The Book:
The Girl From Widow Hills by Megan Miranda, 2018
The Characters:
Arden Maynor, aka Olivia
The Plot (from the publisher):
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, someone found her, 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, as she did long ago, even walking 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 dead man was Sean Coleman, the man that found Olivia/Arden in the storm drain as a child. As the police investigate, his son Nathan comes into town and befriends Olivia. One night they go back to his hotel room, and she stumbles across pages and pages of information on her case as a child. He had pretended not to know anything about her when they met.
The Twist:
Nathan killed his father. He was obsessed with Olivia and was stalking her. His father had come to town to warn Olivia about Nathan, so Nathan killed him. Nathan then tried to frame Olivia for the murder.
Olivia’s mother was not dead. She had followed Olivia to her new town and got a job as a nurse at Olivia’s hospital. Olivia discovered that her mother faked the missing girl story from her childhood. She had locked Olivia in the basement, pretended she was missing, and then placed her in the storm drain a few days later to be drowned. Her mother spent all the support money from the case on drugs.
Since following Olivia to her new town, she had been sneaking into her house to add drugs to her wine. This is why Olivia was sleepwalking again the night she found Sean’s body.
Olivia’s mom found out that Olivia’s friend Elyse was a drug addict and used that to get her to do her bidding. It is unclear whether she dosed her or just threatened to expose her secret. It is also unclear if Olivia’s mom killed her or if she just caused Elyse to relapse and overdose.
Olivia is home alone one night when her mother sneaks into her house, supposedly to kill her. They confront each other, and then Olivia kills her mother by pushing her out the window. She claims self-defense.
The Ending:
The 911 transcript in the last chapter implies Olivia knew the intruder was her mom and killed her anyway. It adds a nice creepy aspect to the book, like Olivia knew what her mother had done all along and was waiting to exact her revenge.
The Review:
I’ve never met a Megan Miranda book I didn’t like. The Girl From Widow Hills is fast-paced and entertaining, and the ending is not predictable. It gave me the perfect October chills–nothing creepier than a too-big empty house!
I really enjoyed Olivia’s character. She wasn’t the helpless female protagonist that we see all too often in thrillers; she was smart, resourceful, and resilient.
I definitely recommend this one for your spooky October TBR!
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