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Book Review

Publisher's Note:

A riveting tale from the author of The Orphanmaster about a wild girl from Nevada who lands in Manhattan’s Gilded Age society Jean Zimmerman’s new novel tells of the dramatic events that transpire when an alluring, blazingly smart eighteen-year-old girl named Bronwyn, reputedly raised by wolves in the wilds of Nevada, is adopted in 1875 by the Delegates, an outlandishly wealthy Manhattan couple, and taken back East to be civilized and introduced into high society. Bronwyn hits the highly mannered world of Edith Wharton–era Manhattan like a bomb. A series of suitors, both young and old, find her irresistible, but the willful girl’s illicit lovers begin to turn up murdered. Zimmerman’s tale is narrated by the Delegate’s son, a Harvard anatomy student. The tormented, self-dramatizing Hugo Delegate speaks from a prison cell where he is prepared to take the fall for his beloved Savage Girl. This narrative—a love story and a mystery with a powerful sense of fable—is his confession.…

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Savage Girl

by Jean Zimmerman

Reviewer: Lydia
Genre: Fiction
Recommended Age: 18+

Overall Book Review:

I don’t know why people that are categorized as social oddities, outcasts, and freaks are something that fascinate me so, but they do.–And I will be the first to admit it. So when I saw Savage Girl on the new shelf at our library I snatched it up. The cover is beautiful in itself. The story is another work of beauty all-together. Though this book was a bit on the hefty side, I didn’t balk at that or the fact that it is set in the late 1800’s, which is a time-period I am not normally interested in. Something just pulled me towards this book. I am not sure what it was, but I am fairly certain that if you give it a try, you will be enchanted also.

The subject of this story is definitely not the norm:  a wild girl that is “rescued” from a dirty, savage life only to be thrown into one of the higher levels of society in that day. I enjoyed observing how she adapted and reacted to her new surroundings and adopted family. At times the story held a little bit of a mystery feel, which will be a pleasant discovery for those readers who typically stick to mysteries. This is just a wonderful novel that has quite a bit of history thrown in, but in a fashion that will keep the reader’s interest.


Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  3 religious exclamations; 8 mild obscenities.

Violence/Gore:  A woman has an abortion and she is mentioned to bleed heavily; a dead body is described briefly in detail; a woman is mentioned to be stabbed with scissors, blood is mentioned; a character is mentioned to have died from a heart attack; a character is found murdered, some blood is described; a character is mentioned to be killed under suspicious circumstances, maybe by wild animals.

Sex/Nudity:  Adults are mentioned to be sexually active; one discussion of virginity, or lack of it; adults kiss.

Mature Subject Matter:

Murder.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

Adults smoke; adults drink; adults are mentioned to smoke opium.

Overall Book Rating
Profanity/Language
Rating:
2
10
Violence/Gore
Rating:
6
10
Sex/Nudity
Rating:
3
10

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About the Reviewer

Lydia
Books and reading have always been an important part of my life. When I was very young, my grandma was the library director at our local public library. Years later, after she had retired, I became a librarian at the same library and worked there for several years before taking a part-time job at a local coffee shop, which gives me more time to do what I love, to read and to review books! A few of my favorite authors are Aimee Bender, Diane Chamberlain, and Curtis Sittenfeld however, I will read almost any book I come across! In my spare time you can find me reading (of course), volunteering at a wildlife animal rehab, or hanging out with my three house rabbits.

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