The Girl from Widow Hills by Megan Miranda

The Girl from Widow Hills Reviews

• 
  Nilufer Ozmekik

  I proudly announce that WE HAVE ANOTHER WINNER! This year there will be so much competition between smart, heart throbbing, mind bending, terrifying thrillers.
  
  I have to admit the plot of the book excited me so much. A six years old sleepwalker girl leaves her house and she’s not found for 3 days. There is threatening rainstorm starts out there. Rescue workers, neighbors and large groups of search parties look for everywhere to bring her home back.
  Then she miraculously found by Sean Coleman with a nasty arm injury and memory loss, clinging to a storm drain. But she made it! Yes! Atta girl!
  
  But the little six year old who suffered from compelling trauma didn’t have any idea the story of her coming back will become one of the greatest urban legend story. She got all attention of media, fans, stalkers, creepy admirers. And guess what? Her own mother milked her daughter’s story to her own benefit, wrote a book, earned so much money by distorting truths about her daughter’s traumatic experiences. So let’s take the year of the mom award from Carrie White’s mother Margaret and give that to this lovely mother who stole her own daughter’s childhood.
  
  So little girl, once upon a time Arden Maynor and now Olivia, changed her name to have clean slate and brand new life without media’s impact and strange admirers’ love and hate letters. She is estranged with her mother, working at hospital, living at a cottage in the middle of nowhere and has a protector and wild old neighbor Rick( I visualized him as Tim Robbins after seeing his performance at Castle Rock. She has good friends, a professor ex, busy work schedule.
  
  But one day she got a box which is worse than Pandora’s because she finds out her mother is dead and there are several things inside of it can trigger her threatening, vicious memories about her past and lost 3 days. Unfortunately she finds out she is not gonna get away from who she is because her night terrors return back and she starts sleepwalking again. And later, she wakes up again she finds herself next to corpse outside her home. The dead man is coming from her past is ready to haunt her forever!
  
  So did she kill the man and forget it? If she doesn’t, who did it? Why doesn’t she remember anything about her disappearance? There are so many holes about her story and one of her best friend quits from her job and disappears without telling her anything. And the dead man’s identity comes out…. She cannot be more confused and terrified. So what’s gonna happen? Whodunit?
  
  I have to admit that I was going between 2 to 3 stars at the beginning because I thought the killer’s identity was so obvious. I was trying to decide between two people.
  But guess what: ENDING OF THIS BOOK IS FANF**KINGTASTIC!!!! IT KILLED MY SPIDER SENSES LITERALLY! And last quarter of the book was so fast pacing. I didn’t have enough nail to bite but I bit my pillows and my husband found me covered in feathers when you came home from business trip, took my pictures and posted as “birdwoman”.
  
  But it’s worth it! I loved the conclusion of the story! Pacing, writing style and plot were captivating.
  This is gonna be one of my favorite Megan Miranda books.
  
  Special thanks to Netgalley and Simon&Schuster for sending me this heart throbbing, exciting book’s ARC COPY in exchange my honest review. And thanks to Megan Miranda to create this spooky, nerve bending, remarkable story that I really enjoyed so much!
  
  
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• 
  megs_bookrack

  Due to horrifying circumstances, Arden Maynor hit the national news stream when she was just 6-years old.
  
  While sleepwalking, she exited her house during a terrible storm and subsequently got swept up into the storm drain system of her town, Widow Hills.
  
  
  
  Arden's mother reports her missing early the next morning, when she notices her little girl is not in her bed.
  
  As the news spreads, the entire town of Widow Hills, and even neighboring towns, mobilize to search for the missing girl.
  
  
  
  Three days later, a man helping with the search discovers Arden grasping a grate at the top of a storm drain.
  
  Unable to pry open the grate lid, he holds her tight until a final rescue plan can be implemented.
  
  
  
  It's an unbelievable story that unsurprisingly took the media by storm. How could a little girl possibly survive in a water-logged drainage system for three days on her own!?
  
  Riding on the wings of such attention, Arden's mother takes full advantage and publishes a book telling her story. Along with the generosity of strangers and paid speaking events, the book royalties allow the Maynors a fairly stable income.
  
  
  
  But Arden disagrees with her mother a hundred percent on how she wants her life to go. She wants to be as far from the spotlight as possible.
  
  She hates the pressure, people thinking they know her, her life story, acting like she owes them something. She just wants to move on with her life and forget that horrible night altogether.
  
  
  
  As soon as she can, Arden changes her name to her middle name, Olivia, goes to college and breaks away from her mother for good.
  
  Frankly, the woman is toxic and being as far away from her as possible, does wonders for Olivia's own mental health and wellness.
  
  
  
  The bulk of the narrative takes place as the 20th-anniversary of that fateful night approaches. In addition to the present-day narrative, mixed media sources are interspersed throughout that shine further light on the incident.
  
  These include 9-1-1 call transcripts, police and media interviews, as well as excerpts from her mother's book.
  
  
  
  As the anniversary gets closer, Olivia discovers she is sleepwalking again and begins to feel paranoid that she is being watched. She confides in her protective next-door neighbor and even a close friend after her hand is forced.
  
  Are the reporters back at it again, looking for another story, or is something more sinister going on? When a man ends up dead in her yard, Olivia guesses the latter.
  
  
  
  This was a fun story. Such a quick read, I just wanted to know what was happening. The suspense was killing me, I just wanted Olivia to be okay!
  
  There were some great red herrings, excellent plot twists and a steady, exciting pacing.
  
  
  
  This made me think of the story of Baby Jessica from the 1980s. The notoriety that surrounded her life and her family for years to come.
  
  I thought Miranda did a great job expressing the stress and discomfort that can have on people involved in that sort of media firestorm. I cannot even imagine. As a private person, even thinking of that gives me anxiety.
  
  
  
  This was my first novel by Megan Miranda and I really vibed well with her writing style. I will absolutely be picking up more of her work soon.
  
  Thank you so much to the publisher, Simon & Schuster, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I appreciate it and know a lot of readers are going to really enjoy this!
• 
  zuza_zaksiazkowane

  3.5
• 
  MarilynW

  What I came away with the most, from this book, was how the writing allowed me to feel so very uneasy, trapped, watched, in the same way the way the main character felt those things. Arden had been a six year old when she had sleepwalked one night, gotten caught in a rushing torrent during a rainstorm, and was found three days later, clinging to a grate in a sewer system. Only a miracle would have allowed this little girl to go through all of that and still be alive. The media attention was constant but after years of being the little miracle girl, a lot of the attention became mean spirited and rude, due to all the money that was donated to Arden and her mother. Arden's mother wrote a book about the event and Arden can't really remember anything of it other than what her mother wrote, as if she might not have really been there those three days, at all. 
  
  When she was sixteen, Arden changed her name to Olivia, changed schools and ran from the unwanted attention. Now, twenty years after the three day ordeal, Olivia works in a hospital and has her safe, anonymous life, until she is confronted one morning, by the man who had found her clinging to the grate in the sewer. She rebuffs his attempts to talk to her, only to sleepwalk again at night, waking up with the man dead at her feet and blood on her hands. Everyone seems to be suspect, if not for the murder but for wanting something from Olivia, the former little girl who was found in the storm sewer. The police are involved because of the dead man and Olivia doesn't even know for sure that she didn't kill him. I enjoyed the sense of constant unease and worry as Olivia attempts to unravel her past, that has run headlong into her present. 
  
  Published as of June 23, 2020
  
  Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for this ARC.
• 
  Dorie - Cats&Books :)

  ***NOW AVAILABLE, HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY***
  
  
  I enjoyed one of this author’s previous books, “All The Missing Girls” so I thought I’d give this one a try. I’m glad that I did. Although it started off a bit slowly, by 30 pages I was invested in the story.
  
  Can you imagine having something so traumatic happen in your childhood that your memory has been completely blocked? That’s what happened to Arden Maynor. At six years of age she created quite a sensation in her small town of Widow Hills. She was known by her mother to sleepwalk on occasion. One morning her mother wakes to find Arden missing and a terrible rainstorm raging. Eventually, 3 days later, Arden was found, holding on to the grate of an outlet for part of the drainage system in the town. It was considered almost a miracle that she could survive the raging waters for such a long time and to be found by her rescuer, Sean Coleman.
  
  Afterwards she was a marked girl. Wherever she went through her life, until college, she was known as the girl from Widow Hills. Her mother seemed to enjoy the notoriety, she wrote a book that sold well. She went on talk shows and made lots of money off of Arden’s story, but somehow the money, in the end, was gone. Arden as a young woman starting college decided to shed her past history, changed her name and got a good education. She never wanted to see her mother again, she felt that her mother had made a lot of money on her story of trauma and then in the end lost it all, she was no support to Olivia, they were very different people.
  
  Upon graduation Arden, now called Olivia, is enjoying a job as part of hospital administration and a lovely older home somewhat isolated in the woods where she enjoys being alone, enjoys her solitude. She finds out, rather traumatically, that her mother had died 7 months previously and she hadn’t known it. She is left with nothing but a box of memories that her mother kept. Nothing means much to Olivia and she puts it away in her closet.
  
  Olivia has a great neighbor, an older man named Rick, and they both look out for each other. She is doing well and is happy when she fears that the sleepwalking has returned. One night she finds herself outside and stumbles upon a body. She runs to Rick who does everything he can to support her.
  
  The past has a way of catching up to you and that is what happens in this story. Without getting more into the plot I can tell you that there is a myriad of characters, well described and believable. My favorite is probably the young police woman who is determined to find out what really happened that night, who the dead man is and what happened to him.
  
  The ending of this thriller was a good one and I didn’t see it coming! Throughout the story it often seemed as though everyone we are introduced to could possibly be the killer, but nothing really stuck! In the end my suspicions were wrong and that was a great way to end this page turner of a novel.
  
  I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss.
• 
  Meredith (Slowly Catching Up)

  I actually enjoyed this one!
  
  3.75 stars
  
  The Girl from Widow Hills is a psychological thriller about a girl who became a sensation when she went missing as a child. 20 years later, the events from the past have come back to haunt her, causing her to question all that she thought she knew.
  
  Olivia has worked hard to bury her past, including changing her name, moving around, and isolating herself from others. When she was six years old, her story captivated the nation. She was the little girl who went missing during a terrible storm but was found clinging to a storm drain. She and her mother became famous, capitalizing on her experience, feeding her mother’s addiction. As hard as Olivia has worked to shed any association with her past, when she receives a box of her mother’s belongings, her past is reawakened, leading to murder, mayhem, and craziness, as Olivia begins sleepwalking and wakes up one night to find herself with a dead body.
  
  Narrated by Olivia in the present, media transcripts, newspaper reports, book excerpts, voice mails, piece together a fragmented past. Olivia is an unreliable narrator, and there are a lot of holes in her story, some of which are left unresolved in the end.
  
  After not loving Megan Miranda’s past two novels, I went into this one with low expectations. If I didn't like this book, I was going to be done reading books by MM. I was pleasantly surprised when I got hooked early on and found myself enjoying this! Similar to other MM novels, this one moves slowly, but at the same time, there’s enough intrigue surrounding Olivia’s past and current events to make it a page-turner. There are two major mysteries, one involving Olivia's past, the other in the present. Part of the mystery is easy to solve, while other elements threw me for a loop. Other parts were left unresolved, which might have been intentional, but I wanted answers! The ending was also a bit rushed. At the same time, the mysteries kept me riveted. Overall, The Girl from Widow Hills is a solid thriller, and I will definitely be reading Megan Miranda's next book!
  
  I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
  
• 
  Virginie Roy

  Always difficult to write a review that goes against the general appreciation, furthermore when I really appreciated another book from the same author!
  
  So, my thoughts... I wasn't sure what to think of the premise, but I decided to trust Megan Miranda, since I really liked
  All the Missing Girls. Finally, the story of The Girl from Widow Hills wasn't interesting nor believable. Same for the characters... The pace was too slow (especially in the first third) and then I wasn't sure where the story was going at all. Also, all the articles, book excerpts, etc., between the chapters were repetitive and didn't bring anything new to the story.
  
  The ending was okay, but didn't save the book for me.
  
  Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange of my honest review.
  
  Publication date: June 23rd.
• 
  Tina

  This is a psychological thriller. I have to say that this one was really not from me. The pacing of this book was slow for me, and I really could not get into the characters. I found myself feeling like I missed something and reading back. I just did not care about the story or the characters at the end of the story. I was kindly provided an e-copy of this book by the publisher or author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  Danielle

  The synopsis of this book is right up my alley. A mystery, a murder, sleepwalking, spotty memory- all sounds thrilling. 🤗 Unfortunately, for me, this was a snoozer. It’s incredibly slow paced. Which doesn’t necessarily kill the book. But there was nothing shocking in it to me. 🙄 I couldn’t connect to any character. I just didn’t really care about the story. 😬
• 
  Debra

  "Everybody want to be a part of the story. Sell your words, your friends, your soul."
  
  She was the girl who survived. Arden Olivia (Liv) Maynor was only six years old when she went outside while sleepwalking and was found in a storm drain three days later. No one knows how she survived in the drain, how she held on for so long and with such a bad arm injury. She has no memory from that time. Arden's mother wrote a book about their ordeal and fame followed. Fame, that Arden - who now goes by Olivia, does not want.
  
  Olivia (Liv) is happy with her new life. She has a home, a job, some friends and no one knows about her past. Then as the twentieth anniversary of the day she was saves grows closer, a man recognizes her. Making things worse is that she has begun sleepwalking again. Days later she hears a sound and goes outside and stumbles over a body, not any body - but the body someone she knew when she was a child.
  
  I really enjoyed this one and the build to the conclusion. I had so many questions and not many answers for most of the book. I loved that I could not figure this book out. I had many suspects in mind but could not pin the murder on anyone. I also could relate to her not having any memory from the traumatic event which occurred from her childhood. The brain is a wondrous thing and it will block traumatic trauma through a process called dissociation. It is the brains way of protecting itself (you). I found this to be a nice touch in the book. I also had fun attempting to determine if Liv was a reliable character.
  
  I found the pacing to be spot on and nothing felt rushed in this book. I appreciated how the author built the suspense and there is a feeling of tension through the last half of the book. This book can be put in the I-didn't-see-that-coming category for me. I loved how she tied things up and shocked me in the process.
  
  Captivating, chilling, and shocking!
  
• 
  Liz

  I’ve really enjoyed Megan Miranda’s last three books, so I was happy to get an advance copy of this book. And she’s done it again - another five star book. It’s an interesting premise for a book. While sleepwalking, a six year old girl is swept away by a flood and is found alive three days later, clinging to a storm drain. As a young woman, she changed her name to escape the media attention. She’s even estranged from her mother, who capitalized on her daughter's experience. “The case made all of us, and then it unmade us.”
  It’s now twenty years later and as the anniversary of her miraculous survival approaches, she learns of her mother’s death. Oh, and she begins sleepwalking again.
  The book starts off very slowly for a mystery. We’re given alternating chapters of the present day with interviews and broadcasts from the time of the flood. The book is almost a third gone before a dead body shows up in her woods. It’s not a fast paced book. But there’s a nice edgy tone, that feeling that we, like Olivia, are off balance. Right up until the very end of the book, I couldn’t figure out what the resolution would be.
  My thanks to netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an advance copy of this book.
• 
  Bridgett

  'I'm the girl who survived.'
  
  Although this is Arden/Olivia's line, it should have been mine. This was not a terribly interesting story. Dare I say, I was a bit bored through ninety percent of the book.
  
  Mildly atmospheric, yes, but even that felt diluted to me...just like the characters and the mystery itself. I was underwhelmed. Oh, and I figured nearly everything out before the halfway mark of the book. Meh.
  
  May I also mention, as an RN who has worked at multiple hospitals around the country, I've never seen or heard of one like the hospital described in this story. A medicine room on the administrative wing? Patient rooms in the administrative wing? A nurse's lounge on the administrative wing? Boy, ummm...that's all very convenient to the nurses. Or not.
  
  "Nurse, get me epinephrine, stat!"
  
  "Sure thing, just let me run up three flights of stairs, type in codes on every door I come to, and run back down the stairs to get that for you, doctor."
  
  (These are not actual lines from the book, just me making a point.)
  
  2.5 average stars
  Pick up your own copy on June 23rd!
  
  **Many thanks to the publisher for my review copy.**
• 
  Joey R.

  3.5 stars — “The Girl From Widow Hills” is the latest book by one of my favorite authors: Megan Miranda. It tells the story of Arden ( now known as Olivia) who 20 years ago became famous when she disappeared for three days and was miraculously rescued during a storm when a man saw her in the storm drain and rescued her. Now, 20 years later she becomes embroiled in controversy again when she discovers a dead body outside of her home while waking up from a sleep walking event. Far fetched? Why, yes ... yes it is. But, Miranda’s writing is so good it almost makes you forget this as you become entranced in the mystery and all of the suspicious characters that inhabit Olivia’s life. Although never boring with many interesting plot twists, the book made me feel like I had wasted all of my time reading and analyzing by pulling the old “out of left field” plot twist that was as stupid as it was unsatisfying. Olivia seems to be clueless about everything that happens to her and everyone surrounding her — misreading multiple situations and people. Throw in some convenient 3 day amnesia window and sleepwalking during a murder and 3 stars might seem high. But, with that being said, I enjoyed the book and the writing was spot on. So you are stuck with a review that is just about as crazy as this unusual book.
• 
  Chelsea Humphrey

  *Many thanks to the publisher for providing my review copy.
• 
  ScrappyMags

  I’m officially a MM Fangirl ❤️. This was the perfect beach-read whiling-away-the-hours (that flew by), 1st summer book of the season.
  
  Shortest Summary Ever: Arden Maynor was a little sleep-walking girl swept away in a flood. After 3 days she was rescued. Now she is 26 yr old Olivia Meyer - renamed and reinvented, moved away from the notoriety and small town fame that’s followed her her whole life. The problem is her former life seems to be following her. And then there’s the dead body and a connection to her mysterious past...
  
  My thoughts: It’s coronavirus quarantine time and this book was like a much-needed trip for my mind where I happily escaped. The pacing is quick, the story well-formed, and the suspense taut. As a mystery connoisseur, I enjoyed the twists👏🏼 and relished the turns 👍🏼. I was sitting outside as twilight faded into night at about 90% and I couldn’t put it down. Then I heard a noise and jumped. Lol... so yes it was THAT good. All the heebies and a few jeebies.
  
  This is my 3rd Miranda book and she is officially the queen of the “Middle Mystery” - contemporary, not too gruesome, but not cozy - just right when you’re in the mood for a departure from corona boredom but not wanting to be so scared you hide under the bed (don’t judge). What I respect is that the author’s topics in each novel are varied, crafted into situations that make me pause and think. This one drew me back to the “baby Jessica” (in the well?) from the 80’s. I wondered if that’s how life was for her... hmmm... so to start there and come up with a constructed mystery? You get all the claps from me.
  
  All my reviews available at scrappymags.com
  
  Genre: Mystery/thriller
  
  Recommend to: perfect beach read, a medium mystery - not too gritty.
  
  Not recommended to: you have to put up with a little redundancy in the flashback/memories of the flood, but it’s worth it.
  
  Thank you to the author, Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for the ARC and my always-honest reviews. Thanks for keeping me on my porch and the 5 mosquito bites because I could NOT out this down. 😂
• 
  Norma

  Twisty, mysterious, and intriguing!
  
  THE GIRL FROM WIDOW HILLS by MEGAN MIRANDA is available now at your favourite bookstore!
  
  Norma’s Stats:
  Cover: An eye-catching, intriguing, relevant and beautiful cover with an embossed water drop design that is an excellent representation to storyline. I loved carrying this one around and holding it!
  Title: The title immediately intrigued me and is a fitting representation to the storyline. I definitely needed to know all about and what the significance of the story was behind who the girl from Widow Hills was.
  Writing/Prose: Well-written, readable, suspenseful, creative, easy to follow, and engaging.
  Plot: Interesting, engrossing, edgy, dark, unique, twisty, atmospheric, steadily-paced, and entertaining. I thought this book had quite the interesting premise!
  Ending: A satisfying, twisty, pleasing, and surprising resolution that wrapped up really well for me.
  Armchair detective skills: Non-existent! I was totally taken by surprise and didn’t guess the end resolution at all.
  Overall: This one moved along slowly but the premise definitely had me intrigued and kept me interested and riveted right to the very end to make it quite the page-turner. Would recommend it!
  
  What I loved: Alternating chapters of the mystery from the present day with interview excerpts, news transcripts, and letters from the time when Arden was swept away by the rainstorm.
  
  The characters were interesting and I didn’t know if our main character here was a reliable narrator or not. I absolutely love an unreliable narrator.
  
  What I didn’t love: It was a little bit slow-moving in the beginning and took a little while for me to get into it.
  
  Some of the secondary characters weren’t all that fleshed out and was left with some unanswered questions and plot holes regarding the significance of them to the storyline.
  
  Thank you so much to Simon & Schuster Canada for providing me with this beautiful physical copy.
  
• 
  Ceecee

  Twenty years ago six year old Arden Maynor from Widow Hills, Kentucky was swept away during a bad storm, her mother Laurel believed she had been sleepwalking. Three days later, she was found underground and clinging to a drain cover by Sean Coleman. She was injured but alive. The media go wild and her mother spoke freely to them over the years which was quite lucrative. Fast forward twenty years and Arden has changed her name to Olivia Meyer, she’s working as a hospital administrator in Central Valley, N Carolina. This is her story which backtracks through various sources to the incident that made her and her mother famous and in the present day where a series of terrible events occur which places Olivia and in danger but through this she learns her truth.
  
  I like the way Olivia’s story is told as it’s tense, creepy, mysterious, intriguing and terrifying at times. She is ultimately a survivor, she’s stronger and braver than she realises as she’s had to put up with judgements, assumptions, jealousy and threats. She has trouble at times separating fact from fiction, the real memories from the false, and her state of confusion and lack of trust is well conveyed. She has lived with subterfuge, secrecy and lies since she was a little girl and this would mess with anyone’s reality. The story is full of twists, revelations and events that cause her to shutdown and panic at times. The ending is one I genuinely didn’t see coming and kudos to Megan Miranda for that!
  
  However, there is some repetition especially in the telling of Arden’s story and the pace in the middle is a bit slow although the last quarter of the book makes up for that.
  
  Overall, it’s a well written book, with interesting characters and an intriguing storyline which I enjoyed.
  
  Many thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic Books for the ARC.
• 
  Sheyla ✎

  
  
  
  Olivia (Arden Maynor) suffered a traumatic event when she was only six years of age. She was trapped during a rainstorm for three days before she was found and rescued.
  
  Since those days, everyone has wanted a piece of Liv's story through her childhood, teenage years and young adulthood. To start over, after college, she changed her name. She moved and currently she works in the administration office of a hospital.
  
  Her childhood marked her. She doesn't like closed-in spaces. She remains leery of giving any details from her past to anyone, including her friend Bennett and lately, her new friend Elyse. Liv broke up her relationship with Jonah, her ex, who was a professor at the school but she never told him about her past. Every year during the anniversary of her rescue, she feels her body tensing and waiting for something to happen. For someone from her past to find her. For her life to become one more nightmare.
  
  Liv's disappearance as a child was thought to be due to her sleepwalking. Then, it starts happening again. One night, Liv wakes up outside her new house without recollection of how she got there. She's terrified her sleepwalking is back. She's so scared when her neighbor, an older man, finds her. Rick used to be the owner of the house she's currently occupying. The next night she sleepwalks is not her neighbor who wakes her up, but it's her tripping over a dead body outside her property line.
  
  Who is the man dead outside her property? Who killed him? Did she do it? Did her neighbor do it? Or is someone else out there lurking and trying to harm her?
  
  The Girl from Widow Hills is the third book I read by Megan Miranda. I have liked her other two and I find myself enjoying this one too. The narrative starts slow but the pace changes by the last third of the book. I was invested in learning about both mysteries. What really happened to the six-year-old Arden and who was trying to hurt her now. I do wish the ending was more detailed and I felt that an epilogue was missing. Anyway, I still enjoyed the hours of distraction Megan Miranda gave me.
  
  Cliffhanger: No
  
  4/5 Fangs
  
  A complimentary copy was provided by Simon and Schuster via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
  
  
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• 
  Carole

  The Girl from Widow Hills by Megan Miranda is a thriller that will stay with you, long after the end of the book. It is a story that will have you guessing and confused from the first page. Arden Maynor, a six-year-old, disappears from her home on a stormy night. It is believed that, while sleepwalking outdoors, she was swept away by a violent rainstorm. All of Widow Hills begin the search for the child, fearing the worst. After three harrowing days, Arden is found in a storm drain and saved. The child’s life is never the same as word of her ordeal spreads. When she is older, she changes her name to Olivia and fades from the limelight to live her life in anonymity for a change. She finished college, moved to another state and got a job at a local hospital. All is well for a while till she finds out that her estranged mother has passed away and the sleepwalking returns. One night, she stumbles onto a dead body in her yard and the police begin an investigation that threatens to bring back the troubles of her past life. Olivia is no longer able to tell the friends from the foes and the police may be digging up what should be left untouched. This is a rollercoaster ride and the end of the book will shock. Highly recommended. Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  Lori Lamothe

  4.5 stars.
  
  Okay, first things first. One of the stranger things about reading this novel was that I started out having an oddly similar experience to the main character, which is not to say I sleepwalk or that I got swept into a drainage system during a freak storm. But every time Olivia walks into a room she gets a rush of deja vu – as if people she knows she's just met are somehow familiar from another time and place. And during the early chapters of The Girl from Widow Hills I kept getting that same rush.
  
  I knew this story. Only I didn't. A 6-year-old sleepwalking child surviving underground in a small town for three days, subsequently to be rescued by one guy as the entire country looked on?
  
  No way. Except...
  
  It finally reached the point where I stopped reading, hopped onto Google and started typing in random phrases. For some reason, my subconscious mind forced me to type the word “well” into the search bar. And there it was – the story of Jessica McClure, the 18-month-old girl who fell into a well and almost died. For three days CNN broadcast the rescue efforts live, including reports of her singing snippets of “Winnie the Pooh” from the bottom of the well. Even President Reagan chimed in and the photo of the guy that rescued her won a Pulitzer Prize. I'm sure you can fill in the rest – a visit to the White House, a made-for-tv movie, the talk show circuit, tons of articles, a book. (If you haven't read the book, I recommend not googling until after you finish – there are a couple of bizarre similarities – spoilers).
  
  Once I had that out of the way, I could get back to the novel. Because though there are flashbacks and transcripts from two decades earlier interspersed between chapters, the story primarily takes place in 2020. Olivia – formerly the famous Arden Maynor – has done everything she can to put her past behind her. She's changed her name, cut off relations with her mother and hidden her life story from even her closest friends. Over the years, Liv's dealt with reporters, stalkers, and – when she was still in school - jealous peers. With the 20-year-anniversary of her rescue coming up, she fears her story will resurface and destroy the new life she's made for herself. What she doesn't anticipate is that she'll start sleepwalking again. Or that she'll wake up outside with a dead body at her feet and her hands covered in blood. A dead body that happens to belong to the man who rescued her.
  
  Has she just murdered the guy who saved her life? If not, who has? And why did he travel hundreds of miles to visit her home in the middle of the night? Thus begins what turns out to be a thrilling, well-plotted page turner. There are plenty of people Olivia suspects, including herself, and we don't find out the truth until the final twist. I'm a big fan of unreliable narrators so I loved Liv's uncertainty about her actions in both the past and present. I also really enjoyed piecing together events via bits and pieces of transcripts, old articles, book excerpts and interviews. Finally, I liked Miranda's writing style more than I expected I would. I always highlight favorite sentences as I read but I found myself doing that more than usual while reading this novel. My only critique is that I felt some of the secondary characters could have been a bit more developed (and there was one key twist I did guess early on).
  
  If you're a Megan Miranda fan, you'll probably like this one and if you're not, The Girl from Widow Hills is a good place to start. Much thanks to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  Melissa (Way Behind Again!)

  3.5 stars, rounded up
  I liked the suspense of this novel. I wasn't totally sure what was even going on and how Olivia's past fit into the narrative, but just enough is revealed that made me keep reading to find out.
  I started this book as an audio book, but I got so invested in the story that I switched over to the print version in order to finish more quickly (my audio book time is limited, especially on weekends). The narrator is great and gives a great voice to Olivia.
  The only slight quibble I had about the book is that I didn't feel like the secondary characters were very well developed, so I didn't care about what happened to them for the most part.
  I did figure out some of what was going on with her, but I didn't put it all together until it was revealed in the story (the why, the how) and it was quite satisfying. As with the previous books I have read by this author, I was both surprised and appreciative of the author's creativity with the plot. I will definitely continue to read her books in the future.
  
  I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.
• 
  Chelsea (chelseadolling reads)

  DNF about 2 hours into the audiobook: I wasn't hating this, but it wasn't really grabbing my attention and I didn't want to keep my hold of the audiobook from my library for too long because I had a long list of people waiting behind me. Will possibly return to this someday!
• 
  Linda

  When your old way of being is being compromised......reinvent yourself.
  
  Olivia Meyer shed the skin of her past and donned a new one. Memories of her childhood were scratching from the inside and causing unspeakable emotional pain. She's no longer the six year old Arden Maynor from Widow Hills, Kentucky. That little girl was swept away in a drainage pipe during a terrible storm. She was missing for three days until she was found clinging to a grate for dear life.
  
  The story of Arden made the news far and wide twenty years ago. Both mother and daughter were hounded by the media for details of her terrifying experience. Arden had no memory of what had happened and how she was able to survive. Nothing meshed within her mind. Consequently, Arden and her mother moved to Ohio to avoid the constant stress. Upon entering the university in North Carolina, Arden changed her name legally to Olivia Meyer.
  
  After graduate school, Olivia signed on as a hospital administrator in Central Valley. This was quite a position for one so young at twenty-six. Olivia bought a small house in the country next door to seventy year old Rick who keeps an eye out for her. Because of her previous life, Olivia has a tendency to sleep walk from the trauma. Rick doesn't know the details, but he does hover over her.
  
  As the story opens, we find Olivia being woke by the sound of her cell phone. At least, that's what she thinks. But somehow she finds herself out on her front lawn in the dark of night. Confused and so out of place, Olivia trips over something large sprawled out in front of her. As she looks down, Olivia realizes it's the body of a man covered in blood. She runs next door to Rick who verifies her worst nightmare. They call the police, but not before Rick picks up a weapon on the ground. He's not sure if Olivia did something very, very bad.
  
  I've enjoyed quite a few novels by Megan Miranda. The girl can write like nobody's business. I did set The Girl from Widow Hills as a 3.5 kicked up to 4 stars. There are a lot of pigeon holes in this one with an abundance of characters who may or may not be crucial to the plot. It's this sorting through possibilities that heightens the unknown, but it also sets in a bit of reader fatigue. Miranda does drop sizeable breadcrumbs along the way leading to a twisty ending. Perhaps Reese Witherspoon may take it from her bookclub to the big screen. Now there's a tasty thought.....
  
  I received a copy of this novel through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Simon & Schuster and to Megan Miranda for the opportunity.
• 
  Erin Clemence

  Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
  
  Expected publication date: June 23, 2020
  
  When Arden Maynor was six years old, she disappeared in the middle of the night and ended up in a storm drain, after being swept away by a torrential storm. Now, twenty years later, Arden is in a new town, with a new name, trying to start over. When she stumbles across the dead body of a man on her property, she soon becomes the centre of attention all over again when it is discovered that the dead body was that of the man who found her alive twenty years ago. Arden, now Olivia, is wracked with the unanswered questions of her disappearance. Why can’t she remember anything? Was she really sleepwalking like her mother claimed? Has her sleepwalking returned- and is it responsible for the mysterious death of the man on her property?
  
  “The Girl from Widow Hills” is Megan Miranda’s twelfth novel. This was surprising to me, as I have only recently become aware of Miranda, having read only two of her previous novels, “
  All the Missing Girls” and “
  The Last House Guest”. This one was definitely on par with what I have come to know as Miranda’s suspenseful, creative style of writing.
  
  The plot line in itself is unique. A six year old child disappears after sleepwalking, only to be found by a stranger days later? Then it continues even farther with the continued sleepwalking episodes, complete memory lapses of those days she was gone, and the murder of someone familiar to the case. This novel is one that starts hot, and doesn’t quit.
  
  There are many twists and turns in this novel and the ending is the biggest one. I can honestly say I didn’t see it coming. Each and every character is suspicious and there are times when I even began to suspect Olivia/Arden herself. Miranda wraps up the story in a satisfying way, bringing all the loose ends together.
  
  This was definitely a great read, full of mystery and intrigue. Definitely one of my top Miranda reads!
  
• 
  Jonetta

  Olivia (Liv) Meyer is a hospital administrator working in Central Valley, North Carolina, living a quiet and peaceful life. However, she’d once been Arden Olivia Maynor, famous for being the girl from Widow Hills who for three days was lost in drainage system after a storm when she was six-years old. She’d changed her name following the ten-year anniversary of the event because of the resurrected notoriety. Now as the twentieth year milestone approaches, things are starting to happen that threaten to expose her true identity and destroy the peaceful existence she’s managed to find.
  
  I highly recommend you hang in there with this story. The beginning didn’t immediately grab me and there were times I questioned what the point of it all was and where it was going. But then everything shifted. Something happened that thrust Liv’s past into the present and I realized that all that came earlier had subtly laid a pretty firm foundation for what was coming next. Arden’s story was slowly revealed through news transcripts, which had me reshaping what I believed to be the facts of that terrible event. The people in Liv’s life, past and present, became potential suspects in something I also felt hard to define.
  
  I opted for the audio version and the narrator effectively portrayed Liv’s insecurity and sense of unease throughout the story. Even though there were other important characters, the primary distinction was Liv Meyer and she did a great job of capturing her essence.
  
  This was a creepy story, partly because I wasn’t always sure of Liv being a reliable narrator. The setting also adds to that unease as she lives on a property that’s in a remote part of the town. I thought I knew who the true suspect was but the story took a fantastic turn I never ever imagined. This ended up being a compelling story that also shed insight into the uglier side of fame for victims who survive traumatic events and become the nationwide focus of a town’s rescue. We walk away thinking life going forward has to be precious for that survivor but I’d never thought of the downside. The author provided a perspective I found enlightening and informative while giving us a great mystery with a ton of red herrings.
  
  Posted on
  Blue Mood Café
  
  (Thanks to Simon & Schuster Audio for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.)
• 
  Carrie

  The Girl from Widow Hills is another psychological thriller by author Megan Miranda with whom I’ve had some up and down reactions to before in the past. Having really enjoyed a few of hers though I just knew I had to check out this latest.
  
  Arden Maynor is that girl from Widow Hills, the girl that as a child of only six years old she turned up missing from her home one night leading to a huge search. Arden had a habit of sleepwalking and one night she walked right out into a huge storm and couldn’t be found for several days but thankfully she survived.
  
  As amazing as it was for Arden to live through such an ordeal the attention it brought to her family was too much for a child to grow up with. Arden changed her name to Olivia and was happily enjoying her anonymity until one night she begins to sleep walk again and stumbles right into a corpse.
  
  I have to admit The Girl from Widow Hills was somewhat of a slow starter for me and I wasn’t too sure about it in the beginning. Thankfully though those twists and turns I love began to pull me more into story and get interested in Arden/Olivia’s predicament becoming curious as to who could be at fault. Once fully engaged the story seemed to fly by to a conclusion I didn’t see coming.
  
  I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
  
  For more reviews please visit
  https://carriesbookreviews.com/
• 
  Michelle

  “We are asking for the public’s assistance in locating 6 year old Arden Maynor who has been missing since either late last night or early this morning: Brown Hair, Brown Eyes, 3’6” and approximately 38 lbs... She was last seen in her bedroom wearing blue pajamas...” - October 17, 2000 Captain Morgan Howard Widow Hills Police Department.
  
  It was three full days before she was rescued and then suddenly, out of pure luck while walking down the street to his parked vehicle, Sean Coleman saw her hand poking out of a gutter. He grabbed her all the while yelling for help and just kept reassuring Arden “I’ve got you, I’ve got you.”
  
  “Across the miles, under the earth, while I waited to be found...”
  
  Years later, after being kidnapped her name is now Olivia and no one from her past is supposed to know her location. But then her knight in shining armor appears in her front yard—DEAD.
  
  Who would do something like this? Is this payback for a past occurrence ? What is it that she’s desperately trying to remember but can’t quite get a grasp on? it’s like the answer is on the tip of her tongue.
  
  Will she recall the events of that horrible day she was taken before it’s too late? Why does her landlord keep invading her personal space and what really happened to her drug-addicted mother?
  
  “Victim. Endurance. Triumph.”
  
  Oh man ...this is such a bummer for me to have to write this review so I kept it short...Megan Miranda is one of my favorite authors. She is an auto-buy author for me! “The Last House Guest” and “All The Missing Girls” are two of my favorite thrillers!
  
  This book was such a HUGE miss for me in more ways then one. The pacing was SOOOOOO slow and not one of the characters was like-able nor was the reader given a chance to really get to know any of them. The answers and ending were a bummer.
  
  2 sad ⭐️
• 
  Julie (JuJu)

  The characters and setting constructed an exciting and mysterious thriller, with a shocking ending!
  
  Arden is exploited by her mother, for financial gain, after a traumatic childhood incident. Megan Miranda wrote an entertaining story, full of surprises with an unexpected ending!
  
  The sleepwalking aspect hit close to home. I was a SW as a young child, as was my son. I remember waking in the middle of the night, to the sound of my 6-year-old roaming around. When I went to check it out, he was almost to the backdoor. It was scary to think of what could have happened if he’d actually made it outside. Little did I know it would get worse in his teen years, when he intentionally climbed out windows! 


  
  Thank you to Edelweiss, Simon & Schuster and Megan Miranda for this digital ARC, in exchange for my honest opinion!

  
  My Rating: 4 ⭐️’s
  Published: June 23rd 2020 by Simon & Schuster
  Pages: 336
  Recommend: Yes
  
  Reviews will be posted to Amazon & BN.com upon publication.
  
  @MeganLMiranda @SimonSchusterCA @SimonBooks @weiss_squad
  
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  #mustread
  
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• 
  Tina

  I have to be honest in saying that this book was not much of a thriller for me. I guess the premise was eye-catching but the story was very slow and unbelievable.
  
  There are plenty of higher ratings for this book but I guess it was just not for me. I pushed myself to finish it in hopes that the ending would redeem itself. It really did not.
  
  I'd like to thank NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for granting me access to this Advance Reader's Copy.
• 
  Tammie

  The Girl from Widow Hills, a mystery/thriller, was a solid 4 star read. The book centers around Arden Maynor, who as a child was swept away during a storm (due to sleepwalking) and was found days later against all odds. The incident and her mother’s new book on the subject, thrusted Arden into an unwanted spotlight-so much so that Arden changed her name to Olivia and avoided all public attention. Years later, Olivia is living a normal life when she begins to feel like she’s being watched-with the 20th anniversary of the incident looming, she feels like this is no coincidence.
  This is the 9th book that I’ve read by Megan Miranda so I knew The Girl from Widow Hills wouldn’t disappoint. Recommend to readers that are fans of mystery/thriller books and want to read an interesting and well-written book. And that ending! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review.