2023 Book Review #14: The Stone Girl

 

The cover art is what first drew my eye to this book on the library shelf. 

Then I opened up to read the jacket summary and discovered it's set in the Adirondack North Country....a section of the mountains I'm most familiar with although the author took liberties with this section and created some fictitious  lakes and a fictitious town. Some of the villages mentioned really do exist but not in the area where he set this story.  Because the author is new to me and the story sounded appealing, I decided to borrow the book.  I'm glad I did.  It's a great plot and the main theme centers around the "omnipresence of male violence toward women and the pernicious shadow it casts oer all our lives."  It's about a male dominated world where even today there are "clubs" that don't allow women and there are power hungry and greedy men.

STORY SUMMARY

In the deep north country of the Adirondack Mountains of New York State, there is a small town named Rangeley.   It's located at the crossroads of the Mink River and it's many fishing streams.  It also contains some large estates owned by the very wealthy. It is also the gateway to The Mohawk Club where The Lost Boys, an exclusive group of very rich and powerful men with global influences and a taste for depravity hunt, fish and stay when they aren't in San Francisco, NYC, or somewhere in Europe. 

Evie Quimby was raised in the wild and was poor growing up in Rangeley.  She was adopted by Flo and Buddy Quimby who were real Adirondack folk.  Buddy taught Evie everything there is to know about hunting, fishing, skinning animals, growing vegetables, and all about how to use firearms safely. 

She was a teenager when she became a victim to the Lost Boys. Seventeen years later she is now a world-renowned art restorer and is famous for putting back together things that are broken. She is especially good at repairing even the most broken statues. After spending half of her life in Paris, where she established her career and reputation, and raised her daughter Chloe, Evie has come a very long way from the person she used to be back in the Adirondacks. 

When Chloe, who is dying of cancer in a Paris hospital, gets a visit from a very elegant stranger who says he's an old friend of her mother, all of Evie's ghosts from the past come back to haunt her. She is pulled back to the North Country and right back into the tangled web of the Lost Boys. 

Evie bands together with her mother Flo (Buddy is in prison), and her heiress friend LuLu.  Both of these women, along with Evie, have been victims of The Lost Boys.  They are in pursuit of truth and a heart-stopping vengenance.

Just who are the Lost Boys?  And will Evie learn the truth?

MY THOUGHTS

This book is a powerful look at just how greedy, manipulative, dishonest and  very wealthy white men have so much influence in the world and how they dominate over women or people who are not as wealthy. 

I've already mentioned the setting in my opening paragraph above and the description of the Adirondack beauty is very well done by the author. The only thing I cringed at was that he wrote about there being black flies in the mountains in late Autumn, when in fact, black fly season is from May until about mid-June. 

The main themes in this book are: addictions, the poor vs the rich; women vs men; the elite vs the commoner; single parenthood, adoption, family secrets; betrayal;  misogyny, money laundering, white-collar crimes; survival, friendship, family, perseverance, and generosity (LuLu's character in particular). 

This is a fast moving story and one that is very gripping.  You find yourself rooting for Evie all the way and then for Chloe.  Chloe's voice appears about half way through the book, which is divided into 9 parts, each part having a different title. Chloe's voice is done in italics. 

If you love a good mystery, a good drama and exciting action, this book is for you.  The ending was great! Although the topics are heavy at times, the book moves fast and doesn't keep you in the pit.......you find yourself cheering on Flo, Evie, Chloe, and LuLu. 

In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (due to some mature content).

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 10.