Title: The Girl from Widow Hills
Author: Megan Miranda
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: June 23, 2020
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.
Olivia (Arden Maynor) suffered a traumatic event when she was only six years of age. She was trapped during a rainstorm for three days before she was found and rescued.
Since those days, everyone has wanted a piece of Liv's story through her childhood, teenage years and young adulthood. To start over, after college, she changed her name. She moved and currently she works in the administration office of a hospital.
Her childhood marked her. She doesn't like closed-in spaces. She remains leery of giving any details from her past to anyone, including her friend Bennett and lately, her new friend Elyse. Liv broke up her relationship with Jonah, her ex, who was a professor at the school but she never told him about her past. Every year during the anniversary of her rescue, she feels her body tensing and waiting for something to happen. For someone from her past to find her. For her life to become one more nightmare.
Liv's disappearance as a child was thought to be due to her sleepwalking. Then, it starts happening again. One night, Liv wakes up outside her new house without recollection of how she got there. She's terrified her sleepwalking is back. She's so scared when her neighbor, an older man, finds her. Rick used to be the owner of the house she's currently occupying. The next night she sleepwalks is not her neighbor who wakes her up, but it's her tripping over a dead body outside her property line.
Who is the man dead outside her property? Who killed him? Did she do it? Did her neighbor do it? Or is someone else out there lurking and trying to harm her?
The Girl from Widow Hills is the third book I read by Megan Miranda. I have liked her other two and I find myself enjoying this one too. The narrative starts slow but the pace changes by the last third of the book. I was invested in learning about both mysteries. What really happened to the six-year-old Arden and who was trying to hurt her now. I do wish the ending was more detailed and I felt that an epilogue was missing. Anyway, I still enjoyed the hours of distraction Megan Miranda gave me.
Cliffhanger: No
4/5 Fangs
A complimentary copy was provided by Simon and Schuster via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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