The New Girl

Critics Review

• Taut, stylish, utterly gripping . . . satisfied all my thriller cravings and my love of fashion world gossip

  Lucy Foley

• Keenly observed and brimming with tension, The New Girl is a must-read

  Clare Mackintosh

• Her blistering first novel . . . a disturbing psychological thriller . . . Walker’s inside knowledge of the fashion world will fascinate civilians, while her superbly paced plot keeps you up all night, compulsively turning pages

  The Times

• A Devil Wears Prada-meets-Gone Girl mash-up, this is a deliciously heady concoction of fashion and fear, best gobbled down whole, over one lockdown weekend

  Pandora Sykes

• I was so absorbed by The New Girl. In this suspenseful debut, Harriet Walker applies the finest of brushes to those shades of grey between friendship and rivalry – not so much domestic noir as domestic gris. I recommend

  Louise Candlish

• I have not been as gripped and stunned by a story since reading Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. I could not put it down. This is a masterpiece

  Emma Gannon

• Female friendship, fashion and intense rivalry makes for an unsettling and unputdownable debut novel

  Grazia

• A harsh look at the deep insecurities of women in an intriguing debut from The Times fashion editor

  Woman & Home

• Single White Female meets The Devil Wears Prada, this is an ingenious thriller that I couldn’t put down. A beautifully written, tense and chilling story of toxic friendships, insecurities and guilt. This deserves to be huge

  Claire Douglas

• A taut psychological thriller, and a chilling and intricate examination of the complexities of female friendships and rivalries

  Charlotte Philby

• A sleek and stylish thriller

  Red

• i devoured it. I could never predict the ending, which takes immense skill. This book is going to be a huge hit

  Bella Mackie

• New wave of postnatal punk

  The Sunday Times

• Harriet Walker’s The New Girl, set against a backdrop of magazines, explores female friendships while ramping up the tension and is ideal for lazing in the sun with

  Stylist

• Movingly portrays the fragility of friendship and the corrosive effect of mistrust and recriminations in a wickedly funny psychological thriller that’s in turn brutal and tender

  Publishers Weekly

• A tense, sophisticated exploration of female friendships fraught with insecurities set in the ruthless world of fashion magazines. Gripping and thrillingly unsettling, it kept me reading through the night

  Ruth Hogan

• A magnificent rollercoaster of a book

  Celia Anderson, author of 59 Memory Lane

• This gripping tale of friendship and motherhood is the perfect summer read

  MSN

• A taut and tense debut . . . with a plot that is both pacy and rich with tension and a cast of unreliable and flawed characters. The New Girl is suspenseful and stylish writing at its very best.

  The Literary Edit

• Wonderfully drawn . . . Reveals something deep and real about the isolation of new motherhood. There were moments when I held my breath in this twisty tale, and moments when I caught my breath in sharp recognition.

  Georgina Clarke, author of Death and the Harlot

• As smart and stylish as a fashion week catwalk show, this gripping debut kept me hooked late into the night!

  Annie Lyons

• Wonderfully twisty and richly psychological – a compelling read

  Leaf Arbuthnot

• A compulsive and gripping story that delves into the female psyche and explores how despite appearing to have everything we can be our own worst enemies. With a twisty plot and deftly drawn characters this was a compelling and all-consuming lockdown read

  Hannah Persaud, author of The Codes of Love

• Ideal for lazing in the sun with

  Stylist

• Offers a pacey account of modern paranoias . . . a cleverly observed study of the pressure on women to identify as professionals or parents

  The Sunday Times

• A proper page turner

  The Mail on Sunday's YOU Magazine

• A smart page-turner [which] tackles female rivalry

  i Newspaper

• The New Girl does what the very best psychological thrillers do: takes a scenario that many of us know well and twists it so that it becomes utterly terrifying. Choosing a maternity leave rivalry as a plot device was a masterful stroke and it’s executed perfectly; the writing is beautiful and the storyline constantly refuses to head where you think it is going. I flew through this book in a few days (or should that be nights that were later than they were meant to be, as I read ‘just one more chapter’)

  Caroline Corcoran

• This stylish psychological thriller brilliantly portrays female friendships and rivalries, new parenthood and the glamorous world of fashion . . . this is essential reading for anyone fascinated by fashion shoots, page layouts, catwalk shows and high-end designers

  Independent