The Lost Girls : A Novel

The Lost Girls
Author(s): Heather Young

A stunning debut novel that examines the price of loyalty, the burden of regret, the meaning of salvation, and the sacrifices we make for those we love

In the summer of 1935, six-year-old Emily Evans vanishes from her familys vacation home on a remote Minnesota lake. Her disappearance destroys her mother, who spends the rest of her life at the lake house, hoping in vain that her favorite daughter will walk out of the woods. Emilys two older sisters stay, too, each keeping her own private, decades-long vigil for the lost child.

Sixty years later, Lucy, the quiet and watchful middle sister, lives in the lake house alone. Before she dies, she writes the story of that devastating summer in a notebook that she leaves, along with the house, to the only person to whom it might matter: her grandniece, Justine.

For Justine, the lake house offers a chance to escape her manipulative boyfriend and give her daughters the stable home she never had. But its not the sanctuary she hoped for. The long Minnesota winter has begun. The house is cold and dilapidated, the frozen lake is silent and forbidding, and her only neighbor is a strange old man who seems to know more than hes telling about the summer of 1935.

Soon Justines troubled oldest daughter becomes obsessed with Emilys disappearance, Justines mother arrives with designs on her inheritance, and the man she left behind 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.

Review(s):
A novel of quiet intensity that builds to a terrifying climax. THE LOST GIRLS contains echoes of Kate Atkinsons Case Histories and is just as haunting.
This book has it all intrigue, complicated relationships, and a thrilling plotline and it will appeal to fans of long-spanning 90s stories like Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias (yes that came out in 89 but you totally had the VHS in the 90s).
A taut, intricately plotted novel.
Young does a masterful job contrasting Lucys long-ago summer, her last happy one, with Justines dawning knowledge of how the effects of a family tragedy echo down through the years.
Suspenseful and finely wrought, Youngs tale is not easily forgotten.
Beautifully written, THE LOST GIRLS will please suspense fans as well as those who love redemptive fiction. This is a big, bold, heart-wrenching book reminiscent of novels by Jodi Picoult, and is an excellent debut.
Heather Young has crafted a gorgeous book that moves artfully back and forth through time, weaving a suspenseful tale steeped in generations of family secrets. Places hold memories, The Lost Girls reminds us so beautifully; places shape us, bind us, haunt us, but sometimes, they can redeem us, too.
Heather Young is a master weaver of plot, time, and character. Her prose is confident, her story ambitious. The result — THE LOST GIRLS — is a haunting and dynamic debut that never falters.
Heather Youngs clear, unsentimental writing is bracingly observant, psychologically astute, and suspenseful. Her characters include people who cannot love, people who destroy what they love-and people who slowly, agonizingly, figure out what love actually is. From its opening…to its troubling, thrilling conclusion, I found this novel irresistible.
I was swept into THE LOST GIRLS on the very first page…Heather Young weaves a captivating, multi-layered story that you wont want to put down.

ISBN:9780062480316