and at what cost to the people who possess them. The novel treats the women's gifts not as spectacle but as something that was quietly taken from them. “Two women, two eras, one shared isolation”: Riley's present-day desperation mirrors Betty's decades of seclusion in unexpected ways, and the novel uses this parallel to explore how women in very different circumstances can still recognize each other's pain. Their unlikely companionship becomes as central to the story as the mystery itself. “Secrets that outlast the people who kept them”: The novel is deeply concerned with how long a secret can be carried before it demands to be told, and what it costs a person to hold onto one for sixty years. Betty's silence becomes its own kind of testimony to the weight of what she witnessed.
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Iconic Lines, Scenes & Characters:
"Betty": Sharp-minded despite decades of physical confinement, Betty's perspective anchors the novel's emotional core, and her decades-long silence about the 1960s study gives her present-day scenes real weight. Her bond with the other women in her timeline is rendered with particular warmth. "Riley Bell": Arriving at Betty's home with her own life in freefall, Riley's investigative instincts and growing loyalty to Betty drive the novel's present-day momentum. Her journey from desperation to purpose gives the story its grounding, human throughline. "The Ganzfeld-style experiments": ficity of each woman's gift, and the toll the experiments took on their autonomy, lingers well beyond the chapters set in that era. "The frozen 1960s household": Betty's home, untouched by decades of technological and cultural change, becomes a quiet, powerful symbol of a life paused by grief and secrecy. Its stillness underscores just how long she has been waiting for someone like Riley to arrive.
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Who Should Read This:
Readers who love dual-timeline mysteries with strong emotional stakes will appreciate how closely Pekkanen ties Betty's past and Riley's present together, using each timeline to deepen the other rather than simply alternating between them. Anyone drawn to stories of female friendship and sisterhood, particularly bonds forged under difficult or extraordinary circumstances, will connect with the closeness between Betty and the other women in her 1960s timeline. Fans of speculative history and government-adjacent conspiracy plots, especially those grounded in real emotional stakes rather than pure spectacle, will find the parapsychology backdrop a compelling and thoughtfully handled hook. A note for readers: this is an emotionally driven mystery more than a twist-heavy thriller, and some readers may find certain revelations resolve more quickly or simply than expected. Those looking for a slower, character-centered read will find the most to love here.
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IBC Editorial Note:
This review is part of the Indian Book Club’s editorial initiative to spotlight books that inspire, inform, and leave a lasting impact on readers. Every title featured is carefully handpicked and reviewed by the IBC Editorial Team to maintain quality, authenticity, and literary value. If you are an author, publisher, or reader and would like to submit a book for review, we’d be delighted to hear from you. Please write to us at: editorial@indianbookclub.com Our team personally evaluates each submission, and selected books are featured as official IBC Editorial Reviews on our platform.