The Girl from Widow Hills, published on June 23, is only the second novel I've read from Megan Miranda. The other was The Perfect Stranger and I really enjoyed it (review here). After reading two of her novels I'm even more inclined to check out her backlist because knows how to tell a good and twisted story.

Here's the synopsis:
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.
At first I was kind of annoyed at the use of "girl" in the title because I'm kind of over that trend of women-centred thrillers that Gone Girl spawned (even though many, many of them have been very good). I felt better, then, when I realized that the story was about a literal girl. Or at least, Adren was a girl when she was thrust into the spotlight with her sleepwalking adventure. She's an adult now, going by Olivia, trying to keep her head down and forget her past. Surprise. It's not going to work.



Often I find I can piece together some of the threads to have an idea of how a thriller or mystery might end up. With Miranda's latest? I had absolutely no idea how the story would end up. And just when I thought it was wrapping up, another surprise or five showed up to throw me off the trail again. I really, really liked being totally shocked at the end

I also really wasn't sure what to think of Olivia. I can't say I blame her for living her life the way she was. It can't have been easy being in the spotlight for such a harrowing experience that she couldn't even remember. I'd probably hide away too and be worried about my mental state when strange things started happening again. At first I wasn't sure if Miranda was leaning hard into the unreliable narrator trope but eventually I decided not to worry about it and just let the story sweep me away. And it did.

I liked that the story featured newspaper articles, transcripts, and the like to help the reader try to piece together what on earth happened to Arden. Because you realize pretty early on that something just doesn't add up. Miranda gives the reader information bit by bit and you think it's starting to help shape a picture of what happened but there are a lot more holes in the story than you'd expect. So you keep turning the pages, waiting to see how it all ties together.

The Girl from Widow Hills was a mystery that kept me guessing until almost the very final page and I think those looking for a suspenseful read should pick up Megan Miranda's latest book. I'd love to know if you were as surprised as I was by the ending!

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, Simon & Schuster Canada via Netgally, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

I’ve taken a little while to think about this because so many people really liked this book. But nothing changes I was just bored throughout the story - I think partly due to the pacing and partly to my not caring much about the characters . There were times I just wanted to put it aside but I persevered to the end. I think this was just not for me. However, I would consider reading another Megan Miranda book.
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

Megan Miranda really knows what she's doing. Her writing style feels so effortless and yet I can devour several chapters without even blinking. I really enjoyed this one - such an easy read but I did not guess that ending!

What a good thriller! From the start, I was hooked. The book centres around Olivia/Arden. As a child she went missing while sleepwalking. After being rescued, she spent a lot of her life trying to avoid media attention related to the incident. Olivia/Arden eventually moves on with her life and attempts to start over with a new career in a new town but she just can’t get away from her past. This book was fast-paced and suspenseful from the start. Every time I thought I had it figured out I was wrong and honestly, that’s the best kind of thriller. This was my first book by the author and it will definitely not be my last! I rated it 4 stars. Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for my copy of this book.

A slow burn, this story was character development heavy - which I don't mind. Told in alternating timeline of Present Day and flashbacks to the past from when Arden transitioned into Olivia. This book addressed exploitation of young child media sensations and the ensuing damages related to that life. This was a slower mystery but an entertaining read nonetheless.

Once upon a time, hospital administrator Olivia was a little girl named Arden who became a national sensation when she was swept away in a storm while sleepwalking and found alive. Wanting to escape her past, Arden moves away from Widow Hills and reinvents herself as Olivia, living a quiet life until she wakes up and finds a dead man she knows from her past in her yard. ⁣⁣
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This is a slow burn story, told in a combination of present day and flashbacks. For me, there was a bit of a gap between how Arden became Olivia and I wished there was a deeper exploration of her younger life and her relationship with her mother. ⁣⁣
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I enjoyed the format of the book, with news articles and interviews providing texture to the story. For me, this one was less twisty and more focused on the characters and the stress and damage that can be caused by the media and the exploitation of a young child. ⁣⁣
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If you’re of the author and a slow burn character driven mystery, check this one out! I look forward to reading her next book. ⁣Thank you to @simonschusterca and @netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. ⁣
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What a ride this was. I truly didn't know what I was in for until the last page. We take the journey with Oliva as she's about to mark the twenty year anniversary of a tragic accident that happened to her as a small child. Having done everything to escape her past, Olivia finds herself facing it all over again.

Megan, you never disappoint!

oh. my. goodness.
what a story!
when I first started, I had a bit of trouble getting into it.
however, as the story progressed, it became a suspenseful tale that left me breathless.
I wasn't sure who to trust, who was the villain and who was a friend.
I had no idea who the bad guy was, until the very end. it had me on the edge of my seat all the way though!
I mean, this story is what nightmares are made of... sleep walking, being lost, a dark and scary wood!
I feel I could read it again from the beginning, so I could grasp all the little clues along the way.
If you enjoy wild thrill rides with an unexpected ending, this is for you!

I have enjoyed Miranda's last three novels and her latest is the newest addition to my favorite thrillers. The Girl from Widow Hills will keep readers on their toes in this suspenseful novel.

Arden Maynor becomes a national news story when she goes missing for three days during a sleepwalking episode. 20 years later, she's determined to hide from her past, until a dead body shows up in her backyard.

Megan Miranda pulls the reader in with flashbacks to Arden's traumatic experience and keeps them wondering whether she's responsible for the current situation.

This book was incredible. I have only read one previous book by the author and thought it was good, but this one was even better. Once you think you know what is happening, something comes to light that changes your thinking or makes you second guess yourself. This is a definite must-read for anyone who likes psychological thrillers in the vein of Ruth Ware and Lisa Jewell.

The Girl from Widow Hills is an excellent thriller, beautifully crafted to tell a story from the past and the present. Many books written in the first person can limit some of the story, but not in this case. Telling it all from Olivia's point of view (except small sections at the end of each chapter) allowed us to slowly piece together the clues with her. We didn't need to know much about the other characters because Olivia didn't really know then, We got the chance to learn about them along the way.

On top of that, the mystery wasn't the one that you thought it was. While there were certainly questions about the dead body, many of the questions were about whether Olivia did it, why she was sleepwalker, and whether there was someone else watching her.

This is a page-turned from start to finish. It draws you in and you certainly get that feeling of claustrophobia and being trapped, always with someone watching you. There are also some lessons about how the past doesn't always let you escape. I highly recommend.

(3.5 stars)

I am a fan of Megan Miranda’s thrillers. I usually enjoy the mystery and the way she weaves in the setting with the characters’ stories. So I was really excited to receive an e-ARC of her newest, The Girl From Widow Hills.

This is another compelling, twisty read from Megan Miranda that I enjoyed! Olivia grappling with her past and the mystery of the dead person in her yard (who was it? Who is the killer?) was fun to untangle.

There are some interview transcripts and excerpts interspersed between the chapters, which are perhaps intended to shed some light on Olivia’s/Arden’s past, but I found them not very informative or interesting, and might have preferred the story without them.

Overall, though, this was an entertaining mystery that kept me guessing, uncertain who could be trusted.

Arden grew up in the town of Widow Hills, Kentucky with her mother when tragedy struck. During a sleepwalking episode Ardens mother found that she had gone missing. A town side search party ensued and the case got national media attention. After surviving for three days she was found by one of the members of the search party.
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Arden eventually recovers from the incident and starts to move on with her life by moving to a new town and changing her name. After many years the person who found her when she was a missing child ends up dead in her front yard. The story goes on trying to determine who killed the man that once saved her life.
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This was my second book by this author and I thought this one was really good in comparison. I was really hooked from the beginning and found the story to be suspenseful. The topic of sleepwalking keeps coming up during the story. I have never had experience with sleepwalking but I find the topic fascinating and have heard so many stories of people in real life doing all sorts of things while sleepwalking and having no memory of it. I liked the Arden character very much and thought she was a great main character. There was numerous twists and turns throughout that led me to believe I knew who killed the man but I couldn’t have predicted the ending.

I liked this one way better than The Last House Guest. Megan Miranda is the queen of light thrillers. While her stories might not move as fast other thrillers or be as mysterious as some, she has a style of writing that makes the reader stick it out til the end just to see how everything wraps up and that part I can say she does not disappoint. I enjoyed this little book. While the plot line may see not very plausible just remember that this is fiction where anything is possible. I would recommend this to all thriller suspense readers :)

Wow. Just wow! This is one where I don’t want to give anything away so I’m going to keep this review short and sweet. The story had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I didn’t want to stop reading and when I did I had dreams about being trapped in dark, wet drainage tunnels like Olivia was as a child. It really got under my skin, maybe because I sleepwalked as a child and I’m claustrophobic. The terror was palpable and visceral for me and it felt very real so it was easy to imagine a little girl in this situation being so traumatized that she loses her memory of the event.

I really liked Olivia and I wanted to trust her but I have to admit there were a few times where it looked very bad for her. Due to her memory issues she was possibly an unreliable narrator. It was not clear if her judgement was dependable and which if any of the friends and colleagues around her she could trust. Everyone seemed nice and helpful and at the same time everyone seemed potentially suspicious. Olivia had been burned in the past by people trying to take advantage of her sudden fame and desperately tried to keep a low profile and her past a secret. When it catches up with her all her relationships change and she isn’t sure if her friends are out to profit from her childhood ordeal or if they are genuine. Not only is she dealing with the drama of her secret past being revealed but there’s also the small matter of a dead body on her front lawn. Hello anxiety and stress which are the last two things Olivia can handle. There was constant tension and an overwhelming feeling of dread and danger that kept me turning the pages late into the night. I was surprised by twists pretty constantly and the final big reveal completely blew me away. I did not expect or ever imagine what happened. I found this to be an intense and suspenseful read that sucked me in and didn’t let me go until the shocking conclusion. Two enthusiastic thumbs up!

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for providing an Electronic Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley for review.

For me there’s just something so comforting about a good creepy thriller and that’s definitely what ‘The Girl from Widow Hills’ by Megan Miranda is!

When Olivia was 6 years old she found fame as ‘The girl from Widow Hills’ who was swept away during a terrible storm while sleepwalking and was miraculously found 3 days later. As she grew up she became desperate to shake off the notoriety, changed her name and moved away.

Now as the twentieth anniversary of her rescue approaches, Olivia finds herself being dragged back into the nightmare all over again and she’s no longer sure who to trust.

It seems I shared Olivia’s problem as I also didn’t know who to trust in this one and there were so many red herrings that I’m pretty sure I suspected every character at one point. Though I have to say I 100% did not see the ending coming! And for me that’s always a key sign of a great thriller, if I’m left at the end thinking, ‘How did I miss that?!’ Thanks so much to Netgalley for the copy of this book.

I loved this book!! It's definitely a bingeworthy thriller as I flew threw it in just a few hours!! This was my first book by Megan Miranda and I found she did a great job at building the suspense and keeping me guessing until the end.. literally the end!! I definitely recommend this book for a quick read that will keep you on the edge!

Great story, tense plot as you wonder what will happen next and how everything connects.
I loved the twist on how the events of that night really happened.
I've read other books by this author and she consistently crafts an intriguing tale that keeps you turning the page. I can't wait for her next book!

There is something absolutely mesmerizing about Miranda's ability to completely captivate her audience with her slow burn mysteries.

Instead of fast paced heart stopping scenes,the author builds the story like interlocking bricks in a way where the reader constantly feels just a bit of unease and piqued curiosity. Her storytelling is brilliant and I never see her endings coming. I truly believe she doesn't get enough credit in the mystery world.

Kudos, this book was amazing.

Now THAT is the Megan Miranda I know and highly enjoy! After her last novel, I was a little sceptical not going to lie.

What an amazing thriller! Literally kept me guessing until the very end. The last couple of chapters had my heart pounding out of my chest!

Some minor things that I didn't like meant I had to knock off .5 of a star for this one... the hinting at a romance that I just really badly wanted, the suggestion of a different fling moment.

Just overall, a really great thriller.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for the ARC.