"Night terrors and the uncertainty surrounding the narrator lead in this well-crafted tension filled mystery that hooks and stealthily reels you in."
An intriguing, pulsing, provocative mystery that really kept me on my toes. Olivia is affected by night terrors, her past comes back to haunt her when she wakes in the middle of the night to find herself standing over a body in her garden. We’ve reviewed and thoroughly enjoyed all of Megan Miranda’s novels at LoveReading. I particularly love the sharp teetering edge of the relationship that develops between the reader and the main characters. Here, my trust for Olivia felt patchy and uncertain, her past is everything. Megan Miranda cleverly evoked emotions in me that Olivia had been feeling for years. The balance of suspense and information was held on a wire as my thoughts were nudged one way and then the other. As the pace increased so did the tension. The Girl From Widow Hills really highlights the dangers of secrets and lies, and it was only when I’d finished that I was finally able to take a deep breath and relax!
| Primary Genre | Thriller and Suspense |
| Other Genres: | |
| Recommendations: |
A satisfying thriller. Slow to start but with an ending I did not predict. An interesting central character - Olivia - who has overcome trauma but is now forced to face her past again.
I found this book difficult to get into and slow-moving to start. However, I found the last third of the book made up for this. Olivia - who as 6-year-old Arden was rescued from 3 days in a storm drain - has spent her life trying to escape her ‘fame’. Receiving her mother’s last effects opens up old memories which are intensified with the murder of Sean Coleman (her first rescuer). Her past comes to the fore again and she is forced to explore what really happened to her as a child.
The ending is one I did not foresee - I was actually quite shocked by it.... Read Full Review
The story is beautifully woven and the well-crafted and eclectic cast of characters skilfully move on the action at a cracking pace.
One stormy night, six-year-old Arden Maynor, sleepwalks out of her house and isn’t seen again for days. Her single mother Laurel is distraught, but ecstatic when she is discovered alive in a storm drain by a passer-by called Sean Coleman. Sadly, Laurel and Arden’s lives are altered forever by the media who crave anniversary updates in a frenzy of interest and sensationalism. Arden has no memory of what happened and refuses to attend the interviews. In the interim they are plagued by stalkers, fans and weirdoes, eventually forcing Arden to leave Widow Hills, Kentucky and reinvent her life in Central Valley, South Carolina.
One night, nearing the 20th anniversary of her recovery, Liv is sleepwalking and hears a telephone ringing out. She follows the tone and trips over something. She wakes up caked in dirt and blood.... Read Full Review
A great thriller that has you guessing until the end! A carefully woven plot reveals twists and turns for the main character Olivia. Who can she trust?
This is a great mystery read, which I really enjoyed. The Girl from Widow Hills, reveals the story of what happened to the main character, Olivia, 20 years earlier when she was a child and is written from her perspective. Olivia has assumed a new identity to try to move on from what happened to her in the past and as the story unfolds, so does her story from twenty years earlier.
There are almost two stories within one and a carefully woven plot starts with Olivia waking up one night to find the corpse of a man at her feet. She is prone to sleepwalking and is unable to remember how she came to be there and what has happened. She has moved away to escape the press and what happened to her as a child, and she finds herself in the limelight once again.... Read Full Review
