The Girl From Widow Hills
A suspense novel about a young woman plagued by night terrors after a childhood trauma who wakes one evening to find a corpse at her feet.
Everyone knows the story of “the girl from Widow Hills.”
Arden Maynor was just a child when she was swept away while sleepwalking during a terrifying rainstorm and went missing for days. Strangers and friends, neighbors and rescue workers, set up search parties and held vigils, praying for her safe return. Against all odds, she was found, alive, clinging to a storm drain. The girl from Widow Hills was a living miracle. Arden’s mother wrote a book. Fame followed. Fans and fan letters, creeps, and stalkers. And every year, the anniversary. It all became too much. As soon as she was old enough, Arden changed her name and disappeared from the public eye.
Now a young woman living hundreds of miles away, Arden goes by Olivia. She’s managed to stay off the radar for the last few years. But with the twentieth anniversary of her rescue approaching, the media will inevitably renew its interest in Arden. Where is she now? Soon Olivia feels like she’s being watched and begins sleepwalking again, like she did long ago, even waking outside her home. Until late one night she jolts awake in her yard. At her feet is the corpse of a man she knows—from her previous life, as Arden Maynor.
And now, the girl from Widow Hills is about to become the center of the story, once again.
Title: The Girl From Widow Hills
Author: Megan Miranda
Genre: Thriller / Mystery
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publishing Date: 06/23/2020
Language: English
ISBN: 1501165429
ISBN-13: 9781501165429
My Review
As I close this book, I feel like I have just spent long days alongside the protagonist of the novel looking for answers, as if I had known her a lifetime. This is a highly readable mystery, that did not hit the target for me initially but rendered decently enough.
Arden Maynor, now Olivia Meyer has left her childhood trauma behind or so she thought, but it is catching up with her. After her episode of sleepwalking during a flood that washed her into the drains of Widow Hills where she stayed stuck for three dark, long days, she became a news sensation under the age of ten and it put her little town on the map. Since then, she has moved twice, started over, and changed her name.
Bad Karma seems to follow her though. In her new job, working in the administration of a clinic, she has managed to make friends, but only trust a few. Like everywhere, this too is a place where people like to gossip. When Olivia makes personal appointments with physicians, she tends to hide her true baggage.
Everyone knows something fishy happened the day when Olivia was escorted by a police officer into the hospital for treatment after a man from her past was found dead near her home. When her only neighbor ends up with a box cutter from her home during the unsolved murder investigation, a friend ends up disappearing and warning letters begin to tumble in, she quickly becomes the possible suspect. Now, Olivia will try to piece together what she has avoided for so long: the missing hours of her times sleepwalking.
Someone has tried to warn her of the past that is about to catch up with her, but whom can she trust? Olivia must solve a tug of war between friends and foes that might end the same way as it began, so long ago.
***
I was lured in by the premise. The cover is gorgeous and the author is well known for writing twisted thrillers.
The first two-thirds of the novel were lukewarm for me and I felt like I was just going through the motions, slowly. Not bad in a sense where you are bored or can’t read it, but nothing that would knock the socks off. Perhaps I expected too much? There were moments I wanted to say: “Come on, you can do better than this!” to get the plot going.
Most of the story and characters felt two dimensional to me. Instead of leaving my imagination to envision a painted picture, I was told too much leaving no room to wonder what was missing. I believe this exact dilemma is what makes the difference between a visceral experience that draws the reader in and one that puts a reader off. This part too seemed to improve more so on the last part of the novel.
Perhaps it is just my experience, not sure how others might feel, though I am curious.
I was rooting so much for something twisty to happen, for the surprise! Sadly, not until the last third of the novel was my attention sparked. I wanted to love this novel so much more. It was a highly anticipated title for me.
Alas, I will still continue reading Megan Miranda novels in search of the one that does me in completely.
Happy Reading!
I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
All opinions are my own.
Thank you.
