Watch the Girls

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. (July)