Lost Girls of Hollow Lake by Rebekah Faubion
Queer author Rebekah Faubion delivers a captivating and haunting Young Adult horror/thriller with a paranormal twist. Lost Girls of Hollow Lake revolves around a group of high school teenage girls who vanished on a mysterious island while on a school trip.
During an Environmental Science trip to Hollow Lake National Park, Evie Williams and seven of her classmates defy school rules and whispered local warnings by sneaking out of their cabin to embark on an “unsanctioned excursion” in search of the mythical Dead Refuge Island that is rumoured to appear and disappear at will.
Once there, they discover the island is anything but welcoming and may be home to a sinister presence. After 46 harrowing days of physical and psychological survival, only five of them manage to escape, leaving three behind, their fates bound to the island and its legends.
A Survival Story Rooted in Mystery and Dread
In the present, it’s been a couple of months back in Shady Clove since Evie and the other four “Lost Girls” escaped the island. They have made a pact never to reveal what really happened on the island and to stay away from each other. But the past, especially the bitter kind, always has a way of catching up to the present.
Their pact falls apart when the body of a girl surfaces in Hollow Lake waters, forcing them into each other’s orbits to find answers. And it turns out that the body belongs to one of the girls left on the island. As media scrutiny intensifies and grieving and angry families of the girls left behind demand answers, Evie becomes the focal point of suspicion.
Their nightmares come to life when the girls receive threatening voice memos in the voice of a girl whose death they all witnessed, and when someone starts mercilessly starts killing the people connected to the disappearance incident. Haunted by guilt and terrorized by an unknown killer, the girls must confront the truth that refuses to stay buried. When the killer threatens to harm her loved ones, Evie may have to return to the very place that is the source of her terrors.
Compelling Characters and Emotional Depth
Faubion did an amazing job with the characterization in this book. I loved the protagonist. Evie is a stubborn, intelligent, defensive and morally conflicted individual. Her inner life is loud, chaotic, and restless. She has learned to survive by pushing others away and refusing comfort because she is afraid of what will happen when she lets her guard down.
I also loved the relationship between Evie and her father. Their interactions mostly feel painfully honest. Joel William is a calm and realistic individual who doesn’t sugarcoat situations. Even when he supports her, he understands the harsh reality she’s facing and refuses to give her false hope. Through him, we also see Evie reveal her softer side, which she rarely shows, as she gains awareness of the pain she has caused him. I also enjoyed Evie’s romantic interest, Sunny.
Atmospheric Writing and Immersive Tension
Overall, Faubion’s writing style feels controlled but emotionally raw, fitting a story where survival depends on keeping emotions tightly locked away. It’s sharp, immersive, and very grounded in Evie’s emotional reality. The narration feels close and immediate and will pull you straight into Evie’s head without over explaining her feelings.
Faubion portrays the setting as deceptively beautiful and serene on the surface, while beneath it lurks a suffocating sense of menace, secrecy, and danger that mirrors the characters’ trauma and guilt. This created a sense of ambiguity and uncertainty that runs through the novel.
Exploring the Cost of Survival
Thematically, the story is about love, trauma and guilt. Faubion explores how trauma fractures the mind, how denial becomes a survival mechanism, and the negative effects of carrying the weight of collective wrongdoing. Faubion also portrays how public judgment can turn survivors into villains. Family is another major theme that is portrayed as both a source of comfort and a heavy emotional weight.
Lost Girls of Hollow Lake suggests that survival doesn’t mean healing neatly or moving on, and that trauma lingers, reshapes identity, and requires confrontation, even when facing it feels very terrifying.
Fans of Salt Bones by Jennifer Givhan and We Were Liars by E. Lockhart will be drawn to Lost Girls of Hollow Lake for its eerie setting, unreliable memories, buried guilt and the slow, devastating unravelling of secrets.
About Rebekah Faubion:
Rebekah Faubion is the author of YA and adult horror and romance. When she isn’t writing books that make her bi soul sing, she enjoys watching anything romantic or scary (or, better yet, both), hiking in the Hollywood Hills, and reading tarot by candlelight.
