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. (Pub Date: Jun 23, 2020)
Megan Miranda comes back with a more mature writing about the survivor of a national interest story, but also the victim from all that fame.
Arden, who now goes by Olivia, has been working in a faraway hospital just to be extra safe no one will find her. But all of a sudden she gets a box with her estranged mother's last possessions and the news that now she is dead. That is the pivot of it all coming back, the next night she starts sleepwalking and the other she wakes up to a literal dead body right in front of her. As the police seems to suspect her, and she can't even remember if she has an alibi, her past becomes very present.
I'd say this is a 3+ book, because I did enjoy the read. It just lacked more excitement, which not even the big reveals saved. Olivia, the main character, is actually very boring and she did make an effort to become so, with the intention people wouldn't notice her. But a lot of strange things start happening to her, so many years after her disappearance incident as a child. Those things... well the discovery of the bodies and of the skeletons in everyone's closets, those were exciting but punctual thrills. In general, it wasn't a book that made turn pages, but it was definitely one I wanted to know the ending.
I can't say I liked the other characters either. Even after finishing and not caring for anyone in special—maybe the only one that took my liking, actually, was the defunct—, I still felt we hadn't known any of them well enough. The detective seems super cool, for example, but there isn't much more than an impression. Even Bennett, Olivia's best friend, was very very flat ultimately.
The conclusion was what I wondered it could be, but I had so many other hypotheses, it was great finding out, so I can't say I was bored. As I've even mentioned already, I did reach the end to know what it was, so I'd call the answer logical rather than evident. Could be better, but it was far from bad.
I know I kept listing the negatives, but I did enjoy this book. It was just more of a lukewarm read. The writer did everything right but lacked the oomph element we like in all the good thrillers.
I recommend it to anyone interested in thrillers, Megan Miranda is an excellent writer and this is not just another thriller following a fad. But if you still don't know her, I'd begin from All the Missing Girls, which is still the superior book.
Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.
Rating: 3 out of 5.
No comments:
Post a Comment