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The Stone Girl
Three women scarred by a chain of misogyny and death at the hands of a secret brotherhood seek a reckoning.
The Lost Boys, an exclusive group of wealthy and powerful men, have built an impregnable empire by preying on rich and troubled women. Within the stately confines of an Adirondack fortress they lay the plans that carry them around the globe, infiltrating lives and fortunes. Their depredations, ingeniously disguised, have devastating consequences.
At seventeen, Evie Quimby, raised wild and poor in the Adirondacks, attracts the attention of Win Langley, the most predatory of the Lost Boys. When his obsessive interest turns into horrific violence, it sets off a chain of events that shatters Evie’s life. Years later, it costs Evie the one thing she can’t bear to lose. But when an investigation into a murdered Lost Boy pulls Evie back into their snare, Evie bands with her formidable mother and an embattled heiress, both victims of the Lost Boys, in pursuit of an unusual and heart- stopping vengeance.
The Lost Boys, an exclusive group of wealthy and powerful men, have built an impregnable empire by preying on rich and troubled women. Within the stately confines of an Adirondack fortress they lay the plans that carry them around the globe, infiltrating lives and fortunes. Their depredations, ingeniously disguised, have devastating consequences.
At seventeen, Evie Quimby, raised wild and poor in the Adirondacks, attracts the attention of Win Langley, the most predatory of the Lost Boys. When his obsessive interest turns into horrific violence, it sets off a chain of events that shatters Evie’s life. Years later, it costs Evie the one thing she can’t bear to lose. But when an investigation into a murdered Lost Boy pulls Evie back into their snare, Evie bands with her formidable mother and an embattled heiress, both victims of the Lost Boys, in pursuit of an unusual and heart- stopping vengeance.
480 pages, Hardcover
First published June 16, 2020
459 people are currently reading
2719 people want to read
About the author
Dirk Wittenborn
16 books63 followersDIRK WITTENBORN is a novelist (Fierce People, Pharmakon), screenwriter and the Emmy-nominated producer of the HBO documentary, Born Rich. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter and summers on the wrong side of the tracks in East Hampton, NY.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 128 reviews
October 24, 2020
Stone Girl is a page-turning, if at times one-dimensional look at how the rich and powerful can get away anything – including rape and murder.
The premise: Evie is an adopted woman with a disfiguring facial birthmark. That, and her hippie adopted parents – leave her on the outskirts of society. A scary encounter with some of the town’s unsavory element brings her to the attention of Lulu – an emotionally damaged, addicted recently-engaged heiress – and the two form an unlikely bond.
When Lulu’s fiancee is found dead in her wedding dress, the plot spins into motion. In alternating chapters, we meet the grown-up Evie, who is now the single mother of a daughter who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and must find a bone-marrow transplant.
Those are the bare bones of the plot and right from the start, there are nefarious threads to a group of very wealthy men who marry very wealthy wives and who call themselves “The Lost Boys” (think: Peter Pan). Gradually, we learn what the Lost Boys are all abut and how their “fraternity” is key to several open mystery threads.
For lovers of suspense, this will be a compelling read Personally I found the character of Lulu to be too evocative of “damaged rich girls” and the men seemed a little too stereotypical evil without redeeming qualities. I also guessed early on one of the plot twists. Many reading friends loved this book and I am just one outlier. You may, indeed, love it.
The premise: Evie is an adopted woman with a disfiguring facial birthmark. That, and her hippie adopted parents – leave her on the outskirts of society. A scary encounter with some of the town’s unsavory element brings her to the attention of Lulu – an emotionally damaged, addicted recently-engaged heiress – and the two form an unlikely bond.
When Lulu’s fiancee is found dead in her wedding dress, the plot spins into motion. In alternating chapters, we meet the grown-up Evie, who is now the single mother of a daughter who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and must find a bone-marrow transplant.
Those are the bare bones of the plot and right from the start, there are nefarious threads to a group of very wealthy men who marry very wealthy wives and who call themselves “The Lost Boys” (think: Peter Pan). Gradually, we learn what the Lost Boys are all abut and how their “fraternity” is key to several open mystery threads.
For lovers of suspense, this will be a compelling read Personally I found the character of Lulu to be too evocative of “damaged rich girls” and the men seemed a little too stereotypical evil without redeeming qualities. I also guessed early on one of the plot twists. Many reading friends loved this book and I am just one outlier. You may, indeed, love it.
June 1, 2021
This is an exhausting read, in the sense that it's all plot. There's really nothing else but plot, very little character development or physical description, and there's a plot twist about every 5 pages (in a 459 page book). The first 150 pages or so are wildly nonlinear and very confusing.
But you might enjoy this if you like plot twists and #MeToo revenge stories. A wealthy Wall Street bro drugs and rapes a teen girl at an upscale Adirondack camp, and then haunts her life for the next twenty years.
Dotted throughout are banalities which are stated as though eternal truths. Already on the first page the author is telling us: "The women were finding out the truth about themselves. How far were they willing to go? How much were they ready to risk, when there was no making things right, just a remote chance of making them a little less wrong?" The women here are Evie, the raped teenager now in her 30s; her heiress best friend Lulu; and her backwoods mother Flo. Evie becomes a sculpture restorer and her teenage daughter Chloe thinks, "It didn't occur to me until much later that the thing she was really trying to fix was herself." Evie hasn't told Chloe the details of the rape but decides to, because "If a mother doesn't trust her daughter with the story, neither one of them can ever learn anything from it." As an adult, Evie has the large port wine stain birthmark on her face removed. Flo asks her, "Why did you wait so long?" Evie says, "I needed to learn more about what men wanted from me." No, I didn't understand what that meant either.
It's a rare novelist who can write convincingly about art and artists, and Wittenborn's effort is especially hapless. Evie (the titular "stone girl") becomes an art restorer suddenly, at age 17. She's later described as "self-taught," but it's not even that: she looks at a broken statue and instantly intuits how to carry out her craft. "The longer she stood in front of the statue, the more certain Evie was that it had something to teach her. Not just about art or beauty, but about how to look at things. Evie felt as if a window she didn't know existed was opening inside her." Lulu has thrown a 2,000-year-old statue, breaking it into hundreds of pieces, and with no training Evie is able to repair it so that even experts can't tell the difference. She looks at herself in the mirror and runs her fingers over her muscles and tendons to figure out how they connect her throat to her chest and then gets busy with the epoxy. Even Mozart wrote baby pieces, but Evie is a full-fledged genius right out of the bag.
In books like this not everything is required to make complete sense, but given that the book's theme is women's strength and endurance in the face of toxic masculinity, maybe the anecdote about Lulu and Evie laughing hysterically when Evie tells the story of "Dr. Bliss, the French gynecologist who had asked her out on a date in the middle of a pelvic exam" should have dialed down the giggles.
April 24, 2020
via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
"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
"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
August 29, 2020
Best Sorbet Book of the Year
THE STONE GIRL tells the story of three generations of women in a family (one being a teenager), living up in a remote area of the Adirondacks (at least part of their lives). I gave it five stars for being the best of its type. This isn’t literature, although there is surely literary pepperings, and there are oft-used tropes and a requirement to periodically suspend incredulity. The plot’s the thing, but the characterizations of these women are well wrought, which is why I was enchanted and thrilled in equal measure. Wittenborn, who has written for HBO, is a master of plot performance, and kept me turning the pages eagerly while I ignored my immediate environment, except for the story. Dinner could have burned and only fierce hunger would have alerted me, as I was acutely engulfed in this tale. Best popcorn book of the year!
References to #MeToo, I think, would have to be superficial. The movement calls for outing these heinous men, shaming them in public and on social media, and also filing lawsuits. Equal justice through legal means. In STONE GIRL, we are talking more about justice into your own hands. In this case, Evie, a top tier art restorer of sculptures living in Paris, has survived a mendacious assault by one of a group called the Lost Boys, who are a group of dashing, charismatic, highly attractive men who have graduated from Ivy League colleges and are willing to live both inside and outside the law. Evie has a daughter with cancer, and her mother, up in the Adirondacks, hasn’t seen her in years. The man who assaulted Evie hasn’t gotten his comeuppance, and seventeen years later, Evie still suffers from these scars.
The wisps of lively literary spritzes include Evie’s work as a restorer; much is said over the flaws, blemishes, and cracks in a once intact sculpture, and Evie’s precision in returning it into a whole and spotless form again. This parallels Evie’s youth, as she was born with a port wine stain on her otherwise exquisite face. She sustained repeated taunting, teasing, and even threats to her safety from the boys and teens in her town, a corruptible group of bullies that thrive on this behavior.
Evie’s mother, Flo, homeschooled her instead of throwing her to the wolves day after day, and tight her the importance of literature and critical thinking. Her father, Buddy, edified her on fishing, skinning and survival skills in the wilds of their domain. Her solid childhood and quick witted mind, as well as her curious nature, lent itself to Evie’s love of repairing what is flawed.
From the opening pages, I knew this would be a wild and thrilling ride. I was led, yes, but not condescended to, and the voices of the main characters kept them visually dimensional. Yes, there are archetypal “villains,” the Lost Boy scoundrels, but there’s even bad to worse to worst on the palette of malefactors. However, despite some convenient plot points or predictable outcomes, there were still a few surprises. And, oh yes, and a catamount! It wasn’t so much the destination—the journey is at top speed and compelling. I can already imagine the HBO series that I’m sure will be created. Enjoy the roller coaster ride.
THE STONE GIRL tells the story of three generations of women in a family (one being a teenager), living up in a remote area of the Adirondacks (at least part of their lives). I gave it five stars for being the best of its type. This isn’t literature, although there is surely literary pepperings, and there are oft-used tropes and a requirement to periodically suspend incredulity. The plot’s the thing, but the characterizations of these women are well wrought, which is why I was enchanted and thrilled in equal measure. Wittenborn, who has written for HBO, is a master of plot performance, and kept me turning the pages eagerly while I ignored my immediate environment, except for the story. Dinner could have burned and only fierce hunger would have alerted me, as I was acutely engulfed in this tale. Best popcorn book of the year!
References to #MeToo, I think, would have to be superficial. The movement calls for outing these heinous men, shaming them in public and on social media, and also filing lawsuits. Equal justice through legal means. In STONE GIRL, we are talking more about justice into your own hands. In this case, Evie, a top tier art restorer of sculptures living in Paris, has survived a mendacious assault by one of a group called the Lost Boys, who are a group of dashing, charismatic, highly attractive men who have graduated from Ivy League colleges and are willing to live both inside and outside the law. Evie has a daughter with cancer, and her mother, up in the Adirondacks, hasn’t seen her in years. The man who assaulted Evie hasn’t gotten his comeuppance, and seventeen years later, Evie still suffers from these scars.
The wisps of lively literary spritzes include Evie’s work as a restorer; much is said over the flaws, blemishes, and cracks in a once intact sculpture, and Evie’s precision in returning it into a whole and spotless form again. This parallels Evie’s youth, as she was born with a port wine stain on her otherwise exquisite face. She sustained repeated taunting, teasing, and even threats to her safety from the boys and teens in her town, a corruptible group of bullies that thrive on this behavior.
Evie’s mother, Flo, homeschooled her instead of throwing her to the wolves day after day, and tight her the importance of literature and critical thinking. Her father, Buddy, edified her on fishing, skinning and survival skills in the wilds of their domain. Her solid childhood and quick witted mind, as well as her curious nature, lent itself to Evie’s love of repairing what is flawed.
From the opening pages, I knew this would be a wild and thrilling ride. I was led, yes, but not condescended to, and the voices of the main characters kept them visually dimensional. Yes, there are archetypal “villains,” the Lost Boy scoundrels, but there’s even bad to worse to worst on the palette of malefactors. However, despite some convenient plot points or predictable outcomes, there were still a few surprises. And, oh yes, and a catamount! It wasn’t so much the destination—the journey is at top speed and compelling. I can already imagine the HBO series that I’m sure will be created. Enjoy the roller coaster ride.
September 9, 2020
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 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 lives 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.
Evie Quimbly raised 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 lives 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.
July 8, 2020
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.
August 14, 2020
My first book by this author. I liked the story which is basically a revenge plot. I thought it took a long time to develop. The author uses italics to tell the thoughts of a fourteen year old. I found this distracting and not very effective. The plot is ingenious and the characters of Evie and Lulu quite good but on the other hand that of Scout leaves a lot to desired. The setting is the Adirondack National Park and the descriptions of it are quite good.
May 11, 2020
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."
February 13, 2023
Reading this book was like being on a roller coaster! It reads like a screenplay and I’d love to see it onscreen, despite knowing the ending. There are enough twists and turns to give the reader whiplash. Set in the Adirondacks, an area I am very familiar with, the plot focuses on the evil wealthy, powerful men do to women without power. But…this time, they have picked the wrong woman!
June 21, 2020
Men suck. "The Lost Boys", a group of young, beautiful, wealthy men marry rich woman and systematically use their money and in some instances, kill their wives. These men have all the power and love to make women suffer. They didn't count on some strong women taking them down.
March 26, 2020
I loved this book! This is a real page turner. Once you start reading, you will not want to stop. This book is like a speeding train. It does not stop.
September 9, 2022
Wow!
This gritty, cat and mouse thriller sure was huge on (often implausible) plot, but such a wild ride that I found it impossible not to become totally engrossed. Not always an easy read due to the subject matter (entitled, perverted white rich men’s systematic abuse of women), I loved protagonist Evie’s character - a fiercely protective, smart, practical straight-talker and straight-shooter (literally) - who set out to avenge villains from her past. Lulu was a great side-kick (although her character was occasionally stretched a bit far) and I also loved the steadfast and loyal hero, Dill. Evie’s totally irreverent adoptive parents, Flo and Buddy also added a great dimension to the story.
The dry humour peppered throughout this book provided unexpected relief to the page turning suspense.
Possibly a touch too long (I found myself wondering what else could possibly go wrong about three quarters of the way though), but the author skilfully pulled it all back together for a satisfying conclusion.
This gritty, cat and mouse thriller sure was huge on (often implausible) plot, but such a wild ride that I found it impossible not to become totally engrossed. Not always an easy read due to the subject matter (entitled, perverted white rich men’s systematic abuse of women), I loved protagonist Evie’s character - a fiercely protective, smart, practical straight-talker and straight-shooter (literally) - who set out to avenge villains from her past. Lulu was a great side-kick (although her character was occasionally stretched a bit far) and I also loved the steadfast and loyal hero, Dill. Evie’s totally irreverent adoptive parents, Flo and Buddy also added a great dimension to the story.
The dry humour peppered throughout this book provided unexpected relief to the page turning suspense.
Possibly a touch too long (I found myself wondering what else could possibly go wrong about three quarters of the way though), but the author skilfully pulled it all back together for a satisfying conclusion.
December 24, 2020
I’ve never read anything by this author. The cover caught my eye, along with the title. I was wondering what I’m the world can this be about. It took me a little bit to get into it. Don’t let this discourage you as it needs this to build the world and story. There’s a lot to it. It’s a tell of how powerful people and rich ones can run everything around them. So true. A little taste of power can corrupt a person. They can get away with anything. The victims have no say or anyone to protect them. This is very well written. The characters are great. I feel like I know them. The ladies were some brave ones. I loved it!
March 7, 2022
Wow wow wow. This novel is gripping from beginning to end, through all 400+ pages. I’m at a loss for words right now, my mind caught up in the details of this book. Simply put, this may be the best novel I have ever read.
November 16, 2023
A great read exploring the dark deeds a combination of misogyny and privilege can enable and the ability of victims to survive and plot revenge. The plot sweeps you along and, though there were minor irritations (some of the plot twists were not particularly surprising, some of the characters a bit one dimensional) I was wholly invested in the female main characters and loved the exploration of their relationships with each other.
March 11, 2024
It took me so long to finish this book, lots of heavy topics. The last 25% of the book really picked up and there was a nice little plot twist that I enjoyed.
May 4, 2020
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.
January 7, 2021
3.5 stars
May 31, 2020
Loved the strong female characters. It was fast moving and kept my attention; though it's necessary to suspend belief, it's a well written story with lots of threads woven throughout
November 24, 2023
What a rollercoaster of a ride it was reading this fast-paced, terrifying account of the actions of a secret organization of well-educated, powerful, and handsome misogynists based at a fortress-like lodge in the Adirondacks of New York. These men, called the "Lost Boys," live in big cities all across the country and help each other marry incredibly rich and vulnerable women that they then steal from and manipulate 'til death do they part. And sometimes death is helped on its way in violent and cunning ways, leaving the men of this boys club with tremendous fortunes that they can use to buy up even more power and influence. Evie is an innocent young art restorer who falls victim to one of the member's sexual depravities. In her effort to expose the man, she soon finds out that he and his friends are much too powerful and well-connected to be brought down in legal ways.
October 1, 2022
This is a five-star masterpiece.
On arrival, the book looked and felt so amazing and the pages have a really silky feel to them.
As for the book, my only negative is the blurb. I was lucky enough to receive an ARC copy and I had no idea what to expect as after reading the blurb I was still clueless.
The book is about Evie Quimby - we get to experience her from childhood through to adulthood and her current day. Her childhood is difficult as she has a birthmark that covers half her face which makes her the target for bullying and her nickname “giblet-face”. Evie soon makes friends with the local millionaire and celebrity Lulu but through this friendship she finds herself raped and video-taped by one of Lulu’s “friends”. We then experience Evie’s adulthood and part of the story is told through her child Chloe, who has cancer and is dying - unless a donor is found.
This novel is just beautifully written and full of interest and thrills throughout. I loved Evie and Chloe and Lulu and Flo, such beautiful characters with their own challenges.
The novel also deals sensitively with a huge topic of sexual assault and the difficulties it can bring to a survivor when your abuser is more powerful and rich.
This book has been my best read of 2020 and I was so nervous to pick it up, not really knowing what to expect. I can assure you it is a fantastic and gripping read.
This book has had me crying and laughing and on tenterhooks throughout.
Highly highly recommend.
On arrival, the book looked and felt so amazing and the pages have a really silky feel to them.
As for the book, my only negative is the blurb. I was lucky enough to receive an ARC copy and I had no idea what to expect as after reading the blurb I was still clueless.
The book is about Evie Quimby - we get to experience her from childhood through to adulthood and her current day. Her childhood is difficult as she has a birthmark that covers half her face which makes her the target for bullying and her nickname “giblet-face”. Evie soon makes friends with the local millionaire and celebrity Lulu but through this friendship she finds herself raped and video-taped by one of Lulu’s “friends”. We then experience Evie’s adulthood and part of the story is told through her child Chloe, who has cancer and is dying - unless a donor is found.
This novel is just beautifully written and full of interest and thrills throughout. I loved Evie and Chloe and Lulu and Flo, such beautiful characters with their own challenges.
The novel also deals sensitively with a huge topic of sexual assault and the difficulties it can bring to a survivor when your abuser is more powerful and rich.
This book has been my best read of 2020 and I was so nervous to pick it up, not really knowing what to expect. I can assure you it is a fantastic and gripping read.
This book has had me crying and laughing and on tenterhooks throughout.
Highly highly recommend.
July 14, 2020
A Slap at Men Abusing Women
The Stone Girl by Dirk Wittenborn accuses men of their attitudes towards women, from young boys calling them names, to young men taking advantage of them, to their husbands using them. Evie learns at 17 that the opposite sex in her small town is mean, stingy, thoughtless, and untrustworthy and it takes over her whole life. Except for her direct family, father and mother, she can rely on no one.
The Stone Girl by Dirk Wittenborn accuses men of their attitudes towards women, from young boys calling them names, to young men taking advantage of them, to their husbands using them. Evie learns at 17 that the opposite sex in her small town is mean, stingy, thoughtless, and untrustworthy and it takes over her whole life. Except for her direct family, father and mother, she can rely on no one.
September 9, 2020
Whether you enjoy this thriller depends on your expectations. It is set mainly in the Adirondacks and concerns a woman, Evie, getting revenge on a man who raped her when she was a teenager. The man is a wealthy billionaire, one of a group of men who prey upon women sexually and financially. The group maintains a members-only hunting resort near the small town where Evie grows up.
Evie has been a victim of bullies all her life. She was subjected to their torments as a girl by male classmates who relentlessly teased her about a large birthmark covering half of her face. The boys calling themselves the Morlocks vandalized property and generally made a nuisance of themselves, but always managed to slip out of formal charges. Evie’s only refuge from them was spending time with her father, Buddy, a rugged outdoorsman who taught her to hunt, shoot, and fish. Flo, her mother, is also a stable influence in Evie’s life but worries that she can’t protect her.
When Evie has a chance encounter with Lulu Mannheim, a wealthy heiress who rescues her from a sticky situation with the Morlocks, she finds she has met a kindred spirit and a mentor. Through Lulu, Evie is granted opportunities she could never imagine. Lulu, a capricious thirty-something rebel, defies society’s rules and lives by her own code of fairness. Lulu helps Evie discover a talent for restoring artwork when she repairs a rare broken statue.
Lulu also becomes the avenue by which Evie is introduced to members of the Mohawk Club, the exclusive resort for billionaires who hunt game. One of the members offers to pay for Evie’s education at a prestigious school. Evie is little prepared for what happens next, which upends her life. The culmination of this part of the story has Evie living in Paris, married to a renowned art restorer, doing restoration work herself, and having a child, Chloe.
The book alternates between an omniscient third-person narrator viewpoint and those of Evie, Flo, and Chloe. While the story contains truly suspenseful scenes, I found my inner voice interrupting me, asking, “how did she do that?” This distraction kept me from altogether buying into what I was reading. Because the storyline is so large, the author compresses much of the story in information dumps.
If you’re in the mood for a revenge thriller where misogynists get their due, you’ll find this book entertaining. It has plot twists, a storyline from Hollywood, and plenty of action. The novel covers years and has a complicated plot. If, however, you’re looking for more nuanced characters, you might find it lacking in substance.
I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Evie has been a victim of bullies all her life. She was subjected to their torments as a girl by male classmates who relentlessly teased her about a large birthmark covering half of her face. The boys calling themselves the Morlocks vandalized property and generally made a nuisance of themselves, but always managed to slip out of formal charges. Evie’s only refuge from them was spending time with her father, Buddy, a rugged outdoorsman who taught her to hunt, shoot, and fish. Flo, her mother, is also a stable influence in Evie’s life but worries that she can’t protect her.
When Evie has a chance encounter with Lulu Mannheim, a wealthy heiress who rescues her from a sticky situation with the Morlocks, she finds she has met a kindred spirit and a mentor. Through Lulu, Evie is granted opportunities she could never imagine. Lulu, a capricious thirty-something rebel, defies society’s rules and lives by her own code of fairness. Lulu helps Evie discover a talent for restoring artwork when she repairs a rare broken statue.
Lulu also becomes the avenue by which Evie is introduced to members of the Mohawk Club, the exclusive resort for billionaires who hunt game. One of the members offers to pay for Evie’s education at a prestigious school. Evie is little prepared for what happens next, which upends her life. The culmination of this part of the story has Evie living in Paris, married to a renowned art restorer, doing restoration work herself, and having a child, Chloe.
The book alternates between an omniscient third-person narrator viewpoint and those of Evie, Flo, and Chloe. While the story contains truly suspenseful scenes, I found my inner voice interrupting me, asking, “how did she do that?” This distraction kept me from altogether buying into what I was reading. Because the storyline is so large, the author compresses much of the story in information dumps.
If you’re in the mood for a revenge thriller where misogynists get their due, you’ll find this book entertaining. It has plot twists, a storyline from Hollywood, and plenty of action. The novel covers years and has a complicated plot. If, however, you’re looking for more nuanced characters, you might find it lacking in substance.
I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
August 27, 2020
Don’t be daunted by the 400+ pages of “The Stone Girl”, by Dirk Wittenborn, because it grabs the reader immediately and the pages fly quickly thereafter. Wittenborn has produced for HBO and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if this #MeToo inspired thriller ends up there. If it does, and it turns into yet another lurid and voyeuristic “Violence Against Women’s Bodies as Entertainment” show, it will have missed it’s mark entirely. But here’s hoping it won’t be!
The story begins with three woman, Evie, Flo, and Lulu, digging up weapons from a garden in the New York Adirondacks; foreshadowing a reckoning with a man who has hurt them in some immeasurable way. Soon we meet a first person narrator in Evie’s daughter Chloe, who advances the narrative from her point of view.
It’s a propulsive page-turner and you’ll have to suspend your disbelief regularly; there are aspects of the plot that are preposterously unrealistic, but that didn’t really distract because this novel isn’t intended to be literary or prize-worthy; it’s an addicting thriller.
I was disappointed that the arch villain in “The Stone Girl”, is given a back-story in which his evil proclivities are caused in early childhood by his mother and grandmother; I was dismayed that Wittenborn went with that tired trope, and I wonder had the story been told by a female writer, if this stereotypical “blame the mother” would have been omitted.
But even that criticism doesn’t take away from the fact that I couldn’t put this one down.
For a more literary novel about man’s inhumanity to women, I recommend “Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club” by Megan Gail Coles (note: it’s not about hunting or a gun club; the title is a metaphor.)
The story begins with three woman, Evie, Flo, and Lulu, digging up weapons from a garden in the New York Adirondacks; foreshadowing a reckoning with a man who has hurt them in some immeasurable way. Soon we meet a first person narrator in Evie’s daughter Chloe, who advances the narrative from her point of view.
It’s a propulsive page-turner and you’ll have to suspend your disbelief regularly; there are aspects of the plot that are preposterously unrealistic, but that didn’t really distract because this novel isn’t intended to be literary or prize-worthy; it’s an addicting thriller.
I was disappointed that the arch villain in “The Stone Girl”, is given a back-story in which his evil proclivities are caused in early childhood by his mother and grandmother; I was dismayed that Wittenborn went with that tired trope, and I wonder had the story been told by a female writer, if this stereotypical “blame the mother” would have been omitted.
But even that criticism doesn’t take away from the fact that I couldn’t put this one down.
For a more literary novel about man’s inhumanity to women, I recommend “Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club” by Megan Gail Coles (note: it’s not about hunting or a gun club; the title is a metaphor.)
gave-up
July 16, 2020After locales including the Adirondack Mountains of upstate NY, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Paris and NYC from the viewpoints of at least three people and settings ranging back and forth from 2018 to 1982 and points in-between, I was only 50 pages into the book. I didn't know where it was going and didn't care; I quit- my TBR pile is too large.
Deep in the Adirondack Mountains lies a speck of a town called Rangeley. There isn’t much to this tiny town, but it is at the crossroads of serene fishing streams off the Mink River, pristine hunting grounds in the surrounding mountains, and vast estates of the extremely rich. It is also the gateway to the Mohawk Club, which houses the Lost Boys, an exclusive group of wealthy and powerful men with global influence and a taste for depravity. Raised wild and poor in the shadows of the Mohawk Club, Evie Quimby was a teenager when she first fell victim to the Lost Boys. Seventeen years later, she is now a world-renowned art restorer famous for repairing even the most-broken statues. After spending half her life in Paris, establishing her reputation and raising her daughter Chloé, Evie has come a long way from the girl who left Rangeley behind. But when Chloé receives a visit from an elegant stranger who claims to be an old friend of her mother’s, the ghosts of Evie’s past return in full force, pulling her back to the North Country of her girlhood and into the tangled, intricate web of the Lost Boys. Evie bands together with her formidable mother and an embattled heiress, both victims of the Lost Boys, in pursuit of an unusual and heart-stopping vengeance.
Deep in the Adirondack Mountains lies a speck of a town called Rangeley. There isn’t much to this tiny town, but it is at the crossroads of serene fishing streams off the Mink River, pristine hunting grounds in the surrounding mountains, and vast estates of the extremely rich. It is also the gateway to the Mohawk Club, which houses the Lost Boys, an exclusive group of wealthy and powerful men with global influence and a taste for depravity. Raised wild and poor in the shadows of the Mohawk Club, Evie Quimby was a teenager when she first fell victim to the Lost Boys. Seventeen years later, she is now a world-renowned art restorer famous for repairing even the most-broken statues. After spending half her life in Paris, establishing her reputation and raising her daughter Chloé, Evie has come a long way from the girl who left Rangeley behind. But when Chloé receives a visit from an elegant stranger who claims to be an old friend of her mother’s, the ghosts of Evie’s past return in full force, pulling her back to the North Country of her girlhood and into the tangled, intricate web of the Lost Boys. Evie bands together with her formidable mother and an embattled heiress, both victims of the Lost Boys, in pursuit of an unusual and heart-stopping vengeance.
September 30, 2020
A fast, exciting read. More than a little far fetched; while I can certainly believe Win and his ilk would be of the opinion that women are for them to enjoy and use, if Win had already had a similar incident in his past come close to ruining his chances of gaining an internship (and eventually a position) at a top notch financial firm, why would he do something very similar to Evie AND FILM IT?
I also wonder about the chances of a 13-year-old girl kicking a classmate in the groin with such force that he suffered permanent bodily injury, and if she did manage to hurt him that badly, not facing any penalty beyond being kicked out of school. I'd have expected the youth and his parents to press charges.
In addition, we're asked to believe that a woman who had just escaped from a psychiatric ward could walk into a different hospital, have her bone marrow harvested (without calling her doctor, apparently, because the doctor would almost certainly have known she'd been on an involuntary hold), then walk out again, go home, and wind up on the pavement 10 stories below her apartment. Really? And then the hospital calls the mother of the intended recipient of the bone marrow transplant?
How would you get two captured mountain lions from Mexico to the Finger Lakes region, and how would nobody have seen them?
These are just some of the plot points that made me wonder how much disbelief we're expected to suspend. It was a good quick read but the more I think about it the more I pick holes in the story.
I also wonder about the chances of a 13-year-old girl kicking a classmate in the groin with such force that he suffered permanent bodily injury, and if she did manage to hurt him that badly, not facing any penalty beyond being kicked out of school. I'd have expected the youth and his parents to press charges.
In addition, we're asked to believe that a woman who had just escaped from a psychiatric ward could walk into a different hospital, have her bone marrow harvested (without calling her doctor, apparently, because the doctor would almost certainly have known she'd been on an involuntary hold), then walk out again, go home, and wind up on the pavement 10 stories below her apartment. Really? And then the hospital calls the mother of the intended recipient of the bone marrow transplant?
How would you get two captured mountain lions from Mexico to the Finger Lakes region, and how would nobody have seen them?
These are just some of the plot points that made me wonder how much disbelief we're expected to suspend. It was a good quick read but the more I think about it the more I pick holes in the story.
June 7, 2020
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!
Thanks,
Monica
PS: I'm on YouTube! Find me as LittleBadBooks!
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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!
Thanks,
Monica
PS: I'm on YouTube! Find me as LittleBadBooks!
June 18, 2020
Thank you to Goodreads Giveaways & W. W. Norton Company for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on July 7, 2020. Also please note a Trigger Warning that there are scenes and themes of sexual violence in this book.
This book had a lot going on - mostly in a good way. It's a story of revenge intertwined with drama, suspense, dark comedy, and in the end, what it means to get justice. With dark history behind these characters, you closely follow the story of one woman, Evie, partially in her past and partially in the present. The first half of the novel ping pongs between Evie's story of growing up in the Adirondack Mountains, and how she got into the positions that changed her life forever, to present day as she tells her daughter her story. The second half of the book then dives into the revenge saga and seeking justice for who and what did her wrong all those years ago. It is filled with fascinating characters, vivid settings, and an itch to know the truth.
What makes this book a 5 to a 4 star for me is the way it was formatted. I felt it was choppy at times, and that it ultimately could have been cut down to 400 pages or less (rather than the 458 pages).
Overall, I was hooked by the story, and recommend it. I grew to truly care about the characters with the author's vivid descriptions and story telling throughout the book - which to me says it all.
This book had a lot going on - mostly in a good way. It's a story of revenge intertwined with drama, suspense, dark comedy, and in the end, what it means to get justice. With dark history behind these characters, you closely follow the story of one woman, Evie, partially in her past and partially in the present. The first half of the novel ping pongs between Evie's story of growing up in the Adirondack Mountains, and how she got into the positions that changed her life forever, to present day as she tells her daughter her story. The second half of the book then dives into the revenge saga and seeking justice for who and what did her wrong all those years ago. It is filled with fascinating characters, vivid settings, and an itch to know the truth.
What makes this book a 5 to a 4 star for me is the way it was formatted. I felt it was choppy at times, and that it ultimately could have been cut down to 400 pages or less (rather than the 458 pages).
Overall, I was hooked by the story, and recommend it. I grew to truly care about the characters with the author's vivid descriptions and story telling throughout the book - which to me says it all.
August 10, 2020
What a fabulous story. I couldn’t put it down once I started reading this.
The story centres around the Quimby family, and in particular Evie. Adopted as a child she has been raised in the Adirondack Mountains in a small town called Rangeley. The family are poor and live through trapping wild animals.
As a teenager Evie becomes friendly with the wild, and very wealthy, Lulu, a friendship that will stand the test of time. However, she also becomes a victim of one of the Lost Boys. A group of powerful men who target wealthy woman for their wives and keep their more unpleasant personalities for outside of the family.
To escape the memories of her attack from one of the Lost Boys Evie runs away to Paris and marries Jacques Clement and they have a daughter Chloe. Now a famous art restorer Evie’s past comes back to haunt her and she resolves to return to her childhood home and wreak her revenge.
As an animal lover I did find the explicit descriptions of hunting and trapping somewhat disturbing but the main storyline was such that I managed to skip past these parts of the book.
This is a really well written and riveting book that kept my interest from start to finish. I was championing Evie from the start and desperately wanted her to expose the Lost Boys. I would definitely recommend this book and will be looking out for this author in the future
The story centres around the Quimby family, and in particular Evie. Adopted as a child she has been raised in the Adirondack Mountains in a small town called Rangeley. The family are poor and live through trapping wild animals.
As a teenager Evie becomes friendly with the wild, and very wealthy, Lulu, a friendship that will stand the test of time. However, she also becomes a victim of one of the Lost Boys. A group of powerful men who target wealthy woman for their wives and keep their more unpleasant personalities for outside of the family.
To escape the memories of her attack from one of the Lost Boys Evie runs away to Paris and marries Jacques Clement and they have a daughter Chloe. Now a famous art restorer Evie’s past comes back to haunt her and she resolves to return to her childhood home and wreak her revenge.
As an animal lover I did find the explicit descriptions of hunting and trapping somewhat disturbing but the main storyline was such that I managed to skip past these parts of the book.
This is a really well written and riveting book that kept my interest from start to finish. I was championing Evie from the start and desperately wanted her to expose the Lost Boys. I would definitely recommend this book and will be looking out for this author in the future
September 17, 2020
More like 3.5 stars.
I’m not quite sure of how this book made it onto my radar, but even after I got it out of the library, the synopsis on the jacket made me leery — bleak upstate NY setting, evil cabal of wrongdoers, just not really my thing. But once I got started, I found it to be a real page-turner, and maybe with a little more depth than the average thriller. Women take center stage in the novel, as the main protagonist is semi-rescued by a mysterious man who sets her on a path as an art restorer then viciously abuses her and she vows revenge. Some of the plot elements get a little thick, as when the protagonist’s daughter gets cancer and needs both money and information — both of which are found through rather far fetched deus ex machina (though in fairness, the money comes from another character whose insertion into the novel is pretty organic). The thing is, who cares? Does anyone read a thriller like this expecting realism? The fun is in the resourcefulness of the women, who are surprising at most turns (not EVERY turn — there’s one big twist that I saw coming a mile, or at least a hundred pages or so, away). Overall, it was maybe a little long, maybe a little clunky in places, but I really liked it, and would read another book by the same guy if one turned up in my queue somehow.
Grade: B+
I’m not quite sure of how this book made it onto my radar, but even after I got it out of the library, the synopsis on the jacket made me leery — bleak upstate NY setting, evil cabal of wrongdoers, just not really my thing. But once I got started, I found it to be a real page-turner, and maybe with a little more depth than the average thriller. Women take center stage in the novel, as the main protagonist is semi-rescued by a mysterious man who sets her on a path as an art restorer then viciously abuses her and she vows revenge. Some of the plot elements get a little thick, as when the protagonist’s daughter gets cancer and needs both money and information — both of which are found through rather far fetched deus ex machina (though in fairness, the money comes from another character whose insertion into the novel is pretty organic). The thing is, who cares? Does anyone read a thriller like this expecting realism? The fun is in the resourcefulness of the women, who are surprising at most turns (not EVERY turn — there’s one big twist that I saw coming a mile, or at least a hundred pages or so, away). Overall, it was maybe a little long, maybe a little clunky in places, but I really liked it, and would read another book by the same guy if one turned up in my queue somehow.
Grade: B+
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