The Girl from Widow Hills by Megan Miranda

A suspense novel about a young woman plagued by night terrors after a childhood trauma who wakes one evening to find a corpse at her feet.

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 held 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 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.

And now, the girl from Widow Hills is about to become the center of the story, once again. 

The Girl from Widow Hills by Megan Miranda
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

TITLE: The Girl from Widow Hills
AUTHOR: Megan Miranda
PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster
PUBLISH DATE: June 23, 2020
PAGES: 336
ISBN: 1501165429

MY REVIEW

As a fellow sleep-walker, I was immediately interested after reading the summary of The Girl from Widow Hills. Sleep-walking is no joke! Megan Miranda is one of my favorite authors and I’ve read everything she’s written with great delight and The Girl from Widow Hills was no exception.

Six-year-old Arden narrowly escaped death when she left the house one night in a sleep-walkers daze and was swept away into a drainage system during heavy rains. Her survival is hailed as a miracle but along with the well-wishers comes the weirdo’s and the stalkers. Because of this, Arden changes her name, cut’s ties with her drug addicted mother and becomes a successful hospital administrator in a rural area. Just when Arden, now Olivia, becomes comfortable in her new life, she begins sleep-walking again. One night, with blood on her hands and a dead man at her feet, she wonders if her sleeping self is capable of murder. And so begins this delicious and complex thriller that kept a nail-biting pace throughout, page after page!

Ms. Miranda has set the stage beautifully, the creepy ‘I feel like someone’s watching me’ vibe that permeated Olivia’s life with just the right amount of ‘who can I trust’ characters basically kept me second guessing all the characters in the book, even those I really liked from the start. There is an overwhelming dark and eerie atmosphere that I was really digging and the twists were perfect and well-timed. This is a must read for any fan of Ms. Miranda’s or any fan of thrillers, suspense, or mystery.

My most sincere thanks to Simon and Schuster and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of The Girl from Widow Hills in exchange for my review.

View all my reviews

FRACTURE by MEGAN MIRANDA

Title:  Fracture
Author:  Megan Miranda
Pub/Pub. Date:  Walker & Co./January 17, 2012
Pages: Print-272
Genre: YA PNR

Find out more about the author:  http://www.meganmiranda.com/books/

Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine
-despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she's far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can't control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?
Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she's reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy's motives aren't quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?

THE FAERYS VIEW

Fracture by Megan Miranda is a captivating story that touches on a near death experience with a teen that leaves her with an unusual ability. Fracture is full of surprises and Ms. Miranda's unique narrative tells this story with great aplomp.


When best buds and next door neighbors Delaney and Decker are out with some friends having some fun on an iced over lake, Delaney falls in and as you’ve read in the synopsis she’s under for 11 minutes which is far to long not to have severe brain damage let alone death. What Decker does by Delaney’s bedside is to ‘bargain’ with God. His guilt over Delaney falling through the ice is immense because he didn’t get to her for 11 minutes though it isn’t his fault, friends held him back until a rope is found so that they don’t lose two friends to the frigid waters. Delaney is in a coma for 6 days and when she wakes up she is considered a miracle by all. Despite the scans that showed extensive brain damage, there is none; but Delaney didn’t come out of the accident completely unscathed and as Delaney will soon find out, she is carrying a terrifying new ability. She is drawn to those who are about to die.


When it comes to the characters, I had a hard time relating to Delaney; in the beginning she doesn’t always come off as a very caring or compassionate main character, in fact, there are times when she is downright rude to her friends especially the ones that come to visit her and Decker has to remind her to ‘be nice’. That sort of set the tone for me early on but as the book went on, I ‘warmed’ up to her and learned to accept that she is pretty witty and has a snarky sense of humor. The other characters are realistic and likeable, especially Decker.


Delaney struggles to regain her former life but her mother is making that difficult and dealing with her new ability or curse isn’t easy. When newcomer Troy appears who also suffered a near death experience and has the same ability as Delaney a sort of love triangle starts but what are Troy’s real intentions? There are plot twists that surprised me, thrilling adventures and suspense along with a realization that all is not always what it seems to be.


Fracture really gave me a lot to think about especially in the areas of Spiritual vs. Science vs. Something Darker. What would I do if I absolutely knew I had only one day to live? I also realized that 11 minutes can often seem like an eternity or it can go by in a snap-it all depends on the circumstances.


THE FAERY SAYS THIS BOOK IS A WORTHY READ BY A PROMISING NEW AUTHOR!

Thank you to ATWT and the publisher for allowing me to view the unfinished ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.