Title: THE GIRL FROM WIDOW HILLS
Expected publication: 23 June 2020
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
"A story about you doesn't necessarily belong to you. It belongs to the writer. To the witness. To the teller."
Book Description:
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, in this propulsive page-turner from suspense master Megan Miranda.
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, in this propulsive page-turner from suspense master Megan Miranda.
What attracted me to this book:
I have always enjoyed Megan Miranda’s writing style,
especially her ability to create characters who are just the right mix between
likeable and yet mysterious, as well as
atmospheric settings that provide a great backdrop to her mysteries.
My musings:
It is a special skill to be able to create characters the
reader can instantly bond with. It’s a different ballgame altogether to let
that characters hold back just enough to make them appear mysterious without
giving the impression to the reader that they are getting duped, and breaking
that special bond. Miranda is treading that fine line as skilled as an
accomplished high-wire balancing act. I really liked Olivia, related to her,
and yet always had a shadow of doubt about her honesty that created a sense of
tension and foreboding whilst reading her story. I remember feeling like this
with both of her previous books, and how much it added to my reading pleasure.
Oliva, our main protagonist, is living under an assumed name
in a little one-horse town that is remote enough to escape her past. When she
was only six years old, she was swept away by floodwaters whilst sleepwalking
one night, sparking a huge rescue operation that made headlines around the
country. Olivia’s story of survival captured the heart of a nation and earned
both her and her mother a steady income from donations and a book deal, but
over the years the limelight has soured and forces Olivia to go into hiding. However,
the past will not be so easily deterred – one night Olivia finds herself in her
garden with the body of a man at her feet who is linked to the day of her
rescue, and no idea how she got into this situation.
Miranda brings up interesting concepts of childhood trauma,
fame and the subsequent claim of ownership of the public over the girl whose
fate they followed so closely during the rescue mission. Do their donations and
offers for help entitle them to have any say over the little girl’s future?
Unlike celebrities, Olivia has had no control over her rise to stardom, and the
only way she could escape the public eye was to assume a different identity.
But even her new name has not loosened the grip of the traumatic memories that
still haunt her. A fascinating and somewhat frightening premise, which Miranda
has skilfully woven into the type of compelling mystery she is famous for.
I really enjoyed the mixed media inclusions in the story,
which break up Olivia’s narrative: excerpts from newspaper articles,
interviews, police reports and eye witness accounts. As the mystery surrounding
Olivia’s childhood trauma slowly unfolded, there was a surprise in store for us
I had not seen coming!
Summary:
All in all, THE GIRL FROM WIDOW HILLS fully lived up to its
intriguing title. With a mystery from the past entangled with a present day
murder, the book explored some intriguing themes surrounding childhood trauma
and reluctant fame gained through tragedy. As is her hallmark, Miranda has
created enigmatic, rounded characters who drove the story and enabled full
emotional involvement in their fates. Perfect for people who enjoy a mystery
that offers a solid breadcrumb trail of clues, but still manages to hold a few
surprises in the end.
Thank
you to Edelweiss and Simon & Schuster for the free electronic copy of this novel and
for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.
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