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    The American Girl: A Novel
    The American Girl: A Novel
    The American Girl: A Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    The American Girl: A Novel

    Written by Kate Horsley

    Narrated by Julia Whelan and Nan McNamara

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    From a bright new talent comes a riveting psychological thriller about an American exchange student in France involved in a suspicious accident, and the journalist determined to break the story and uncover the dark secrets a small town is hiding.

    On a quiet summer morning, seventeen-year-old American exchange student Quinn Perkins stumbles out of the woods near the small French town of St. Roch. Barefoot, bloodied, and unable to say what has happened to her, Quinn’s appearance creates quite a stir, especially since the Blavettes—the French family with whom she’s been staying—have mysteriously disappeared. Now the media, and everyone in the idyllic village, are wondering if the American girl had anything to do with her host family’s disappearance.

    Though she is cynical about the media circus that suddenly forms around the girl, Boston journalist Molly Swift cannot deny she is also drawn to the mystery and travels to St. Roch. She is prepared to do anything to learn the truth, including lying so she can get close to Quinn. But when a shocking discovery turns the town against Quinn and she is arrested for the murders of the Blavette family, she finds an unlikely ally in Molly.

    As a trial by media ensues, Molly must unravel the disturbing secrets of the town’s past in an effort to clear Quinn’s name, but even she is forced to admit that the American Girl makes a very compelling murder suspect. Is Quinn truly innocent and as much a victim as the Blavettes—or is she a cunning, diabolical killer intent on getting away with murder…?

    Told from the alternating perspectives of Molly, as she’s drawn inexorably closer to the truth, and Quinn’s blog entries tracing the events that led to her accident, The American Girl is a deliciously creepy, contemporary, twisting mystery leading to a shocking conclusion.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateAug 2, 2016
    ISBN9780062566119
    Author

    Kate Horsley

    Kate Horsley’s first novel, The Monster’s Wife, was shortlisted for the Scottish First Book of the Year Award. Her second novel, The American Girl, will be published by William Morrow (US) and HarperCollins (UK) in Summer 2016. Her poems and short fiction have been published in a number of magazines and anthologies including Best British Crime Stories.

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    Reviews for The American Girl

    3.5/5

    48 ratings14 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Complex story about an American exchange student, Quinn Perkins, in France who is found stumbling out of the woods where she is hit by a car. Amnesia sets in. The family hosting her is missing. The town has a mysterious secret, but is Quinn in on it?
    • 3/5
      This began so very strong with Quinn, the American study abroad student who stumbles out of a copse of trees into the road and is promptly run down by a hit and run driver. The principal mystery of what's happened to her was solid. Enter Molly, podcast reporter, who surreptitiously gains access as Quinn's "aunt". to the hospital where Quinn is convalescing. Add in more layers with a dying resort town with some serious creep and organized crime, some eerie caves and a dead girl. This is a great setup and sadly it didn't fully deliver for me. And the final resolution left me incredulous.

      Somewhere around a third of the way in, the tension falls off a bit and this meandered more than was necessary. This definitely straddled the line of my patience where I almost didn't give a damn about the central mystery and I tend to have a lot of patience for mysteries. By three quarters of the way in, I pretty much ceased caring deeply and just wanted to know if my suspicions were correct.

      I'd say that if you never read it, you'll still have lived a full life but it isn't a bad book at all. It's a twisty story with a few mysteries but the suspense just evaporated. This one just didn't live up to my expectations. Neutral on recommendation.
    • 4/5
      On a quiet summer morning, 17-year-old american exchange student Quinn Perkins stumbles out of the woods near St. Roch in France. She is barefoot, covered in blood, and unable to explain what has happened to her. What's more, it is soon determined that the Blavettes, Quinn's host family, has also mysteriously disappeared. With Quinn in the hospital and her memory gone, the idyllic village of St. Roch can't help but wonder if the American girl was in any way responsible for the disappearance of the Blavettes. Boston reporter Molly Swift smells a story and travels to St. Roch to see if she can uncover anything here. Molly soon becomes close to Quinn and tries to prove Quinn's innocence as she goes through a trial by media. But as Molly begins to unravel disturbing secrets, she is forced to admit that the American girl makes for a compelling suspect. Is Quinn really an innocent exchange student, or is she a cunning killer?

      I really liked the premise of this novel. I've always wanted to go on an exchange program, but never had the time or opportunity to do so. After reading this book, I don't know if I would want to go on one! I really enjoyed the narrative style of the author, with the switching between the voices of Molly and Quinn. I liked that parts of this story were told in blog format because that's just an interesting medium to use. I liked the thrill aspect of it because I wasn't expecting it to be as dark as it was, and it was really quite good. I thought that there were quite a few plot holes in the story that made it implausible, but other than that, I really liked the overall story and I don't think anything suffered because of this. Overall, this was a high intensity, action-packed story that shows how small idyllic towns can hold really big secrets.
    • 3/5
      The word to describe this book is "fine." It was fine. Serviceable as a commute read. Not nearly the thriller it was billed as, but fine. Suffering from quite a few editing and continuity errors, but not a huge deal. I imagine I'll forget this novel fairly quickly but I did finish it so that puts it ahead of some things I've read this year. There are so many better mysteries out there to read instead.
    • 3/5
      Molly is an American journalist on vacation in France when a major news story materializes in a small local French village. A young American exchange student is hit by a car while fleeing from the woods. Her exchange family is found to be missing and the girl, Quinn, has amnesia for what occurred. Although Molly is a known television journalist, she is able to convince the hospital and police that she is Quinn's aunt, in order to visit her in the hospital. Soon after, she begins to develop compassion for Quinn, who appears to be completely on her own, without any real family or friends to support her. The police put little effort in solving the mystery of the missing family but soon decide, based on circumstantial evidence, that Quinn is to blame. After Quinn is released from police custody based on their flimsy case, Quinn and Molly use Quinn's emerging memories to retrace the events leading up to the family's disappearance. As other reviewers have described in full detail, this book has some serious flaws that could have been addressed in the editing process. For one, the characters spend about 20% of the book smoking, lighting cigarettes, comparing things to cigarette packets, and in general, chainsmoking. I have no idea why the author found this to be a good idea but I found it distracting, unnecessary, and unpleasant. All of the characters smoked constantly and the author found it necessary to describe it on every page in the book. Another major concern was the fact that it was written as if the characters were English rather than American. Almost all of the slang in the book was British slang, rather than American. Not sure how this major flaw made it through editing. I kept forgetting the characters were American altogether. My final major concern was that the story was slow paced and not the thriller it was described to be. I couldn't seem to make progress in this book because I kept putting it down. Whole chapters seemed to go nowhere. I didn't particularly like the characters (who always seemed to be blowing smoke around me) and the premise was sketchy. It wasn't bad enough to give up on the book altogether, but it barely gathered my interest enough to keep going. In all, this book could have been a lot better with better editing and a chop of maybe 100 pages. The author has potential but could work on developing better suspense.
    • 4/5
      This book really is a riveting psychological thriller. I could not stop reading it. Quinn was good but her voice was really the strongest during the blog and video entries. For me I found Molly to be the strongest female voice in this story. She moved against the majority and stuck with her instinct. I had respect for her. I don't know what I was expecting from this book but I got everything and more. Dark...check. Psychological...check. Intriguing plot...check. Twists...check. Great ending...check. As the story progressed it was like I was Alice falling down the rabbit hole into a dark place filled with secrets. Just when I thought I had it all figured out something else would come at me. This book is a must read.
    • 3/5
      I received a copy of The American Girl as an Early Reviewer selection, billed as "a riveting psychological thriller about an American exchange student in France" and "a rich captivating novel you simply can't put down." Unfortunately, I had no difficulty putting it down and was generally disappointed in virtually every aspect of the story. The novel's premise is that an American exchange student living with a single mother and her two teenaged children loses her memory under unusual circumstances, and another American woman on vacation in France, this one a tabloid-type television "journalist," pretends to be a relative in order to get the backstory for her publisher. The book switches back and forth between the two women and also between the events leading up to the American Girl's memory loss and the present. This is slightly confusing at times, but more importantly, the larger issues are a story line that jumps all over the place and the absence of a single truly likable character. Kate Horsely tries to bring us a modern mystery that includes elements of pop culture, but for me it just did not work well.
    • 4/5
      There was a good sense of suspense in the story, and Molly in particular was such a layered character. I did feel like the suspense was somewhat contrived, because the reader didn't get to the end of the blog posts until the end of the story, but presumably Molly would have read them all at once and have arrived at the ending more quickly than the reader does. One thing the story lacks is a truly sympathetic character.
    • 4/5
      “The American Girl” by Kate Horsley is an intriguing thriller about American exchange student Quinn Perkins who gets wrapped up in the secrets of a small French town. The host family, the Blavettes, consist of a former school headmistress and mother of two teenage children – Noémie and Raphael.This noir novel begins with Quinn running and stumbling out of the woods naked only to be hit by a car when she finally makes it to the road. The mystery around her appearance and the fact that she’s a foreign exchange student quickly creates buzz and makes headlines around the world, bringing journalist Molly Swift to town desperate for a scoop. Pretending to be Quinn’s aunt, Molly and Quinn bond and quickly develop a sort of closeness in which Molly anxiously tries to solve the case in hopes of absolving Quinn.Consistently switching between Molly’s perspective and Quinn’s, as well as piecing together former posts from Quinn’s blog, the reader is given insight into what drives these two characters while trying to piece together the mystery of what happened to Quinn in the woods and why the Blavettes all disappeared.One of the most interesting aspects is that this novel is inspired by a true-crime case making it that much more disturbing and realistic. In fact, just last week a 19-year old American exchange student was found dead in Rome (The Guardian). Horsley’s novel is not only relevant, but extremely disconcerting to think about because most people equate exchange programs with school, adventure, and opportunity. No one ever thinks about the potential dangers lurking in a foreign country surrounded by complete strangers.From the style to the content, this book keeps you guessing until the very end and is a definite must-read for anyone who likes a good mystery.
    • 4/5
      This mystery/suspense novel about an American exchange student in France kept me guessing most of the way through. Quinn Perkins is living in St-Roch, France, with the Blavette family when the family suddenly goes missing and Quinn is attacked and hospitalized. Did she have something to do with the disappearance of the Blavettes? Who attacked Quinn and left her for dead in the woods?The story is told from Quinn's perspective -- in recent blog posts and video transcripts (the former from a month or so before the attack, the latter from the hospital) -- and that of Molly Swift, a podcaster (think "Serial") and "journalist" from the States who comes to France to interview Quinn and is "mistaken" for the girl's aunt. (She allows the "mistake" to continue.) I don't normally like changing-perspective narratives, nor time changes, but this format works well in this case. Both young women allow themselves to be seduced by charming Frenchmen who turn out to be not as wonderful as they were first thought to be [quel choc!]. Kate Horsley has written a novel that will keep you wondering whodunnit ... and why.
    • 3/5
      This novel started out strong - the mysterious American girl running bloodied from the woods and ending up in a coma in the hospital. Enter reporter Molly Swift who's vacationing in the area and whose internet show digs out the underlying truth on issues. Molly enters Quinn's life, albeit under deception, and tries to help Quinn put the pieces of her lost memories back together to find out the truth about what happened that night. For the most part, I enjoyed the book, especially Molly. Quinn was interesting enough I suppose, for a time, with her hidden blog and the video diaries she kept trying to recover her memories. I have to say though, I grew a bit tired of her at times, though I had to remind myself she is only a teenager and having - mostly- typical teenager behaviors. Molly, to me, just stood out as the stronger part of this book, though it centers around Quinn and her story. The story seemed to end up feeling rushed toward the end of the book, feeling like it took most of the book to build up to a less than surprising ending that felt somewhat like the author just came up with something quickly to sum up the story. I received a copy of the book from Library Thing.
    • 3/5
      The American Girl by Kate Horsley has just released.Seventeen year old American Quinn Perkins has travelled to France to participate in an exchange program with the Blavettes, a French family. Seemingly normal - until Quinn stumbles out of the woods "barefoot, bloodied and unable to say what has happened to her." And the host family is missing...So, what has gone on? What happened to Quinn? Where are the Blavettes? Journalist Molly Swift wants answers to those questions. With Quinn in a coma, Molly lies about who she is and inserts herself into both Quinn's life and the police investigation.Horsley starts things off with a good premise, reminding me somewhat of the case of Amanda Knox. Horsley fills in the blanks in a back and forth, then and now narrative that jumps around, juxtaposing Quinn's arrival at the Blavettes with the current day investigation.I don't see that this book is being marketed to the teen crowd. For me, it definitely had the feel of a young adult novel, rather than an adult "riveting psychological thriller". I grew weary of Quinn's obsessing about the oldest son, her bad choices and her acceptance of things. And Quinn's father? Completely unbelievable. The police investigation was quite flawed and highly unbelievable in my opinion. The video diary of Quinn recovering her memories was a great plot device though.Molly Swift I liked - a lot. She could carry a story on her own. Her deceptions didn't bother me in the least - most likely because I just didn't like or connect with the lead character Quinn. The romantic interest with the lead detective seemed extraneous and stilted though - it could have been left out. The Blavettes, especially Emelie, are overdrawn and their actions overtly obvious. Yes, we know there's something up with the family, but a subtler hand would have raised the tension just as well.Horsley does inject a nice twist at the end - one that was fairly well telegraphed - but still, a good ending. I found the final reveal of the reasons behind the crimes, town, police and the family overwrought, overdone and overly lurid.The American Girl was just an okay read for me - I followed through to the end to see if my suspicions were correct.
    • 3/5
      Quinn, an American foreign exchange student in Southern France, stumbles out of some woods onto a highway and is hit by a car. How did she end up there? What happened to the host family? Molly is a web reporter who comes to investigate and allows herself to be mistaken as Quinn's aunt while Quinn is hospitalized and has amnesia as a result of being hit by the car. The story is told in two voices, Quinn and Molly's. While Quinn is not portrayed as the ideal teen, the reader does feel sympathy for her in her lack of a real family support system, her confusion and in what actually happened to her. If she came from a different background, would she have been as susceptible? Would she have been as strong in her desire to discover what happened? Molly also has some issues of her own to work through, her desire to get a scoop, her impression of other reporters as a reflection of what she feels about herself and what she is doing. Just who are the Blavettes and why can't the local police crack the case-(SPOILER: The answer to the latter may be a bit too all encompassing, though it could have been plausible for a few officers).There is smoking, drug use, and sex (not explicit or detailed and key to story) and abuse in the book.I have not been compensated in any way (other than being given a copy of this book to review) and my opinion on the book is entirely my own.Note to editor: in the beginning of the book, a flashlight (American)is referred to as a torch (British), the name which an American would not have used. Later, in the book, this is corrected and the term flashlight is used. Not a major issue, but the reference did seem odd coming from an American character.
    • 3/5
      ** spoiler alert ** I received The American Girl as part of the Early Reviewers' program at LibraryThing (a great book website, btw). Unfortunately, upon receipt of the book, I glanced at the accompanying flyer/letter. It contained a list of questions to consider. Before giving it much thought, I read the first question, which asks if Molly, the reporter character, is too naive and easily taken in...and the book was ruined for me. At that point, even though I read 5 or 6 chapters, I couldn't take her seriously, assuming she was about to be taken for a fool by Quinn, our wandering American Girl. Perhaps this is unfair, but I was unable to read any further without placing assumptions and worrying I already knew the answers. Please please booksellers, be careful.