The Lost Girls by Heather Young
In 1935, six-year-old Emily Evans vanishes from her family’s vacation home on a remote Minnesota lake. Her disappearance destroys the family – her father commits suicide, and her mother and two older sisters spend the rest of their lives at the lake house, keeping a decades-long vigil for the lost child. Sixty years later, Lucy, the quiet and watchful middle sister, lives in the lake house alone. Before her death, she writes the story of that devastating summer in a notebook that she leaves, along with the house, to the only person who might care: her grandniece, Justine.
For Justine, the lake house offers freedom and stability – a way to escape her manipulative boyfriend and give her daughters the home she never had. But the long Minnesota winter is just beginning. The house is cold and dilapidated. The dark, silent lake is isolated and eerie. Her only neighbor is a strange old man who seems to know more about the summer of 1935 than he’s telling.
Soon Justine’s troubled oldest daughter becomes obsessed with Emily’s disappearance, her mother arrives to steal her inheritance, and the man she left launches a dangerous plan to get her back. In a house haunted by the sorrows of the women who came before her, Justine must overcome their tragic legacy if she hopes to save herself and her children.
About the author.
HEATHER YOUNG is the author of two novels. Her debut, The Lost Girls, won the Strand Award for Best First Novel and was nominated for an Edgar Award. The Distant Dead has also been nominated for the 2021 Edgar Award for Best Novel. A former antitrust and intellectual property litigator, she traded the legal world for the literary one and earned her MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars in 2011. She lives in Mill Valley, California, where she writes, bikes, hikes, and reads books by other people that she wishes she’d written.
heatheryoungwriter.com @HYoungwriter
Review.
‘The Lost Girls’ was an intriguing multi-layered thriller that packed on the intensity and mystery! I devoured this book in two sittings as it was that gripping. I was fully committed to finding out what happened to Emily the missing girl. For some reason, I find books that are set on summer lake resorts to be intensely chilling. No idea why but I love them and this book didn't disappoint.
I found the dual-time line worked well as I was interested in both sides with equal measure. I wanted to know what happened to Emily but I also was intrigued by how Lucy’s life turned out. The difference in seasons between the two narratives worked well as I had never contemplated what happened when summer people leave at the end of the season. The story of the two brothers also haunted me. I felt so sorry for them.
This was a great book which I don't hesitate to recommend! Let me know if you read it!
