I found this book very disturbing and compelling. Just how did Yates justify his behaviour? What was it about his background that meant that his love for his sister and then all the girls got so twisted?

How can I critique this book without giving away the whole story? Except to say that it was very well written. The story was told in such a way that you understood the characters of the girls as they were introduced and you also understood their behaviour, and yet you wondered about the Grandmother. All the way through, her behaviour seemed at odds to what she must have known about. And then there was Charlie and Sharon also living in that household. What did they know and why didn't they say anything?

The ties that bind - once you know something and don't tell, then these ties get stronger and bind more tightly, and that was what happened at Roanoke. And by the way, Kansas summers sound awful! 7 months of the year when the temperature is above 20 and at least 3 of those above 30 degrees! And then a very cold winter.

Written very well but the constant talk of incest had finally gotten on my nerves. Unfortunately, i couldn’t finish it. It’s a shame, too, because if I could’ve stomached it, I’m sure it would be a great book. The writing is superb, creative and inclusive. I just could not get past the gratuitous references of incest that perforated this book.

I was desperate to read this book and it didn’t disappoint. The story starts with Lane, a teenage girl living in New York City, she has a fractured relationship with her emotionally unstable mother. After her mother commits suicide, she’s sent to live with her Grandmother, Grandfather and cousin Allegra at a small family farm in the middle of nowhere in Kansas. Allegra fills her in on the family history but Lane soon learns there are big secrets in the family. Lane lives out the best summer of her life but swiftly leaves Kansas for reasons we uncover throughout the book and we pick up with her 10 years later when she’s moved on with her life and all but forgotten Roanoke.

The book is fantastically written and is told from the perspective of each of the Roanoke girls and Lane’s perspective in the present day and during the one summer she spent there.

When events force her to return she is faced with the devastating family secrets and events of that one summer while desperately trying to search for missing cousin Allegra.

The writing in this book was really good and completely sucked me in. I couldn’t put this book down and loved uncovering the mystery of each Roanoke girls’ story.

The subject of this book is disturbing and may well put some people off. I agree with other people when they say they feel conflicted giving a book with such an horrendous subject matter 5 stars but it is really worth every star. The mystery, the pace, the characters, everything just drags you in. You think you know their secret but when the truth is revealed it is disturbingly shocking.

I thoroughly recommend The Roanoke Girls. A brilliantly written book that I couldn’t put down.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Staunton for the free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Was very disappointed with this book. Heard a lot of hype about it and had been sitting in my kindle for a while til I got around to reading it. Managed to read in a couple of days but purely just to get the book finished rather than out of enjoyment

Dark, twisted, compelling. I read it in one sitting.

Such an elegant and pace book. Highly recommended. Shows what secrets families keep, and what it means to do so.

I've got more into this sort of read recently, especially after reading The Girls by Emma Cline. This was so beautiful and mysterious.

What’s it about?

Lane is the lucky one. She got out after one long, hot summer at her grandparents’ farm in rural Kansas. But now her cousin Allegra has gone missing, and Lane realises that she has to go back because she will always be a Roanoke girl.

My thoughts

This is not a nice story. It is deeply unsettling, and there is little hope to cling on to. All of this is intended by Engel. It is, as the Telegraph says on the front cover pull quote, ‘a provocative thriller’, and that feels accurate. Everything in this book is designed to incite anger or unease, and not always successfully.

Engel goes to great pains to make sure that each ‘girl’ has her own voice and story, but in the end they are all framed through the dominant male gaze. The story is told through Lane’s eyes, but it is not her story. I found this to be problematic, to say the least. With a little more thought this could have been a much more empowering story for women, rather than an elaborate façade for another male character’s story.

I also found the ending to be a little trite. It was predictable, and could have been so much more effective if all of the endings hadn’t been tied up neatly. Perhaps that was the point. Perhaps Engel intended to ultimately tie all of the girls’ fates to what their men want and need, but it felt convenient. [SPOILER] if you’re going to have your heroine escape and waltz off into the sunset, have her go on her terms. Equally, if you’re going down the triggers-galore thriller route, don’t have such an easy ending. Make her stay.

Engel can certainly tell a story, and I would read another of hers. Having a quick scout on Goodreads, this book has got a lot of fans but I’m not one of them. There was no respite nor resolution for any of the very dark subject matter, and it needed something.

Would I recommend it?

Personally, no. But have a gander at other reviews and see what you think. It was just too much for me.

I have to start by saying that a few friends raved to me about this book and pestered me to read it as they absolutely loved it. Now I’m not sure if they built the book up too much, but I struggled to see where they were coming from. I made just last halfway and was finding it hard to connect with any of the characters and thought about not finishing the book. My friends convinced me to plough on and once I got to around 70% the last part for me made the book worth reading. Although I did find the very end to be rushed and I had many questions about what happened to grandad - did he just walk free? and also for the others who just let it go on without a word. I would recommend this book to others but warn them that they may have to stick with it and will likely have more questions at the end than they have answered.

This book has been floating around for ages; I follow so many bookish people on Twitter that when a book has a bit of hype around it, I see it mentioned over and over again – this is one such book. It lived up to the hype for me, luckily, despite having a subject matter that it dark and frankly horrifying. Over a decade after leaving grandparents’ vast estate in rural Kansas, Lane returns to look into the disappearance of her cousin Allegra. Being back in the small town brings back memories that Lane has tried to bury, and the narrative splits into two, weaving between Lane’s first summer in Roanoke and the present day, with a bit of old family history thrown in as well. This structure allows the tension to build, so we are left waiting to find out the reason for Lane’s abrupt departure in the past, and what has happened to her cousin in the present. It’s a really great novel, I just loved it.

This book was an uncomfortable but compulsive read. I didn't like the main character but I don't believe I was supposed to as events unfolded. As much as I wanted to put it down, I simply couldn't.

Not for the faint hearted as it deals with uncomfortable themes, but very well written and reminded me a little of The Virginia Andrews books that I read in my teens. Family secrets and forbidden love.

This book is written in two times when Lane was sent to live in her mum's family home after her death, and also present time. There is a big family secret which see's all the females in the family either dying or running away from home. It's quite easy to work out the secret but the book draws you in so you want to see where it goes.

There had been a lot of hype around The Roanoke Girls, the subject matter is one that usually intrigues me and the cover of the hardback copy I have is beautiful. Almost too delicious to be associated with the content inside.


I really wanted to love this story .. it was a 'Richard & Judy' pick so one assumes fairly popular based on that.


But as I began to read it became obvious pretty early on what the family secret is .. very little tension or suspense. It's a very easy read and probably ideal as a holiday book when you just want to spend some downtime.


Yes, there is a lot of reference to abuse and incest but I felt it was almost pushed under the carpet rather than dealt with in a way that these girls would be able to live a normal life. All the girls want to be part of the circle, the inner sanctum if you like of Roanoke .. but once there it is impossible to leave.


There are many *trigger warnings, suicide, sexual abuse, incest but if you are comfortable reading this style of story with the associated language then I think you will find it dark and sinister and entertaining, I can't say enjoyable because this isn't a frilly girly love story!


Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for my copy which I read and reviewed voluntarily.

I was aware before I read The Roanoke Girls that it may be an uncomfortable read, and it was but not to the degree that I expected; perhaps I have become hardened to shocking dark fiction. I think some people will find it very difficult to read, but as a piece of fiction it was quite riveting.

When Lane's mother commits suicide she is sent to live with her grandparents' who she has never met, so you know there is some kind of family secret that caused the fracturing in the family. Lane's cousin, Allegra, already lives with her grandparents and the pair form a natural bond, but things with Allegra aren't quite what they seem. When Lane sees her family for what they really are she leaves Roanoke, never to return, until Allegra goes missing and she has no alternative but to go back.

As Lane uncovers the truth around Allegra's disappearance, be prepared for some very difficult reading. Praise to Amy Engel for not being too graphic but it still made my skin crawl. It's very difficult to talk about this book without giving anything away but I think of it as sort of a guilty pleasure. I really enjoyed it but felt I shouldn't have, if you know what I mean? You'll know what I mean if you've read it.

It's the darkest book I've read for a long time but it still defies you to have the courage to remove your eyes from the page. I loved how what was going on was insinuated but when proof was revealed in front of my eyes I felt shock and disgust. It just shows that seeing is believing! Although the story is told from Lane's point of view, we mustn't forget Allegra: she is a true Roanoke girl and the thread that draws us into this fascinating story.

The Roanoke Girls is a story that will shock and horrify you, but it is so compelling that you can't tear your eyes from the page until the inevitable heart-breaking ending is revealed.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

Received a free copy for NetGalley

I was intrigued by the title and blurb of the book , so was pleased when I received a copy of book .
However, this book didn’t stand up to the expectations.
I felt the characters were not developed properly and some of the dialogue was off putting so I couldn’t really get into the book .
I think the book was badly written and overall a NO for me .

There is something about the Roanoke girls, they are all beautiful young women. But there is a mystery surrounding the family and the disappearance of the girls.

After Lanes mother dies by suicide she goes to live with her aunt, uncle and cousin in Kansas. What follows is an unbearable hot summer with an underlying evil element as Lane tries to make Kansas her home.

I loved this dark twisted tale, it was a truly disturbing read. You could certainly tell what dark secrets lay hidden in the Roanoke house but the whodunit remained till the very end. I liked that all the characters were pretty messed up in their own ways.

This has certainly been one of my favourite reads of the year.

The book is described as a thriller but I'm not sure that's the best description. It has a mystery and there are a number of aspects of suspense but these take a back seat to the characters and more of a dark 'coming of age' story.

Roanoke is the house of Lane's dreams and of her mother's nightmares (and disappointingly it's not the Roanoke in Virginia that I've been to). When Lane's mother commits suicide Lane is sent to Roanoke to live with her grandparents, people that she didn't know existed. Roanoke is the family home on the outskirts of a small town in Kansas - and completely different to Lane's New York City existence. She's welcomed to the house by Allegra, Lane's cousin, one of the 'Roanoke Girls' - the young women from their grandfather's sisters down who have lived in the house. They all have tragic stories "Roanoke girls never last long around here" says Allegra.

The story moves between 'Then' and 'Now'. In 'Now' eleven years have passed since Lane left Roanoke and she's pulled back by the disappearance of Allegra. In 'Then' we find out more about Lane's time after her arrival at Roanoke as well as the fate of some the other girls. Both in 'then' and 'now' the central themes are Lane's relationships, with boys and with Allegra, as well as her take on her family and the way she gains some understanding of the mother she tolerated. Lane is central to the investigation to try and find Allegra but the secret at the heart of the family eclipses this; it all plays out slowly in a claustrophobic small town setting.

In trying to avoid spoilers I'm not sure I'm giving a very good account of the book! I did enjoy this despite its dark themes. I liked Lane and I found her to be a credible, flawed character. If there was something that I struggled with it was probably the character of her grandfather, it was difficult to understand his personality and his charm, he didn't quite jump off the page for me.

A dark and emotional read about families, secrets and small town America.

The Roanoke Girls is an atmospheric, dark tale set in Kansas. After her mother dies teenage Lane is sent to live with her grandparents and her beautiful cousin Allegra. After a wild summer she escapes after uncovering a secret about the Roanoke girls. 11 years later Allegra disappears and Lane returns. This is a disturbing and addictive thriller that will get under the reader's skin.

I absolutely loved this book in the most heartbreaking kind of way. It is beautifully written and it will break your hear.