The Stone Girl: A Novel
by Dirk Wittenborn
Loved This Book (4/12/2020)
The Stone Girl intrigued me from the first page. It is the story of abuse, misogyny, the cruelties of humans, the wide spread influence of the 1 behind closed doors amid exclusive clubs, schools & financial institutions. It is also a tale of survival, fortitude, friendship, family, resilience, generosity, determination and the fact that decisions often fall within those gray areas where there is no true delineation of black & white or right & wrong. This story truly resonated with me.

I found The Stone Girl very entertaining - a real page turner - but it definitely strained credulity. There were a number of plot twists that, while exciting, were exceptionally improbable, bordering on silly. Great escapism, though, and an excellent choice for those that just want an action-packed novel that'll take them out of their normal lives.

Love this book. Tells the story of Evie and her upbringing by misfits in the woods. When she is drugged and raped, there is no one to believe her. Evie and Lulu decide to take justice in their own hands against men from generational wealth who use their power to cover up all types of dirty deeds. The friendship in this story was what kept me reading. Sisterhood at it's finest. Highly recommended.

This was everything you want in a great summer thriller: friendship, money, corruption, suspense, and revenge. Strong female characters drive the plot and you feel transported to the Adirondacks, New York, and Paris.

Thank you to W.W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my opinion.

Set in the Andirondacks the setting is interesting and the characters were very in depth. The book flowed quite quickly and had hauntingly twists and turns. Get under your blanket with a flashlight and prepare yourself for shivers down your spine.

I loved this book. I loved the female lead and her mother and her mother’s friend. They were all tough independent women who didn’t take any crap from a bunch of over entitled men.

This was a very interesting concept for a novel. I haven't personally read many like this. The story kept me intrigued and I pretty much read it in one sitting.

I would recommend this book

I tried to read The Stone Girl several times. I found the book very difficult to follow. Unfortunately, I finally decided that this book was just not for me. Thank you W.W. Norton and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Definitely recommend if you like:
Thought provoking story;
Great writing;
Strong female characters;
Well writing thriller.

This a book that gets better and better the farther you get in it. Its about misogamy, abuse and strong women who stand up for one another and tackle the fragile power of men.

I received this as an ARC from the publisher and Netgalley and want to express my deepest gratitude. The opinions expressed below are purely my own.

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RATING: 5/5

I embarked on a quest to try a new genre and came out a fan. This book was so cleverly written, with so many unexpected plot twists that I had a mega hard time putting it down. Yes, at times it did feel like it was a little long and I DID skip over some descriptive parts, but overall, it kept me engaged. If you're asking yourself whether you should invest in your own copy once it publishes, then that's a big fat YES from me. Some of the big things that stood out to me?

1. The writing: vibrant, take-you-to-another world kind of good.

2. The plot: exciting, engaging, and the plot twists? My goodness, the best. Decently paced, but I found it to be slow 2-3 times while reading, so I skipped over some descriptions of places.

3. The characters: Encompassing the dichotomies between weak and strong, vengeful and nurturing, and good and evil, these characters were some of my favorite. They were deliciously complex and realistic.

4. World-Building: I know this isn't a fantasy novel, but the locations where this author took you were described in such vivid and colorful detail that you felt like you were there. Sometimes a little too much description, but if this is your thing, go for it!

Such a good read on many levels. The characters grew and were entirely empathetic. The issues raised were credible. The ongoing suspense built and so it became a book you couldn't put down One of my best reads so far this year

Unlikely alliances, meticulous planning, out of the box thinking, deep family love, and more money than God are STILL almost no match for men of privilege. I admit to feeling discouraged throughout the book, specifically by "the ol' good boy network" and the fact that this is still even a thing.

Dirk Wittenborn has created four incredibly strong, incredibly different female characters who joinn forces to expose one man and his horrible behavior, but end up discovering a NETWORK of men and THEIR horrible behavior, protected by money, class, and one another. What the men will do to preserve their privilege is unnerving (and disgusting and disappointing), but also, sadly, somewhat believable.

Wittenborn effectively turned his setting into a powerful character as well. Breathtakingly beautiful and equally harsh, nature and place played a role in the in the fight for truth and justice.

While there were moments of predictability, The Stone Girl provided plenty of twists and turns that kept me emotionally engaged with the characters, the setting, and the message.

Thank you to BookBrowse and Net Galley for the ARC!

I wanted to like The Stone Girl more than I did. I loved the title and the reference to being restored but not quite the same again
I had more than a few issues with this book. The author is male writing about abuse of women, Somehow I didn't quite feel that the author connected with the women and their story became a bit stereotypical. It didn't feel that the author was on the side of the women. I also felt the book was overlong..
Abuse of women still clearly goes on and I think in the US now the "aroma" of abuse is almost overpowering. Maybe I have read too many books on the subject and it's very disheartening to realise that in 2020 it's still a huge problem. A problem that should have stopped a long time ago
I did feel very culturally distanced from the book too

While I enjoyed this novel, I think I've just read too many books lately about powerful, wealthy men manipulating and abusing women. It was hard to get into the story but once I did, I appreciated the writing as Wittenborn is clearly a talented author. There are a lot of rave reviews so I believe it's a case of "it's not you, it's me."

Love this book. Tells the story of Evie and her upbringing by misfits in the woods. When she is drugged and raped, there is no one to believe her. Evie and Lulu decide to take justice in their own hands against men from generational wealth who use their power to cover up all types of dirty deeds. The friendship in this story was what kept me reading. Sisterhood at it's finest. Highly recommended.

spoiler alert ** Age old story of wealth corrupting,and an "old boys together" type scenario in the worst possible ways.
Some interesting female characters,that take back some control.
I struggled with the story sometimes,found it slow going,but other times raced through the pages.

"Like most people, I thought that my mother had retreated into her studio and the world of broken things because of the birthmark she once had on her face- a port-wine stain that unfurled across the right side."

The Stone Girl captivated me from the start with Chloé’s voice pulling us straight into her mother Evie’s story. An American born woman who grew up poor in the Adirondack wilds, once pitied by people for the ‘disfigurement’ on her face as much as they pitied Evie for the couple (Buddy and Flo Quimby) whom adopted her. Evie learned to trap animals at her father’s side and how to think and feel at her mother’s- gruff people who aren’t ones to bend to social norms. Through an unlikely friendship with thirty-three year old wealthy heiress Lulu Mannheim, whose loose morals and drug fueled antics give the locals more than enough gossip and reasons to resent her presence, the horrors that follow are set in motion. The long lasting question is, were they truly bad luck for each other?

Evie has a strength born out of the parents who raised her, never much wondering about the parents who took one look at her face and gave her up like spoiled goods. The locals aren’t much better as they are always judging her parents for how she is being raised and then there are the vile boys who stir up trouble, a predatory bunch if you are female, especially a teenage girl lacking the power status affords others.It’s bad enough to be marked as she is by her father’s shady ways and her mother’s ‘witchery’ but it is her face that is the most irresistible target. With the nickname “Giblet” bestowed upon her long ago, more painful than any brand could be, it’s more than laughter that threatens her. She is surrounded by misogynistic, violent men of all ages, yet it is the wealthy ones (unbeknownst to her) who descend upon the locals, known as the Lost Boys, who are the malignancy attached to her future. The pressure of life in the Adirondack mountains squeezed her out when she crossed paths with the handsome, cultured, wealthy monsters. In the aftermath of what happened, she thought she haa found a solution by reinventing herself when she escaped overseas at the age of seventeen. She didn’t realize then that when you leave a part of yourself behind and neglect it, it waits patiently for your return.

Twenty Two years later we meet her living in France, raising her daughter Chloé alone since the death of her husband and mentor Jacques Clément, who died when their daughter was only six months old. Now a highly successful, incredibly skilled “restaurateur artistique” (art restorer), Evie has kept her ugly past sealed tight as a tomb but now there is another malignancy threatening the safe world she has created. Her daughter Chloé has cancer, and her child’s only chance for salvation will send them back to the darkness and evil she thought she had escaped. It means a return to the parents who have never met their grandchild and worse, peddling back to the ‘marked’ girl she used to be. She learns that Scout (a major player in her past) has visited her girl in the hospital, which means he knows where she is. Why now? It is time to act, and the two head for Evie’s home. It will be a reunion met with a hunt but who is predator and who, prey?

She is a pro at fixing things, like the stone girl who started her journey into restoration and whose history bleeds into her own. Believing she could repair the most hopeless, damaged creations, including herself, has been her passion and livelihood but the shattered pieces the life she fled are waiting back in the Adirondack mountains and must be patched up if Chloé is to be saved. Time truly is of the essence, the clock that is her daughter’s life is ticking and with so much violence on the horizon, who can be trusted? Can she depend on sisterhood, on women like Lulu who blew through her life and upended her world to stand with her? What of the mother who couldn’t protect her so long ago? There is also a strong theme about the importance of women, mothers in particular, sharing the truth of their lives (not just the pleasant things) with their daughters, which I found to be a beautiful message. Sharing the sad parts of a story are just as important as the happiness. Don’t be alarmed, not all men are the devil either, and she left behind one, her best friend Dill. He, who was left in the dark when she fled and is now working a job she never imagined he would take on? She finds him much changed.

This is one well written book, exploring the essence of good vs evil. Make no mistake, for women it is a horror story that becomes life or death and the shock of what men of power can get away with. But if men with dark ‘proclivities’ can destroy women, men aren’t safe either from their manipulations. Mentors can come from all walks of life, guiding with pure intentions or “foul” ones. Those with power know how to cover their tracks, buying off hungry young men with a taste for wealth and success and will do anything in the power to protect their own, even if it means blood on their hands, even if young girls are defiled and brutalized. If you want to rise to the top then you learn fast it’s who you know.

What makes this novel deeply engaging is that it is believable. We hear about vile, monstrous acts (which often gets buried faster than we can blink) committed by famous, powerful men and that’s only the stories that get exposed. Imagine how many untold victims are out there in our wide world. The novel somehow manages to be many things-mystery, coming of age, thriller, crime, and has a strong message about what it means to be a woman without feeling like something I’ve read before. These women are not wilting flowers, not by any means and that fear moves through them like electricity around this group of men drives home how frightening power in the wrong hands can be. They feel like trapped animals, and to protect those you love you can’t always fight for the truth. I am always sold when it comes to mountain fiction, the heart of those who make a living off their natural surroundings and don’t bend to the expectations of polite society I tend to find impressive, not something to pity. I was already invested but it turned into so much more, and yet it doesn’t disorient you with the directions it goes. The story flows just like the tea colored water they live beside. How Dirk Wittenborn fit a statue, a sort of wounded creature itself, into the tale is fiction at its best. What happens to the women when they are tenderly young and fragile as much as when they are older and wiser, how their truth is buried with complicity is like shining a spotlight on a beast from the darkest crevices of the earth. I loved it, if only we could root out all the low down dirty, slithering creatures in real life! But, as Flo says, “If you don’t have the grit to finish a job, don’t start it”, wise advice indeed! You must add this to your June reading list if you thirst for stories about deceit, power, nature (human and animal), survival and revenge. Loved it!

Publication Date: June 16, 2020

W.W. Norton & Company

My biggest regret with this book is that it isn't going to be released until later this year and I can't talk about it with anyone yet! What a wild ride!

Evie Quimbly raised in the poor and marred by a large birthmark in backwoods of the Adirondacks knows who she is and how to handle herself. However, she may have met her match when she comes up against the members of the Mohawk exclusive men's hunting and fishing club near her family home. Evie and party girl heiress, Lulu, who arrives on the scene live in the massive compound that she inherited next to the Mohawk club become unlikely friends bound together by loss and violence. Together they square off against the predatory chauvinistic secret group, The Lost Boys, of upper crust power brokers that marry, exploit, and control the finances of uber-rich women for their own personal gain. This turns into a heavyweight battle with each throwing hard punches and neither willing to throw in the towel. This book will have you rooting for Girl Power!

Few books are absolutely perfect though. I felt a few things distracted from the story: Why use names from To Kill a Mockingbird? Characters named Scout and Dill, referencing Gregory Peck at Atticus Finch. All made me look for deeper hidden meanings rather than just go where the story was taking me. Also just a couple of things that required more suspension of belief during the scenes at the cabin than I was really willing to buy: no electricity but TV screens? Completely un-forecasted snow storm of blizzard proportions?

But all in all it was an amazing book that hooked me like a Brook Trout on a fly right out of the Dog Pond and reeled me in!

Many thanks to W. W. Norton & Company and #NetGalley for allowing me to read and review an advanced copy of this book.

From a terrible rape that goes unreported comes a tale of intrigue, murder, revenge, and justice. The list of characters is long but the main women are Flo, Evie, Lulu, and Chloe. The plot is amazingly full of twist and turns I never saw coming. I am not a big fan of mystery books but this one held my attention, although at times I found the situations to be a little unreasonable. It is a story that will keep you guessing, when you think you have it figured out it will make another turn. All in all a good read.