I did not enjoy this book at all, sadly. I really wanted to. But I felt like it was formulaic and didn’t really sound like an authentic podcast. The twist was good, it was just that the build up felt rushed.

Grab your rattiest flannel and Kurt Cobain tee, because we’re heading back to the 90s — 1998, to be specific, which is when we meet doomed Southern State University freshman Jessica Fadley in The Lake of Lost Girls by Katherine Greene.

Bright, pretty, and responsible, Jess is the last person anyone ever expects to get into trouble, especially her adoring little sister, Lindsay. But, just like the nearby lake Jess spent hours on with her dad every summer growing up, not everything is as calm or as perfect as it appears on the surface. She’s hiding dangerous secrets of her own, and just as she’s about to drown from the pressure of keeping them, she vanishes into thin air. Flash forward two decades: a popular true crime podcast focusing on cold cases turns its exploitative eye on Jess’s disappearance for its new season, and a now-adult Lindsay finds herself drawn into solving the mystery of what really happened to her sister on her birthday 24 years earlier, whether she wants to or not. (Happy birthday, I guess?)

The Lake of Lost Girls uses dual timelines, bouncing from Jess’s experience at school in the late 90s before disappearing in front of her childhood home one afternoon, and then back in present day with Lindsay, who is building a successful career in hospitality. Lindsay has tried to put her family tragedy behind her, and doesn’t exactly relish being tugged back to that headspace. Unfortunately her plans to float above it all go to hell when the bodies of long-missing co-eds from Southern State begin surfacing in the nearby Doll’s Eye lake — could Jessica’s corpse be next? Enter: daddy issues! Old resentments! Perverted teachers! Bad boyfriends! Irritated roommates! Commentaries on the general f*ckery of the true crime industrial complex! (Yes, obviously everyone in this book needs therapy.) (Which, same, tbh.)

If you’re a fan of true crime, this tight thriller due out in November from Katherine Greene — aka writing duo A. Meredith Walters and Claire C. Riley (The Woods Are Waiting) — should absolutely be on your radar, as it incorporates modern-day hallmarks of the genre as we know it today. There are transcripts from the podcast episodes investigating Jess’s case, which serve as a kind of framing device for the novel (I have to note that reading the “banter” between the podcast hosts was unbearable, personally, and doesn’t add any insight to the story). There are also tweets and other bits of media about Jess sprinkled throughout, plenty of unexpected twists, and more. (*Billy Mays voice* So! Much! More!)

As I sank deeper and deeper into the cold, dark depths of this story (OK fine, fine, I’ll stop with the water imagery), I appreciated the strong sense of atmosphere and suspense. Unfortunately the dialogue throughout came off as unrealistic, with stilted conversations that essentially splashed cold lake water all over any building momentum. (I couldn’t resist, but I’m done now! Promise!) I was also turned off by some of the characters, like the cloying, transparent Ryan, who I hated from the jump. And that twist? In theory, loved it — inventive and unexpected. In practice, though, I just don’t think it had enough foundation in the story leading up to it to deliver in the way it should. The big reveal glosses over some pretty major plot holes, landing with all the finesse of a drunken cannonball . . . off a raft . . . in the middle of a lake . . . that might also be hiding the bodies of a few lost girls. (Hahahah. Sorry.)

TL;DR — Although I wasn’t always a fan of some of the creative choices in this one, people who already have a love of true crime-influenced thrillers might find it worth dipping their metaphorical toes in. (Bye!!!!!)

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sadly, i could not get into this book. No worries, didn’t books satisfy different people! That’s the beauty of reading.

Readers are plunged deep into the Doll’s Eye Lake that’s tucked away in the small town of Mt. Randall where twenty five year old skeletal remains are finally surfacing and getting the attention they desperately deserve.

Its 1998 and women from Southern State University are disappearing without a trace and detectives never followed up on leads that were clearly right in front of their face. Jessica and her boyfriend had seen one of the professors with each of the woman that disappeared, but the college quickly swept their accusations under the rug. Jessica returns home for her little sister Lindsey’s birthday, but when she goes outside to grab her present from the trunk…she vanishes.

Its present day, a new podcast called Ten Seconds to Vanish: The Unsolved Disappearance of Jessica Fadley gives new light on the case. The podcast, and a friendly stranger have propelled Lindsey to investigate her sister’s disappearance but what she finds is devastating.

This story was unique with its features of social media posts, newspaper clippings, and podcast episodes which gave it a much more realistic perspective and I almost forgot I was reading fiction. I inhaled both of Katherine’s books back to back and have loved how she can build up her characters and keep readers on the edge of their seats. You think the story is going one way, the signs were all there, but the endings have completely blindsided me.

I can’t wait to read Katherine’s next book, I know it’ll be another five star.

Wow! This is a very twisted read. Lindsey has been in suspense for twenty four years what happened to her beloved sister, Jessica. Jess disappeared on Lindsey’s sixth birthday when she went to her car to retrieve the cake from her trunk. Strangely enough three other women also disappeared a few months prior to her sister’s disappearance. Remains are found and the police are finally digging into the disappearance of all four women. Very twisted read. I was given an advanced reader copy of this book by NetGalley and I am freely sharing my review.

The links to true crime stories and the way the articles and podcasts switched forms were both incredibly interesting to me. While I preferred Jess' point of view, the alternate timeframes actually worked incredibly well and were both plenty suspenseful on their own. I devoured this in one sitting because of the strong writing and quick pacing. In some ways, everything felt very surface-level, especially in light of Jess's point of view and what transpired there. What I wanted was a little more depth. I was hoping for a bit more blood and guts. Additionally, I believe that things became a little confusing near the conclusion. Perhaps more effort should have been spent crafting the ending rather than explaining everything at first.

The Lake of Lost Girls not only takes readers through the ride that is discovering what happened to Jessica Fadley and the three other students that went “missing” from Southern State University in North Carolina, it sheds a small light on the impact that True Crime fascination has on the people closely involved in the cases.

Although The Lake of Lost Girls started out slow, once I got the hang of the alternating timelines, I was hooked. I was drawn in through the various forms of storytelling. I thoroughly enjoyed the addition of scripts from the True Crime Podcast that attempts to sleuth their way through this cold case.

A unique prose, twisty turns, excellent pace, I highly recommend The Lake of Lost Girls for thriller and true crime fans.

Using suspenseful podcast clips to weave a twisty tale of a missing student and her sister who is desperate for answers, The Lake of Lost Girls is perfect for fans of I Have Some Questions for You.

This was really good. Well written with good characters and strong plot twists. I very much enjoyed it!

𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞-𝐨𝐟-𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫-𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑳𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝑮𝒊𝒓𝒍𝒔! 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐬𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐚 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐭, 𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐟𝐮𝐧 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐧 𝐭𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐭. 𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝’𝐯𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐣𝐨𝐛 𝐚𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡—𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡—𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫.

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐈 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤, 𝐈 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝! 𝐈𝐭 𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐨 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐟𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐖𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤—𝐈’𝐦 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐨 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝!

𝒯𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓀 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜 𝒦𝒶𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑒 𝒢𝓇𝑒𝑒𝓃𝑒, 𝒞𝓇𝑜𝑜𝓀𝑒𝒹 𝐿𝒶𝓃𝑒 𝐵𝑜𝑜𝓀𝓈, & 𝒩𝑒𝓉𝒢𝒶𝓁𝓁𝑒𝓎 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒜𝑅𝒞! 𝒜𝓁𝓁 𝑜𝓅𝒾𝓃𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓂𝓎 𝑜𝓌𝓃.

Four young women disappeared from the campus of Southern State University 24 years ago. A lackluster police response lead to the case going cold but now things are coming to the surface. Told in alternating time lines this twisted tale will leave you guessing right until the very end. Peppered in are transcripts from a true crime podcast covering the cold case as it warms back up.

I ate this book up in two sittings. As a reformed true crime podcast listener I loved the podcast aspect and how the family reacted to being covered in this way. Full of red herrings and twists I couldn’t get my theory’s of whodunit straight!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Katherine Greene's novel, The Lake of Lost Girls, offers an intriguing premise and a dual storyline that holds promise. Alternating between different perspectives, the narrative provides a multifaceted view of the mystery at its core. Despite my general aversion to books featuring podcasts, I found the storylines engaging at times, even if the two girls central to the podcast subplot were somewhat grating.

The college setting, while well-rendered, skewed too young adult for my personal taste, making it harder for me to connect with the characters and their experiences. Although the writing itself was competent and the storyline had potential, it ultimately failed to sustain my interest throughout.

I would like to thank NetGalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for this honest review.

Amazing! this book is so well written, it has it all! a lot of suspicion, sadness, intrigue, but the ending was the piece de resistance! i did not see that coming! i was trying to guess all the way through but was way off- amazing book please write more!

Woah.

🤯

Thank you to Katherine Greene, NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing this ARC as an ebook. I read this one in 2 sittings.

Jess has disappeared. It only took a few seconds for her to vanish. Her little sister Lindsey was waiting impatiently at the window for her much older sister to return with her surprise from the trunk of her car. Something distracted her 6 year old self and when she returned to the window, Jessica was gone. Her trunk was wide open and no one was to be seen.

The police did such a shoddy job trying to find her kidnapper. They never tied together that the 3 other girls that went missing from Southern State were connected. Or were they?

Throughout the read I think the mom was the only person I didn’t suspect of getting rid of Jess. And yet, the ending was still a shock.

The story is told with different timelines and multiple media sources, including new articles, Instagram posts, and a podcast that quickly goes viral with its rehashing of the crime. Those additions really bring you into the story, making it seem as though you are living through it also.

Holy cow! I was not expecting that and I absolutely loved it so much. I need it for myself. I love me some thriller that keeps you on your toes the whole book and this is that.

Set in the past and present, The Lake of the Lost Girls takes us through Jessica's last days along with the present search to find her. She attends Southern State University just up the hill from her childhood home. While attending, Jessica along with three other girls who seem to all have relations to each other go missing! New evidence and remains found prompt law enforcement to reevaluate everything. With her younger sister stating she only looked away for 10 seconds, we find her, Lindsay, in the midst of the search.

I truly did enjoy this book and it kept me on the edge of my seat! I raced to finish this book and I am so glad I was able to read it! I will say there are a lot of twists and turns, sometimes getting me a little confused. However, I was thoroughly surprised by the ending (which I love in a physiological thriller btw!!!). The different aspects of the story were interesting, including the past and present aspect and the podcast being included!

Just honestly losing one star because of the confusion at times and how frustrated I got with some of the characters lol.

Anyway, thank you so so so much to NetGalley and Katherine Greene for allowing me to read an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for my unbiased review in exchange for my copy.

"The Lake of Lost Girls" by Katherine Greene is a mystery told in the past and in the present. In 1998, Southern State University freshman, Jessica Fadley, is a once golden girl struggling through her first year of college and independence. Along with three other female students, Jessica disappears. Over two decades later, remains are found prompting the search for Jessica and the three other missing girls to begin anew and Jessica's younger sister, Lindsey, gets caught up in the momentum.

This was an overall enjoyable read. There is, as with mysteries, a twist and while I did end up guessing the twist like 40% in, I still thought it was enjoyable. I did kind of find Lindsey's perspective to be grating. Despite all of her traumas, I just found her so arrested and annoying to read. I felt kind of similarly when reading Jessica's perspective as well, but I felt more sympathy considering she is supposed to still be a teenager for the most part. I think for a quick summer read, this is a good one to have on hand. It's quick, it isn't too complicated, and for the most part, I think that people will enjoy connecting the dots. You will however, find yourself frustrated with the ineptitude of practically everybody in this. I mean, everyone just seemed comically obtuse. It was wild. Despite that, I pushed through and had a fine time reading.

This isn't a work of art or a masterpiece, but again, it's fairly enjoyable. Just middle of the road as far as mysteries go.

It’s 1998, and female students are going missing at Southern State University in North Carolina, but freshman Jessica Fadley, once a bright and responsible student, is going through her own struggles. Just as her life seems to be careening dangerously out of control, she suddenly disappears.

Twenty-four years later, Jessica’s sister Lindsey is desperately searching for answers and uses the momentum of a new chart-topping true crime podcast that focuses on cold cases to guide her own investigation.

It would seem I’m reading a few stories at the moment that use the true crime podcast premise to explore and unravel stories. And I don’t hate it!

This is a great psychological thriller that unpacks a rang of different stories. While I actually found the podcast sections somewhat irrelevant to what was happening in the story (I skimmed these sections by the end), I found the writing style and the way each murder was unpacked really interesting. With a few characters bought in as potential suspects, you did find yourself unsure who it would be, which I always enjoy!

What. The. Heck.
I truly didn’t see that coming at all. This book kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I was convinced I knew who did it. Even being partially right, I was somehow still completely off. Loved the mixed media aspect.

I love that this book had both podcast transcripts, interviews, and two timelines. It was wonderfully layered and kept me entertained and guessing until the end. This is my first book from Katherine Greene and it will not be my last book that I read.

This is great for anyone that enjoy true crime and true crime podcasts

The Lake of Lost Girls was a letdown. The timeline, bouncing back and forth between the past and the present, felt redundant at times. The podcast element seemed unnecessary and did nothing to advance the story. The character development was lacking, making the big reveal unbelievable. I struggled to get through this book and considered not finishing it multiple times. While the premise of the story seemed interesting, the final result was lackluster.