The Girl From Widow Hills

The Girl From Widow Hills by Megan Miranda

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 form Widow Hills is about to become the centre of the story, once again …

I heard this book described as a good “beach read”, so when my hubby planned a bird watching date for us, I thought this would be the perfect book to take along. Even though I couldn’t give it a higher rating, I still think it was a good choice and I would recommend it.

So, what brought my rating down, you ask? Well … I think part of it was the mystery itself. The story consisted of two overlapping mysteries: the past mystery of what happened to Olivia when she went missing as a child. And the new murder mystery that is unfolding in the present day. I was very interested in the present day mystery. I liked that Olivia herself was a suspect in the present-day murder case, and I enjoyed the fact that she herself did not know whether she was guilty or not. I really liked exploring the sleep walking aspect of the story, and I also found it interesting to learn more about the healthcare industry, because Olivia worked in a hospital setting.

Unfortunately, the current day murder mystery was linked to the childhood mystery, and that part of the story I didn’t enjoy as much. The more I found out about the childhood mystery, the less interested I became in it. Also, this book made use of mixed media inserts at the end of each chapter. It seemed like a cool idea at first, but the mixed media inserts – which mostly consisted of articles, interviews, and one or two phone call transcripts – didn’t really add much to the story for me, and they became a bit boring after a while.

And most of all, I didn’t like the way the story wrapped things up. I had many questions while I was reading, and although the story answered all my questions, I felt the answers I got were a bit rushed. And ultimately, I guess I  was hoping the ending would pack more of a punch than it did.

However, despite all this, I would still recommend this book. I liked Megan Miranda’s writing style, the story felt unique, and it definitely wasn’t predictable. It kept me guessing right up until the end about who the killer was. I liked the main character; she was smart and proactive in moving the plot forward. She asked the right questions and was very self-aware. I liked her inner dialogue and observations about herself and her relationships with others. Plus, it’s hard to find a psychological thriller that doesn’t contain sex scenes, so that also made it score bonus points with me.

Although I didn’t feel attached to all the side characters, there was one that stood out for me. He was one of Olivia’s colleagues who worked with her at the hospital, named Bennett. Even though I felt like Olivia and Bennett’s relationship arc wasn’t wrapped up in a satisfactory way, their scenes together were still one of the main highlights of this book for me.

Overall, I would say I found this story to be an enjoyable and quick read. I’m happy I finally read a Megan Miranda book, and would like to try out more in the future.