The Girl from Widow Hills
A Novel
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3.7 • 45 Ratings
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
As a child she made headlines. As an adult no one knows her real name. But some nightmares linger even after you open your eyes…Don’t miss this “hauntingly atmospheric and gorgeously written page-turner” (Kimberly McCreight, New York Times bestselling author of A Good Marriage) from Reese Witherspoon Book Club selected and New York Times bestselling author Megan Miranda.
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 help 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 up 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.
The girl from Widow Hills is once again at the center of this story in this “compulsive page-turner” (Booklist).
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The public eye can haunt people long after they’ve run from fame. But what if the thing that’s following you is something more sinister than mere celebrity? It’s been 20 years since six-year-old Arden Maynor captured the country’s imagination, sleepwalking into a rainstorm and ending up missing for three days. She’s long since moved away and changed her name to Olivia, desperate to escape her famous survival story (which she doesn’t even remember). Now Olivia has started sleepwalking again, but this time, she wanders into a dead body—of someone who only ever knew her as Arden. Masterfully interweaving fragments of Olivia’s memories and dreams with the story’s pulse-pounding events, author Megan Miranda raises the stakes higher with each twist. This gripping psychological thriller is a chilling reminder that you can forget your past—but it won’t forget you.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The hospital administrator who now calls herself Olivia Meyer, the narrator of this suspenseful but far-fetched page-turner from bestseller Miranda (The Last House Guest), has put as much distance as possible between her and the drama that riveted the country two decades earlier when, as sleepwalking six-year-old Arden Maynor, she was apparently swept away during a storm into the drain pipes of her hometown of Widow Hills, Ky., until a miracle rescue three days later. But despite the subsequent charitable outpouring, the future proved far from rosy for the traumatized child, who was unable to remember most of her ordeal, and her troubled single mother. The adult Liv seems finally to be starting fresh in Central Valley, N.C. until one night, while sleepwalking, for a second time, outside, she stumbles over a dead body. As Liv tries to keep Det. Nina Rigby at bay while she investigates further herself, the author throws suspicion on a succession of suspects. The pace quickens with a second murder and the appearance of a stalker. Even though Miranda opts increasingly for surprise over plausibility, psychological thriller fans will enjoy the ride. Author tour.
