Book Review: You Belong Here by Megan Miranda

Megan Miranda is the queen of creating a suspenseful, atmospheric setting, and she succeeds once again in her latest thriller, You Belong Here. As the mother of two children in college, one of whom is attending a university in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, I knew I wanted to check out Miranda’s latest when I learned she was inspired to write it while visiting colleges with her daughter a few years ago.

Synopsis:

Beckett Bowery never thought she’d return to Wyatt Valley, a picturesque college town in the Virginia mountains steeped in tradition. Her roots there were strong: Beckett’s parents taught at the college, and she never even imagined studying anywhere else—until a tragedy her senior year ended with two local men dead, and her roommate on the run, never to be seen again…

For the last two decades, Beckett has done her best to keep her distance. Then her daughter, Delilah, secretly applies to Wyatt College and earns a full scholarship, and Beckett can only hope that her lingering fears are unfounded. But deep down she knows that Wyatt Valley has a long memory, and that the past isn’t the only dangerous thing in town…

The bond between mothers and daughters is strong, and that holds true for Beckett and Delilah. Beckett never married Delilah’s father, and though the two maintain a cordial relationship, Delilah lived with Beckett full time throughout her formative years. While Beckett enjoyed growing up in the small, fictional college town of Wyatt Valley, Virginia, the events that occurred during annual forbidden student ritual of “The Howling,” which takes place in the surrounding woods, drove her to leave the university halfway through her senior year. Her parents, both professors at the university, stayed behind, and tension is threaded throughout the present-day communication Beckett has with them.

The reader knows going in that there is more to the story of the two men who died underneath the campus in the steam tunnels, as well as the mysterious disappearance of Beckett’s former roommate and friend, Adalyn Vale. Beckett’s memories of The Howling and the night of the fire have left her holding her breath for more than 20 years, and when she gets a dropped phone call from Delilah in the middle of the night, she knows the hazing ritual has continued. She immediately drops everything and makes the drive back to campus to search for her daughter, her mother-bear instinct taking over full force. Throw in a dual timeline as we slowly learn what happened the night of the fire in the steam tunnels and who is still holding a grudge over that night, and the pacing kept me turning the pages even during my bouts of middle-of-night insomnia.

Per usual, there are numerous mysterious woven together in You Belong Here. What happened to Adalyn Vale? Where is Delilah? Has someone else been staying in Beckett’s parents’ house while they are out of the country on a research trip? Who set fire to a house in her parents’ neighborhood, and is it related to the university? Is Beckett’s former boyfriend, Cliff, who’s now a dean at the school, involved in any of these mysterious happenings? There are plenty of red herrings and people sprinkled throughout (in the form of students, staff, and Beckett’s old high school and college classmates) to keep me guessing at who had what motive.

I’ve seen this title included in the Dark Academia genre, but I feel like it’s more a book about family relationships and small town secrets set in a college town as opposed to a truly academic setting and mysterious secret societies. The Howling is the only ritual discussed throughout the course of the book and there aren’t really any scenes set in the classroom.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Simon Element / S&S / Marysue Rucci Books for providing me with a digital review copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.