by Megan Miranda
SYNOPSIS
Everyone knows the story of the girl from Widow Hills.
When Arden Maynor was six years old, she was swept away in terrifying storm and went missing for days. Against all odds, she was found alive, clinging to a storm drain. A living miracle. Arden's mother wrote a book, and fame followed. But so did fans, creeps and stalkers. It was all too much, and as soon as she was old enough, Arden changed her name and left Widow Hills behind.
Now, a young woman living hundreds of miles away, Arden is known as Olivia. With the twentieth anniversary of her rescue looming, media interest in the girl who survived is increasing. Where is she now? The stress brings back the night terrors of Olivia's youth. Often, she finds herself out of bed in the middle of the night, sometimes outside her home, even streets away. Then one evening she jolts awake in her yard, with the corpse of a man at her feet. The girl from Widow Hills is about to become the centre of the story, once again.
REVIEW When she was six years old, Arden Maynor went missing after going sleepwalking in the middle of the night. Three days later she was found clinging onto a storm drain in a sewer and the story attracted a huge amount of media attention. Years later, with the media still constantly pursuing her, Arden moves to a new town and changes her name to Olivia Meyer, hoping to escape her past.
Olivia is content with her new life until one night she stumbles across the dead body of a man on her property. The night terrors and sleepwalking she suffered from as a child have returned, and Olivia can't remember how or why she ended up outside in the middle of the night. This discovery threatens to destroy the new life she has built for herself, and as her past begins to catch up with her, Olivia once again finds herself in the middle of a media frenzy, only this time as a suspect.
The Girl From Widow Hills was a slow burner for me, but as I read more and more, I found myself hooked and really invested in the story. It had all of the elements I love in a good thriller, and I enjoyed the fact that I got to play detective. There were lots of characters involved, and it wasn't clear who was telling the truth, who you could trust or whether some of the things happening to Olivia were real or in her head.
I loved the way the it switched from present day and then looked back at Arden’s disappearance through the use of media and newspaper reports, book excerpts, and messages, to piece together the missing parts of the story. The tension built up nicely throughout the story, so if you are unsure at the start, it is definitely worth sticking with it. An interesting idea and an ending that I didn't see coming.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Megan Miranda is the author of All The Missing Girls, The Perfect Stranger, and The Last House Guest, which was the August 2019 Reese’s Book Club x Hello Sunshine pick. She grew up in New Jersey, graduated from MIT, and lives in North Carolina with her husband and two children. Follow @MeganLMiranda on Twitter and Instagram, or @AuthorMeganMiranda on Facebook.
Thanks to Anne Cater - @RandomTTours, @MeganLMiranda and Corvus Books @CorvusBooks for the opportunity to read & review.
Fiction: Psychological Thriller / Suspense
Product format: Hardback
ISBN: 978-1838951085
Pages: 336 pp
Comments