I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

When sixteen-year-old Naomi Ward and her family head to a secluded cabin in the Shenandoah Valley for summer vacation they don’t know the small, mountain town of Sparksburg, Virginia has a dark and twisted past. But when they arrive, Naomi can’t shake the feeling that something about Sparksburg just isn’t right—and it smells god awful, but for some reason Naomi is the only who can smell the town’s stench. When she learns Sparksburg had once been a Sundown Town—a town where Black people weren’t allowed after sunset lest they be murdered—Naomi’s unease starts to make sense.

As Naomi digs more into Sparksburg’s violent origins, she finds herself haunted by the ghost of a girl, appearing nightly outside her window. Then she learns of two girls who’ve recently gone missing and suspects the past may still be present in Sparksburg and beneath the quaint façade of this tourist town is a palpable danger.

When Naomi decides to track the disappearance of the two girls herself, she becomes suspicious of a local man who has kindled fear in Naomi more than once. She soon learns he has a connection to one of the missing girls, and Naomi is certain he’s responsible for the disappearances.

When no one believes her, Naomi takes matters into her own hands. But to save the missing girls, she’ll have to finally face her own past trauma as a “missing girl” as she finds herself in a fight for survival.

Short and Sweet Review

Naomi and her family are going to take a vacation at their cabin in the Shenandoah Valley, but the family doesn’t know that this small mountain town, Sparksburg has a dark and twisted path. When they arrive Naomi can’t shake the feeling that something is off, she smells something horrible and she sees a girl outside of her window at night. Eventually Naomi learns that Sparksburg used to be a sundown town and suddenly her uneasy feeling starts to make sense, she also learns that more recently girls have gone missing. Naomi decides to find out what happened to the two missing girls and her main suspect is a man who has made her feel like she was in danger more than once. While doing her investigation Naomi’s past trauma is surfacing and she realizes she’ll have to use her own experience as a missing girl to help the two missing girls.

This was an interesting book and I say that in a good way. Our main character is Naomi as she likes to be called or Camryn which is what her family calls her. Naomi was kidnapped as a child and was recently reunited with her family which is still weird for her and she’s trying to adjust. Naomi still writes letters to the woman who took her and seems to have more of a connection with her than her parents which is understandable because Naomi was with her for 15 years and after doing some research cases like this are complex. Anyway Naomi is going to a cabin with her family for summer break and when they arrive Naomi immediately feels like something is wrong but she can’t figure out why. She tries to shake the feeling off but she ends up finding out that Sparksburg used to be a sundown town, which meant that black people were not allowed in the town especially after the sun went down. Now having this information Naomi has one answer to her discomfort but she also learns that two girls have recently gone missing and now she has a girl that shows up outside of her window that only she can see. Naomi meets a boy Khalil and they hang out a few times and she even learns more about the town from him and his grandma. Naomi does make some unwise decisions at times I feel like she has tunnel vision and can only see the end result that she pictures in her head without worrying about the consequences for her and those around her. I did like following Naomi’s investigation and finding out what was going on in this town. I will say I did like her character growth throughout the novel and seeing how her relationship with her family started and ended.

Overall, this was a good book. I would definitely recommend this book we get a little history lesson along with a thriller/mystery and a main character who comes with her own trauma that can relate to what’s going on around her. The story was solid from beginning to end and this is a book readers will enjoy.