Savage Girl (Zimmerman) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Sooner or later, a historical crime novel is bound to drag you down some dark alley and into the nastiest, most lawless precincts of the period. Jean Zimmerman followed this tradition in her first novel, The Orphanmaster, a descent into the hellish criminal haunts of 17th-century New Amsterdam.  In Savage Girl, this canny author puts all that aside and turns to the Gilded Age for a sweeping narrative, set within the cloistered ranks of high society in 19th-century Manhattan, that raises touchy questions about what it means to be civilized.
New York Times Book Review


Zimmerman’s second novel takes us on an over-the-top romp through 1870s America...consider this the compulsively readable love child of Edith Wharton and Edgar Allen Poe.
Oprah.com


(Starred review.) The prologue of Zimmerman’s superior historical thriller will suck most readers in instantly.... Hugo, a Harvard student...becomes fascinated with...the so-called Savage Girl, allegedly raised by wolves. Hugo’s parents decide to civilize the girl, and introduce her into society on their return to New York. Zimmerman... combin[es] suspense with an unsettling look into a tormented mind.
Publishers Weekly


Wealthy socialite Hugo Delegate and his family rescue the "Savage Girl" from a carnival...[and she] instantly captivates Hugo with her boldness and energy.... Most of the novel is narrated by Hugo recounting events in an extended flashback, which feels jarring and out of place. More successful are the action-packed final chapters. —Laurel Bliss, San Diego State Univ. Lib.
Library Journal


Suffused with a gothic aura of dark suspense, this is a finely wrought psychological work, rich with historical detail. Zimmerman’s settings spring off the page.... Immensely readable, Savage Girl takes the reader by the throat and doesn’t let go.
Booklist


A formal, measured tempo only heightens the tension.... Is Bronwyn, with her animallike instincts, the killer? Or is it Hugo...? Neither Hugo nor the reader is sure right up to the satisfying if melodramatic end. Zimmerman's dark comedy of manners is an obvious homage to Edith Wharton, a rip-roaring murder mystery...and a wonderfully detailed portrait of the political, economic and philosophical issues driving post–Civil War America.
Kirkus Reviews