Haven't They Grown (UK) AKA Perfect Little Children (USA)

London mother and massage therapist Beth Leeson hasn’t seen her former BFF Flora Braid in more than twelve years, not since their friendship fractured and the Braids moved away. But her son’s soccer game puts Beth in the vicinity of their last known address and she can’t resist the urge to do a quick drive-by to scope out their house. This simple act throws Beth’s life into complete chaos when she witnesses the unfathomable: Flora tending to her two children, Thomas and Emily, who appear exactly as they did more than a decade ago rather than as the teenagers they should have grown up to be.Despite her husband Dom’s incredulity, Beth is firmly convinced that she saw (and heard) correctly, and vows to get to the bottom of things. Willing to humor her, at least initially, Dom does a search across social media platforms and finds that Flora’s husband, Lewis, is now living in Florida; pictures show him posed there with the appropriately aged Thomas and Emily—but there’s no evidence of Flora or their youngest child, Georgina. Rather than putting her mind at ease, this internet sleuthing—and the questions it raises—further incites Beth’s need to discover the truth of the matter; after all, she can’t help but thinking Flora and the children may be in danger. But digging into the past can be a deadly proposition. All Beth has to do is drive her son to his Under-14s away match, watch him play, and bring him home. Just because she knows that her former best friend lives near the football ground, that doesn't mean she has to drive past her house and try to catch a glimpse of her. Why would Beth do that, and risk dredging up painful memories? She hasn't seen Flora Braid for twelve years. But she can't resist. She parks outside Flora's house and watches from across the road as Flora and her children, Thomas and Emily, step out of the car. Except... There's something terribly wrong. Flora looks the same, only older - just as Beth would have expected. It's the children that are the problem. Twelve years ago, Thomas and Emily Braid were five and three years old. Today, they look precisely as they did then. They are still five and three. They are Thomas and Emily without a doubt - Beth hears Flora call them by their names - but they haven't changed at all. They are no taller, no older. Why haven't they grown? The new standalone from 'one of the great unmissables of the genre - intelligent, classy and with a wonderfully gothic imagination' [The Times] - with a disturbingly impossible situation.