Review: The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda

Title:The Perfect Stranger

Author:Megan Miranda

Published:April 2017, Simon & Schuster

Format:ARC E-book, 352 pages

Source:Netgalley

In the masterful follow-up to the New York Times bestseller All the Missing Girls—“think: Luckiest Girl Alive, The Girl on the Train, Gone Girl” (TheSkimm)—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?

My thoughts:This was the first book I’ve read by Megan Miranda…but it surely won’t be my last. I have her other book, All the Missing Girls, but never got around to reading it…and all I can say now is that I will definitely be picking it up as soon as I get a chance.

I really enjoyed this book – it kept me on my toes, guessing as to what was really going on. I found myself constantly wondering whether what Leah was telling us was real or whether she was making it all up. I was also confused…I didn’t know if what was happening was really happening to Leah, if it was Leah’s mind playing tricks on her or if it was someone else doing it to her. Is she reliable or is she just crazy?

The writing kept me wanting to keep going – I had to know how this would all play out. It was twisted and every time I thought I had come up with a viable guess, something new would pop up to throw that out the window.  There’s something so simple about this book, yet it keeps you on edge – quite a brilliant feat to this psychological thriller! I definitely found myself flipping the pages at top speed to figure out what would come next – it’s tense, taut and kept me on edge until the very end.

This was such a great story and now I definitely need to find the time to pick up All the Missing Girls pronto, especially if it’s anything like this one! Megan Miranda is definitely going on my must-read list…is she on yours?