Kara's Book Cravings: The Girl From Widow Hills

 

Time for a book confession: I absolutely love reading (and writing) YA, and I tend to choose YA over adult books. But there are just some authors who write in both age categories, and I prefer their adult books over their YA books. Megan Miranda is this author for me. 

I prefer her adult books over her teen books. Why? Because of her writing style. Don't get me wrong -- I love her voice and overall style, but personally, I find her unique style to be better suited to adult books. She tends to write very densely, with quite a bit of exposition and character reflection. For me, that works in adult but not so much in YA. 

So, what led me to this realization and ultimate confession? This book did:

The Girl from Widow Hills by Megan Miranda is an adult mystery / thriller, and it is phenomenal! From the very first page, I was hooked, and I had a hard time putting this book down to go do all that adult stuff I have to do on a daily basis. 

This is a story about a woman who, when she was just a child, was swept away during a major storm and stuck in the town's drainage system for three days. Her ordeal became a national story, and her mother cashed in on that by writing a book about everything. On the anniversary of her rescue, the press comes out in droves to check in on "the girl from Widow Hills," when all she wants is to be left alone. Naturally, there's a lot more to this tale that meets the eye. 

The twists and turns combined with the intentional misdirection is just... wow! As a reader, I was impressed with how the story unfolded, and I know this one will stick with me, but as an author -- I strive to write as well as Megan Miranda, to be able to weave a tale that leads readers down one path and then shoves them in a completely different direction. 

Has anyone else read this book? What did you think? What other books have you read that left your jaw on the floor? Share in the comments!

Kara's Book Cravings: Fragments of the Lost

 

Now that I've dug myself out of a reading rut, I'm dipping my toe back into my first love--teen fiction. Mainly thrillers. These are like crack to me. Seriously, I have sooo many of these types of books on my shelf, and I'm constantly buying more. But I digress...

A few years ago, a friend of mine suggested I read All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda, which is an adult mystery / thriller. He raved about the unique story telling. (The author tells the story in reverse, which is just... *chef's kiss*) Anyway, I loved the book and have read it twice now. So when I was perusing a bookstore, I found that this author has written some YA books, too. Imagine my excitement!

And so I bought this one: Fragments of the Lost by Megan Miranda.

Like All the Missing Girls, this book is told in a unique way, too, in that it's jumping a lot from present to past. Not tense, but actual events. The premise is that a girl is doing a favor for her ex-boyfriend's mom in cleaning out his room after he died in a tragic accident. So each time she finds something in his room, it triggers a memory about them as a couple. It's really done very well and not at all confusing. 

However, I had trouble getting into this book. In fact, I started it and then walked away for a month or so before finally coming back to it. I'm one of those readers who has a real hard time DNF-ing a book, especially one I paid full price for. I was determined to get through this, and I'm glad I did. 

The pacing does eventually pick up (and once it did, I had a hard time putting this down), but for me, it took a little too long to get to the mystery / thriller part, which was what ultimately made this book for me.  I do have another of this author's YA books on my shelf, and I do plan to read it. I hope it doesn't start as slowly as this one. 

Overall, while this one didn't blow my mind quite like All the Missing Girls, if you're a fan of unique story telling methods, then definitely grab one of her books.

Has anyone else read any of Megan Miranda's books? What do you think? Do you have one you recommend I read?