Roanoke Girls (Engle) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
With more twists than a bag of pretzels, this compelling family saga may make you question what you think you know about your own relatives.
Cosmopolitan


A page-turning thriller that will allow you to escape into another world…filled with family secrets and a legacy of death and disappearance for the infamous “Roanoke Girls” — a privileged Kansas matriarchy with more than its fair share of tragic drama.
Bustle


A crime must-read to devour.… The Roanoke Girls has nothing to do with Virginia but everything to do with missing girls, as the females in the Roanoke family, who live in a tiny town in rural Kansas not worth naming, are rich, beautiful, and generally short-lived…The farmhouse, which is "equal parts horrifying and mesmerizing," is a perfect setting for a gothic mystery full of small-town secrets, lies, and guilt.
Literary Hub


Engel drops a wicked twist in the first 35 pages—in the middle of a paragraph on the middle of the page—and lets it sit like a coiled snake…from that point on, The Roanoke Girls becomes a thrilling mystery and a satisfyingly gothic portrait of Middle America…a dark fable of trauma and acceptance about damaged people accepting their crooked parts and using them to move forward.
Bookpage


Engel hits a homerun with this “gothic suspense novel” that tells the story of the Roanoke family, a prominent and very private Kansas family…a rollercoaster ride through a dark family history and the one devastating family secret.
Pulse Magazine


[A] gripping if creepy thriller set on the Kansas prairie.… Skipping lightly between past and present…this gothic page-turner speeds inexorably toward the kinds of devastating revelations readers won’t soon forget.
Publishers Weekly


[D]ark family secrets…bring the ugly past to light. Engel… memorable cast of characters and a twisting, tangled plot that attracts readers from the first page.… [An] atmospheric and unsettling tale of the secrets and bonds of family. —Amy Hoseth, Colorado State Univ. Lib., Fort Collins
Library Journal


An emotionally captivating story.
Booklist


Whole lotta dead girls in this rural Kansas family.… In her acknowledgments, the author thanks her grandparents for showing her the joys of small-town life, but, unfortunately, the book traffics in the most vicious stereotypes.… Sordid, unrealistic, and unredeemed.
Kirkus Reviews