Megan Miranda

The Perfect Stranger

"In the masterful follow-up to the runaway hit All the Missing Girls--a "fiendishly plotted thriller" (Publishers Weekly)--a journalist sets out to find a missing friend, a friend who may never have existed at all. Confronted by a restraining order and the threat of a lawsuit, failed journalist Leah Stevens needs to get out of Boston when she runs into an old friend, Emmy Grey, who has just left a troubled relationship. Emmy proposes they move to rural Pennsylvania, where Leah can get a teaching position and both women can start again. But their new start is threatened when a woman with an eerie resemblance to Leah is assaulted by the lake, and Emmy disappears days later. Determined to find Emmy, Leah cooperates with Kyle Donovan, a handsome young police officer on the case. As they investigate her friend's life for clues, Leah begins to wonder: did she ever really know Emmy at all? With no friends, family, or a digital footprint, the police begin to suspect that there is no Emmy Grey. Soon Leah's credibility is at stake, and she is forced to revisit her past: the article that ruined her career. To save herself, Leah must uncover the truth about Emmy Grey--and along the way, confront her old demons, find out who she can really trust, and clear her own name. Everyone in this rural Pennsylvanian town has something to hide--including Leah herself. How do you uncover the truth when you are busy hiding your own?"--

a novel

The perfect stranger

armoni mayes

i wish i was still a stranger to this book

Cheri McElroy

I just love how spooky, atmospheric, and entertaining Megan Miranda’s books are. And the characters are definitely not your typical nice people. This book was no exception and kept me turning pages to see what happened.

Shan

I loved this just as much as I loved All The Missing Girls! I kept trying to figure out what happened (as always) and didn't put it together until right before it was explained. Even then, there were still plot twists! I can't wait to read another one from her.

Molly Morgan

Enjoyed this book better than Megan Miranda's other book I read. There was a little *spice* in it, which was fun. The mystery gave me some woman in the window vibes, where I wasn't sure if I could trust what I was reading. I liked that. Overall a nice read!

chloe mcpherson

The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda 
2.5/5

A former reporter, turned high-school teacher, Leah’s just looking to blend into the background. Two dead bodies and her missing roommate, Emmy, have the reverse effect though. Searching for answers forces her to unravel Emmy’s past and in turn, her own . . . or is it just her mind that’s unraveling? 

I was actually enjoying this story, learning about Leah's past, her coming to discover who her friend Emmy really was and the secrets behind this small town. However I was hugely let down by the ending.

Lauren Attaway

Thank you to Simon and Schuster via NetGalley for the Advanced Copy in exchange for an honest review!

All The Missing Girls was such a marvel for me when I read it last year that I just have to mention it here. I tempered my expectations for The Perfect Stranger because I recognized I wouldn't be able to recapture that. The surprise when you're up all night turning pages of a book from an author you've never read before can only happen once. 

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, this is a very strong novel on it's own. The protagonist, Leah, moves to rural Pennsylvania with her old friend Emmy. They're both on the run/hiding. The great thing about desperate characters is that every action takes on a new meaning. Leah and Emmy have their own reasons for running away and I couldn't read this book fast enough because I had to know why. Leah may not be for every reader because she's not the perfect protagonist type. She's got her own dark ambitions. 

This book also made me ask myself how far I'd go to be right. There were quite a few passages that stood out- "I had cast my life and assigned the roles, manufacturing all of them into the people I wanted them to be." I think everyone can identify with the feeling of being reminded people exist outside of your personal narrative. 

As for the supporting cast, they were not as clearly drawn as the central Leah and Emmy, which was unfortunate, because they felt real just not important enough to Leah. At one pint Leah describes her relationship with Emmy perfectly:

"I can only explain it this way: that I knew her deeply, if not thoroughly; that a four-month relationship can supersede all the boyfriends, all the friendships, that came after and lasted longer, that our friendship was born from the one time I'd stepped off track, done something unexpected that did not follow the predicted steps of my life. And for that reason it shown brighter, and so did she."

All in all, the pacing was great, the characters were genuine, and I was impressed if not ultimately shocked by the ending. I'll definitely be looking forward to the next Megan Miranda novel!

Nikki Leigh 

From the author of the New York Times bestseller All the Missing Girls—the gripping story of a journalist who sets out to find her missing friend, a friend who may never have existed at all. “Think: Luckiest Girl Alive, The Girl on the Train, Gone Girl” (TheSkimm). When Leah Stevens’ career implodes, a chance meeting with her old friend Emmy Grey offers her the perfect opportunity to start over. Emmy, just out of a bad relationship, convinces Leah to come live with her in rural Pennsylvania, where there are teaching positions available and no one knows Leah’s past. Or Emmy’s. When the town sees a spate of vicious crimes and Emmy Grey disappears, Leah begins to realize how very little she knows about her friend and roommate. Unable to find friends, family, a paper trail or a digital footprint, the police question whether Emmy Grey existed at all. And mark Leah as a prime suspect. Fighting the doubts of the police and her own sanity, Leah must uncover the truth about Emmy Grey—and along the way, confront her old demons, find out who she can really trust, and clear her own name. Megan Miranda delivers a deep, dark and twisty novel just as thrilling as her New York Times bestseller All the Missing Girls.

A Novel

Lauren Lopez

This is a good suspenseful read, but it was a pretty slow story and could be a bit confusing at times. There are a lot of moving pieces throughout the story and different truths to uncover that you won’t see clearly until the very end of the book. 

It wasn’t as thrilling as some of the other books I’ve read in the genre, and I’ve been searching for that excitement I felt when reading All the Missing Girls, but I think it’s a good read for those who enjoy the suspense/mystery genre.

Megan White

#namesakechallenge
I chose this over several other options
I have regrets
I listened to this as an audiobook, thankfully, or I may have never finished it.
The main character, for all her “journalistic smarts” is naive and gullible to the nth degree. And all the ramblings repeating the same information over and over but still being gullible to every other character…there is no thrill, no mystery. Save yourself.

Anna Adams

A complex story. Character growth. And I'd love to talk about the ending except I can't stand spoilers. Stayed up till 2:26 a.m. to finish, though!

Lori Keenom

I enjoyed it. Kept my attention while reading, although I don't think it will be book that will stick with me.

Southern Today Gone Tomorrow

Well, Megan Miranda, you did it. You wrote a mystery book from every angle and created a tale that kept me entranced.

This novel follows Leah, a journalist running from a story that went wrong in Boston, and found the perfect place to go to when her former roommate Emmy turns up in a bar just when she needs her two. Leah now works as a school teacher, but as a mysterious girl turns up beaten looking suspiciously like Leah, questions start to be asked.

And Emmy is missing.

This novel, again, follows Miranda’s style from All the Missing Girls in that this is a somewhat linear story, that jumps back to a few past states. Miranda doesn’t give is all the information at once, or even when we want it, but when Leah thinks about it. As Leah comes to understand things, so do we.

The way this novel is written, it isn’t for everyone. This is reminiscent of the early 20th century style of writing. Nonlinear and a lot of reading between the lines. Everything isn’t spelled out for you.

But I really liked it. If you enjoy mysteries, this is the book for you. Sincerely.

Laura

One of the weirdest new trends I've noticed in thrillers is the setting being Western Pennsylvania or at least the Appalachian Mountains. I don't have a problem with this- I couldn't, that's where my dad's side is from- provided there is no air of superiority or snobbishness on the part of the main character. Happily, there is none, or at least very little, of that in this book. 

Another observation- I feel like publishing companies abuse the term "psychological thriller". I rarely find that "psychological thrillers" are actually psychological thrillers, usually they're just straight up mystery-thrillers. When I think of psychological thrillers, I think of The Tell-Tale Heart, or The Blair Witch Project, stories that focus predominantly on the psyche of their characters and work to get into the reader's mind, too. I don't necessarily consider this book to be a psychological thriller by that definition. While Miranda tried to do that to some extent, it didn't really work and as a result just felt like a normal thriller.

But anyway, I picked up The Perfect Stranger mostly because I read one of her YA mysteries- The Safest Lies- and remembered really liking it. I mean, I don't remember anything else about it, but it was one of those books that just sucks you in and by the time you come out of it, the only thing you remember about the story is that it was pretty good. The Perfect Stranger is kind of like that- I was definitely sucked into it- but I remembered more of it and it wasn't as good as The Safest Lies.

I originally wanted to read All the Missing Girls first, but that book was checked out and this book wasn't, so I read it instead. There's nothing in this book as far as I can tell that would spoil or even connect it to All the Missing Girls, so I have no idea why it's billed as a sequel or companion. Maybe someone who has read All the Missing Girls can tell me?

But anyway, the book. The weakest part of the book is probably the prose. It's overwritten, to say the least, like Miranda didn't know when to stop. It's the kind of writing that's really only excusable if the book in question is a) a debut novel or b) if the story and characters are so good it makes up for it. 

Continue reading this review on my blog here: https://bookwormbasics.blogspot.com/2...

The Perfect Stranger

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