The Girl from Widow Hills
From the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club Pick, The Last House Guest
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Everyone knows the story of the girl from widow hills...
When Arden Maynor was six years old, she was swept away in a terrifying storm and went missing for days. Against all odds, she was found alive, clinging to a storm drain. Fame followed, and so did fans, creeps and stalkers. As soon as she was old enough, Arden changed her name and left Widow Hills behind.
Twenty years later, Olivia, as she is now known, is plagued by night terrors. She often finds herself out of bed in the middle of the night, sometimes streets away from her home. Then one evening she jolts awake in her yard, with the corpse of a man at her feet.
The girl from Widow Hills is about to become the centre of the story, once again...
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
How does trauma distort memory? This is the question at the heart of The Girl From Widow Hills, a strange and unsettling thriller from Megan Miranda. The book centres around hospital worker Arden Maynor, who became notorious as a child when she sleepwalked into a stormy night and went missing for three days. The book catches up with her 20 years later, trying to shed her sensational past. The novel is a deep psychological examination of the mechanisms of exploitation and the media. Miranda further immerses us in this world by constructing elements of the case through transcripts from press conferences, TV broadcasts and interviews. What makes the story especially captivating is the way it exposes the defective nature of memory through the novel’s complex and unreliable narrator. Fans of Gillian Flynn and Ruth Ware will love this thriller.
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.