Watch the Girls

May 15, 2018
A TV actress has two missing sisters in this campy debut thriller by Wolfe.In 2003, Olivia Hill and her middle sister, Gemma, are co-stars on a teenage detective show, The Hills Have PIs, when their youngest sister, Miranda, disappears in Los Angeles. Fifteen years later, Olivia, restyled as Liv Hendricks, is a co-star of Bullsh't Hunters, a reality show in which four friends "investigate" creepy phenomena, declaring "This one's bullshit!" whenever they uncover a fraud. After Liv is cut from the show for granting a too-honest interview to a blogger, she accepts an offer of $40,000 from "Red_Stranger," who she believes is independent film producer Jonas Kron. The gig is to investigate the real-life disappearances of four women from Dag Road in the "adorably twee" Central California town of Stone's Throw, where Kron created his shocking film The Girl and The Wolf. When Gemma unexpectedly arrives in Stone's Throw, claiming she's worried about Liv, and then disappears, Liv must step up her efforts to find out what happened to the missing women and save Gemma from their fate. Extended flashbacks reveal what happened to Miranda and intersect with the twisty and twisted ending. Some of the characters are one-dimensional, stereotypical, or little more than walk-ons, and the tone veers between comedic and deadly serious. Still, the story is fast-paced as Liv secretly films, texts, and tweets her way through bizarre encounters with a screaming mountain lion, howling wolves, animal masks, a blood-red house, a cabin in the woods, steamy sexual hookups, pie shops, and more.This novel revels in its weird creepiness and its roots in reality TV shows and horror movies. The conspiracy behind the women's disappearances pushes far past believability but doesn't detract from the fun.

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Starred review from May 28, 2018
YA author Wolfe (as Jennifer Bosworth) makes her adult debut with a devastating novel that evokes Ingmar Bergman and David Lynch. In 2003, 17-year-old TV star Olivia Hill barely survives a car crash and the younger of her two sisters, 14-year-old Miranda, disappears. Flash forward to 2018. Olivia, rechristened as Liv Hendricks, finds herself at another crossroads after a blogger’s surreptitiously recorded video—in which she drunkenly vents about exploitation of women in Hollywood—goes viral and gets her fired from her acting gig on a Scooby-Doo knockoff reality TV show. Her response: crowdfunding a web series in which she’ll investigate real-life mysteries. That’s what brings her to Stone’s Throw, Calif., where she connects with legendary horror film director Jonas Kron, her biggest backer, who insists that she try to figure out what became of four young women who vanished from an area of the picturesque mountain village known as Dark Road. Then Gemma, Liv’s overbearing manager and perennially jealous sister, shows up—and disappears. Despite some plot reveals that stretch credulity, this disturbing, surrealistic thriller will keep readers spellbound. Agent: Doug Stewart, Sterling Lord Literistic.

June 1, 2018
Liv Hendricks is a former child star trying to resurrect her career by starring in a mystery-investigation reality show. The show's cases are fake, and she's not too disappointed to be fired for being too honest in a drunken interview. The role of a lifetime then falls into her lap when she's hired to crack the puzzle of young women who have gone missing on an eerie, dark road and who have become part of the lore surrounding a cult filmmaker's wolf-filled creations. Debut author Wolfe has created a compelling, sympathetic character in Liv, a scared, lonely woman who acts jaded and tough but grieves over a missing sister of her own. The author takes readers on a psychologically dark ride through a twisted underworld of fame and desperation, a journey that will keep readers guessing until the shocking ending. Give this to patrons looking for something to follow Fred Van Lente's Ten Dead Comedians (2017), which also centers on Hollywood's malcontents.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)