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

Dare Chase doesn’t believe in ghosts. But as the host of Attachments, her brand-new paranormal investigation podcast, she knows to keep her doubts to herself if she wants to win over listeners.

Her first season’s subject is the Arrington Estate—a sprawling manor rumored to be haunted by the spirit of Atheleen Bell, who drowned in its lake almost thirty years ago. Dare’s more interested in investigating the suspicious circumstances of Atheleen’s death, which she thinks point to a decades-old murder, not something supernatural.

But Arrington is full of surprises. As Dare is drawn deeper into the mysteries of the estate, she’ll have to rethink the boundaries of what is possible. Because if something is lurking in the lake…it might not be willing to let her go.

Short and Sweet Review

Dare doesn’t believe in ghost but she keeps that to herself because the people who listen to her podcast don’t need to know she’s a skeptic. The focus of her first season of the podcast is about Atheleen Bell who drowned at the Arrington Estate 30 years ago. Dare is convinced the strange things that are happening on the estate are explainable, but the more she digs the more things are starting to look supernatural.

Dare is at the Arrington Estate doing an internship to remodel the estate, but she’s also there to learn information for her podcast. At the estate she meets Quinn and Holly two other girls that are also helping out. Dare learns that Quinn actually sent her a message about Arrington and wanted Dare there to learn why the supernatural things are happening. Anyway there isn’t just one ghost there’s multiple and the mystery is even deeper than any of the girls thought. I liked the book, but it wasn’t anything spectacular. Its your basic ghost story with a mystery. When I heard that Dare had a podcast, I was excited because I thought it would add more to the story but we only read what she’s putting on the podcast twice, once at the beginning of the book and one at the end. In the first half of the book we’re learning about the estate and history but in the second half is where things start to pick up with more ghost appearances and things not being where they should be. The ending was interesting and it does leave the door open for a sequel.

Overall, The Girls Are Never Gone was an intriguing story but there were some elements that just fell short of what I was expecting from a book that was pitched as The Conjuring meets Sadie.