Savage Girl

By: Jean Zimmerman

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini

“An over-the-top romp through 1870s America . . . compulsively readable.” —Oprah.com

Jean Zimmerman’s spectacular follow-up to The Orphanmaster has it all: Gilded Age romance, robber baron excess, detective story suspense, and a compelling female protagonist whom readers will fall in love with.

In 1875, the Delegates, an outlandishly wealthy Manhattan couple on a tour of the American West, seek out a sideshow attraction called “Savage Girl.” Her handlers avow that the wild, seemingly mute Bronwyn has been raised by wolves. Presented with the perfect blank slate to explore the power of civilized nurture, the Delegates take her back east to be introduced into high society. Cleaned up, Bronwyn is blazingly smart and darkly beautiful; as she takes steps toward her grand debut, a series of suitors find her irresistible—and begin to turn up murdered.

Fantastic narration!

I received this book from netgalley and when I started reading the ARC I realized I was reading it in Edoardo Ballerini’s voice, so I took to twitter to tell the publisher that he should narrate this audiobook and my answer came from Edoardo himself saying he had just finished recording it and it would be out soon. So needless to say I stopped reading the ARC and waited for the audiobook and I was not disappointed, his narration was perfect his accents and characters were spot on and I found I was right his was the perfect voice for this audiobook.

This book grabbed me from the start and it did keep me guessing as to who was killing the men, however there were times the story was disjointed and hard to figure out when in time it was, because it is told in flashbacks.

I liked it but I didn’t love it. Parts of this story I really enjoyed and as I said it kept me guessing and I would have never guessed who the eventual killer ended up being, so that was good, but the way the story was told I felt hampered the story. I felt at times it was because Hugo, who is telling the story, was so frenetic and so the story felt that way too.

I also felt I didn’t really get to know Bronwyn (savage girl) at all even though this story is about her and I also felt like Hugo didn’t really get to know her either and that his fanatic love for her that was on the verge of obsession was all in his head from his first meeting with her, so their “love story” almost felt forced to me because we the reader had no idea just what her feelings for Hugo may have been. I wanted to know more about Bronwyn and wish there would have been a little more about how the family was able to get her from Savage Girl to ladylike Bronwyn.

What I did enjoy was the sense of the time and it also has a bit of a gothic feel and the edge of your seat I can’t figure out who the real murderer is, was well done.

This was a good story but the frenetic way it is told is a little off-putting.

3 ½ Stars
5 Star Narration

Exceptional !

Would you consider the audio edition of Savage Girl to be better than the print version?

I both listened and read this wonderful, literate book. With the e-reader, I was able to pause and look up words for a fuller understanding of the prose. And with the audio I was pulled fully into this rich, atmospheric story.

Any additional comments?

An absolutely wonderful story ! The ending was so satisfying. I especially note this because I have read so many books that lose narrative momentum and just "crash" at the end. I was smiling as I finished this !

Niles Crane as Hugo Delegate

Great premise, boring story. Narrator is Hugo Delegate read by Edoardo Ballerini, who seems to be channeling David Hyde Pierce's Niles Crane. The character of Hugo Delegate is an improbable one that feels like it was written by a woman: He is a sensitive male, androgynous to a fault, prone to regular fainting spells and his thoughts and speech are fussy and affected: not your typical "leading man" type and therefore an unlikely suitor for Savage Girl. The girl herself is enigmatic but undeveloped as a character and it is hard to stay interested in the plot, which wants to be bigger and more important than it is. By the end, when the twist reveals itself, it is unimpressive, hardly surprising and disappointing. The whole thing is unbelievable and would have been better written as a fairytale, not historical fiction.