This was sickening. The writing was fine, but the plot was sickening and overwhelmingly anticlimactic. Would have DNF’ed if I didn’t think it’d give me nightmares if I didn’t know the ending.

Very disturbing. The beginning was a little hard to get into but wow.

Such an uncomfortable, disturbing read. Should definitely come with a trigger warning as it’s heavily themed with various abuse. But despite all this it was an absolute page turner for me! Only gave it four because of just how uncomfortable it made me feel at times!

When 15-year-old Lane Roanoke’s mother commits suicide, she is sent to stay with her maternal grandparents in Osage, Kansas. Lane has never met this family and her mother refused to talk about them aside from admitting she ran away from home at a young age. Upon arriving, Lane learns that her spit fire cousin Allegra lives there and is also being raised by the grandparents. The girls share an unforgettable summer and Allegra doesn’t shy away from filling Lane in on the history of the Roanoke Girls. When Lane finds out the haunting secret of the Roanoke family she unsuccessfully begs Allegra to run away with her.

15 years later, Lane’s grandfather summons her back to Roanoke when Allegra goes missing. Did she finally run like so many of the Roanoke girls before her? Or did something worse happen? Returning to Roanoke brings forth all those uneasy feelings Lane has been working hard trying to bury (in a bottle more often than not) but, she needs to find out what happened to Allegra.

Amy Engel brings us on a dark, twisted and disturbing ride that alternates between Lane’s summer at Roanoke and the present. We mostly experience the story through Lane’s point of view but there are short chapters from all the other Roanoke Girls as well. While the subject matter is difficult, and may be too disturbing for some, Amy Engel does a fantastic job at keeping it tasteful and weaving it into an intriguing and captivating story about family dysfunction.

This is a story that will stay with me for a long time, if you like reading about family dysfunction and dynamics then this one is definitely for you!

Thanks to Net Galley, Crown & Amy Engel for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Audio book. Well, this book was definitely different than what I was expecting. I saw a lot of tags for mystery and thriller, but I honestly don't feel like this book fits into either of those categories, at least not for me. I guess it's more of a general fiction or contemporary. That being said, it was great! I never lost interest and that takes quite a bit when I am listening while I work as I can tune an audio book out quite easily if I'm busy doing other things.

Lane returns to Osage Flats after leaving years ago when she was a teenager after spending only one summer there with her cousin, grandfather, and grandmother. He cousin, Allegra, has gone missing and now Lane is dead set on finding out what happened to her. Did Allegra simply run away like so many other Roanoke girls before her? Or has something happened to her.

The timeline goes back and forth between present time and that summer and we slowly (although it doesn't really take long to catch on before they outright say it) figure out the dark secrets her family hides, which are truly disturbing. It's deep, haunting, and sad.

I guess I can see the mystery part of the story, but I'm not shelving it as that.

This book dragged on and on with no real substance. The storyline could've been condensed and perhaps more facets of each character could be added in. It seemed as if the majority of characters were paper-cut moulds that fit certain bad-boy or bad-girl characteristics. Also, it seemed as if Lane's personality totally changed in the last chapter. All in all, I would file this under "beach reads".

Rating: 3.5/5

This was good but I feel like it was relatively predictable. Nothing was really much of a shock as it went along which was just disappointing and somewhat infuriating. A good plot, a really good story, but just. Lacking. Engel had a good idea going but it just didn't fully do it for me

I wanted a quick trashy thriller, and that's exactly want I got. Kind of a Sharp Objects knock off with more awful subject matter