The Lost Girls
"The delicacy of [Young's] writing elevates the drama and gives her two central characters depth and backbone...And the mystery that drives it is as shocking as anything you're likely to read for a good long while." -- New York Times
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, told in the voices of two unforgettable women linked by a decades-old family mystery at a picturesque lake house.
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.
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“A novel of quiet intensity that builds to a terrifying climax. The Lost Girls contains echoes of Kate Atkinson’s 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 Lucy’s long-ago summer, her last happy one, with Justine’s dawning knowledge of how the effects of a family tragedy echo down through the years.”
“Suspenseful and finely wrought, Young’s 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.”