The Roanoke Girls: A Novel

Allegra and Lane are The Roanoke Girls–the last two left. Bad things happen to the Roanoke girls. They either run or they die young. After her mother commits suicide, Lane goes to live with her grandparents and Allegra at their farm in Kansas. She lives with them only one summer before she runs when she witnesses something that thoroughly disturbs her. Ten years later, Allegra has gone missing and Lane’s grandfather calls her home to help. Did she run, too, or will she be joining the family plot with most of the other Roanoke girls?

I didn’t particularly enjoy Lane’s character, which is why I didn’t rate the book as high as I might have normally. What an incredibly sad story about the secrets in families and the tragedies that occur because of them. Even at the beginning, you start to get a feel for what is going to happen, but you can’t put it down, hoping you’ll be wrong and everything will turn out okay. Not bad for Amy Engel’s first novel for adults.