This is my first Katherine Greene novel and I absolutely loved it. Though it was not a unique store at face value, it definitely is at it's core. The entire time you can feel the suspense building for what is a wild ending. I love a dual perspective in two time-periods as well. The author creates multiple suspects and drops breadcrumbs continuously that makes you question what details matter and what is just to lead the reader astray.

I have two minor points of feedback that made this a 4.5 star read for me rather than a 5. First, it makes it hard to read when I can tell that an author put minimal research into Greek life (timing, expectations, naming conventions), especially when they use letters for an organization that actually exists. Second, I felt like the entire plot was pretty obvious from the beginning with how much focus their was on a specific parts of the relationship. The story was still interesting but I wish the twist had actually surprised me. After this, I will definitely be reading more from Katherine Greene though!

The Lake of Lost Girls
Katherine Greene
The Lake of Lost Girls
Katherine Greene
The year is 1998, the setting is Southern State University in Mt. Randall, North Carolina. Young women are disappearing. Jessica Fadley was an intelligent, clever, reliable freshman at the University when suddenly things changed; her life was speeding alarmingly out of control. Then she disappears.
In the year 2022 Jessica’s sister Lindsey wants answers, she turns to a true crime podcast. The focus of Ten Seconds to Vanish is on cold cases. It seems to have stirred up the murderer for the bodies of the missing women are found at the local lake.
This tale is told from a past and present timeline. The Lake of Lost Girls has an interesting plot. It held my attention from the first page to the last. It kept me guessing all through. I kept thinking I had it figured out only to realize I had gone down a rabbit hole.
Thank you Netgalley for the review copy of this book.

I really enjoyed The Lake of Lost Girls, and Jess was surely a lost girl. Every time I assumed I knew the twist, I was wrong. Five star read for thriller fans.

Wow thank you netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book early! This was my first book by Katherine Greene and it won’t be my last! You think you have it all figured out but then there is twist after twist. I thought I had it figured out a few times but boy was I wrong. Definitely enjoyed this read and couldn’t put it down!

I got the chills so many times toward the end of this book. It completely blew my mind. It managed to surpass my high expectations AND be nothing at all like I expected. Let me preface this with an apology. If I sound stunningly inarticulate at times in this review, I can't help it. My mind is completely fried from this being amazing. I recommend it for those looking for a good suspense book. My only complaint is that in order to make it a standalone, the author gave away too much of the plots of the previous books.

I did not see that coming. I did not guess the ending. So many red herrings…and secrets…imagine how difficult it was for this family…families…girls missing…bodies finally found years later…I do not want to give the story away, but there were several parts that did not seem realistic…wasn’t Jessie too young to be so involved? Ryan’s showing up…the father…the boat and the car…that being said, this book is a page turner…a cannot put down book…I did not like the time periods, the different voices, and the podcast was distracting. Netgalley thanks..

It’s 1998 and the female students at Southern State University in Mt. Randall, North Carolina are disappearing. Jessica Fadley is about to become the fourth. She once had it all together but had been struggling mightily just before she went missing.

Twenty-four years later Jessica’s sister Lindsey lives in Mt. Randall and a new podcast about Jessica’s disappearance begins. A reporter comes to town, drawn by the new interest in the case and he and Lindsey begin investigating. Soon bodies of the missing Southern State girls begin turning up in a local lake. Will Lindsey get the answers she is seeking?

I love these sorts of mixed media books, and here there’s a mix of text, podcast transcripts, blog entries, Facebook posts, etc. The book also features a dual timeline with Jessica then and Lindsey now. Really good thriller which kept me guessing until the very end. Definitely recommended.

While I really enjoyed The Lake of Lost Girls, it faces a challenge I often see in books that jump between timelines. The past perspective — in this case, Jessica in 1998 and 1999 — tends to dominate, both in plot and in length. As the reader, I'm naturally drawn to the present tense and wanting to solve the mystery, rather than watching it slowly happen. At best, that imbalance is very tangible and hard to ignore. At worst, it dilutes plot twists and risks spoiling the ending. Clearly, I think the story would have been stronger if it stayed in the current timeline (or, at the very least, done away with the flashbacks within Jess' own story).

All of that said, there was a lot of interesting aspects to the story. Even though I wish the book would have jumped around less, I really enjoyed the podcast perspective. I also would have loved for the small town element to have been played into more.

I really enjoyed this book. I would change a couple of the interludes between chapters though. I liked the podcast manuscripts and the newspaper articles, but I thought the Facebook and Instagram posts seemed cheesy and cheap.