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    Savage Girl
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    Savage Girl
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    Savage Girl
    Audiobook14 hours

    Savage Girl

    Written by Jean Zimmerman

    Narrated by Edoardo Ballerini

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMar 6, 2014
    ISBN9780698149465
    Unavailable
    Savage Girl
    Author

    Jean Zimmerman

    Jean Zimmerman is the author of the debut novel The Orphanmaster. Jean has also published nonfiction focusing on the changing role of women in America: Love, Fiercely: A Gilded Age Romance; The Women of the House: How a Colonial She-Merchant Built a Mansion, a Fortune and a Dynasty; and Tailspin: Women at War in the Wake of Tailhook. Jean is the coauthor of Breaking with Tradition: Women and Work, the New Facts of Life and she and her husband, Gil Reavill, published Raising Our Athletic Daughters: How Sports Can Build Self-Esteem and Save Girls' Lives. Zimmerman lives with her family in Westchester County, New York.

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    Reviews for Savage Girl

    3.5/5

    38 ratings11 reviews

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    • 5/5
      "...beauty and terror often bump up against each other."From Manhattan's Gilded Age society Hugo Delegate finds himself confronted with a murder. Left alone in the room with the body of his dead friend, Hugo surmises that it is possible that he committed the crime and has no recollection, he also knows that it is possible that his family's ward and the girl he loves has committed the murder. Hugo recounts his entire story of the murders and the Savage Girl as he sits in the Tombs with his lawyers, desperately trying to convince them that it was he who murdered this man - and others- and not his beloved Savage Girl.While on a trip to Virginia City to visit the family silver mining operation, the Delegate family comes across a side show featuring a feral child. Anna Maria Delegate, Hugo's mother and Freddy Delegate, Hugo's father each become enamored with the feral girl featured in the show. They decide that they would like to take this Savage Girl back to New York with them and attempt to 'civilize' her and prepare her for a debut into New York society. Is the person the Delegate's brought home the girl that they want her to be, or is she still a savage girl at heart?The mystery in this story is very intriguing. There are a lot of different layers and it unfolds continuously until the very end. The entire story is told from Hugo's point of view while contained within a prison cell. So, we only know what he knows about Bronwyn (the Savage Girl) which was really frustrating to me, but kept up the mystery. I really wanted to know her character and her motivations better. We find some of this out slowly throughout the story and a little bit in the epilogue. The setting Manhattan's Gilded Age was beautifully described, we are taken on a beautiful personal train that traveled across the country, into a Manhattan mansion and behind the scenes at a debutante ball. All of this glittering and rich society was well contrasted with the darkness of the brutal murders.Savage Girl was received for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      When I read the summary of Savage Girl, by Jean Zimmerman, I got the basic outlines of the story which sounded interesting enough: girl supposedly raised by wolves found in a silver mining boomtown in 1870s Nevada, taken by the filthy rich owner of the largest mining concern to upper crust, turn of the century New York society. I was expecting a Tarzan/Lord Greystoke kind of story; I was not prepared for the psychological depth and brilliant imagination of Jean Zimmerman. Under the wing of the Delegate family of New York, already considered eccentric by the appearance-obsessed stalwarts of their privileged class, our dark heroine, Bronwyn, becomes part of this surprisingly open minded, well intentioned, slightly barmy family. In Pygmalion-like fashion, Friederich Delegate, paterfamilias, decides to take the eponymous savage girl into New York society, cut and polish the human diamond, and finally pull off a great prank on his small, insular circle by presenting the transformed beauty at one of the most exclusive debutante balls of the season.I was drawn to the book initially by the setting and time period. I loved Caleb Carr's The Alienist, Edith Wharton's body of work, and E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime and Waterworks. Zimmerman paints the look and atmosphere of the times with a lovingly meticulous brush. Like I found with Doctorow's best, I was swept into the magic of the book. For three days I lived mesmerized within Zimmerman's creation. The author has taken on a vast arc of narrative here; there is so much detail; however, her choice of a "magically realistic" style easily supports the twists and turns of this brilliantly light and yet frighteningly dark story. I learned so much about the society of the time as well as the seething underbelly of human nature that I feel like I have taken a college course in human potential, and all the while enjoying every minute of it. I will definitely seek our Zimmerman's other works, especially The Orphanmaster, which earned good reviews.I recommend this book to anyone who appreciates good writing, loves a sophisticated page turner true to history, and is willing to suspend disbelief in the name of greater pleasure. I was so lucky have won this book as my first in the Early Reviewers membership of LibraryThing. The book is expected out on March 10, 2014. Look for it!
    • 5/5
      Wow this book really surprised me. It was not at all what I expected, in the best of ways. First off, the description of it doesn't do it justice, though it is technically correct. It really is about so much more than some weird girl raised by wolves, and is much more about the male main character, Hugo. The streets of golden age New York City glitter under the auspices of this author and I cannot understand the low rating for this book at all. It is one of the best books I have read in years. It truly is fabulous and I can't wait to read anything else the author writes.
    • 4/5
      Sometimes when I see a review and the person starts with, "I received this book in exchange for an unbiased review and," then the reviewer froths at the mouth at how wonderful it was, I have to giggle. It doesn't sound so unbiased anymore. At any rate, I did receive this book through First Reads, and I really, truly did enjoy it. The historical context is fascinating, I never knew a thing about private trains before this, just to give an example. This period of time is also very interesting overall, between the end of the Civil War and beginning of WW1 seems to have been such a time of exciting growth and change in the U.S. I am nearly embarrassed to admit that I never did figure out the mystery, I must be in a slump, but that only made it better. The book was lengthy, but I was never bored. Very entertaining. I was sure that I did not care to read The Orphanmaster, but now I will have to give it another look.
    • 5/5
      Fabulous read! Lyrical, well-written historical mystery that brings time and place to vivid life. The characters are enthralling. Plenty of hints, but most readers will be surprised by the ending... which is thoroughly satisfying. A riveting peek into the complexities that make us human. A dynamite story that will not soon be forgotten.
    • 4/5
      This is the story of a wealthy family who come across a young lady being marketed as a "wild child" in a sideshow like presentation in Virginia City, Nevada. in the 1800's. The patriarch of the family decides to rescue her from this demeaning situation and "civilize" her back East. Along the way there are a series of brutal murders and the "savage girl" becomes one of the principle suspects. The argument between nature versus nurture in one of the driving forces in the plot. There is also a sort of one sided love story between one of the magnate's sons and the savage girl. The book was well written and kept my interest throughout.
    • 4/5
      An exceptional work of historical fiction. Savage Girl by Jean Zimmerman would be an excellent book discussion pick.
    • 4/5
      This book perplexed me and at times made me smile. I was all over the place trying to figure it out. I was led down many a wrong path trying to figure out just who is the serial killer in this book. I love the premise of the wild child found, brought into society and then what happens to her and everyone around her as a result. This book has a wealth of information in it about the ultra rich and very disconnected scions of society in New York and how everyone followed the petty whims of the very rich back in the day. I would like to say had Bronwyn been more forthcoming with Hugo at some point he wouldn't have been so crazed all the time, that being said, I think more of what and who Bronwyn was or where she was coming from might have also made for a more enjoyable read. Like Hugo I felt left out at times, discombobulated, floundering and not knowing if I should put the book down or just turn the page! This is mainly a book about the ultra wealthy Hugo, son of the wealthy Delegate family in Manhattan circa 1875, who when on a family trip to Nevada, they come upon a female wild child in a side show act who had allegedly been raised by wolves with razor like claws made especially for her and her wild girl side show act . Hugo immediately feels an affinity, a pull he can't explain with this wild child and this almost becomes his undoing. The family decides to "buy" her and take her on as their new pet project having done so many times before with other oddities of the population who have since become members of their ultra rich entourage and they try to make her a part of a family that they think anyone in their right mind would love to be a part of. Right mind being a key word here...They soon find their "Savage Girl" is a very capable, secretive, independent and extremely functional girl in any situation, she can & does run circles around her new family and the people she meets. She tells them she remembers her name is Bronwyn and after that she is clothed and readied for society but, is society ready for her? There are people sneaking in and out at night, including Bronwyn, Strange goings on that happen in the dark in the huge Delegate home or citadel as it is known. Soon men who have admired Bronwyn and paid her attention start to turn up dead and mutilated all over town. Who could be doing this? Is it Hugo, who is consumed with jealousy, falling hard for his savage girl or is it the savage girl herself who can not be tamed by money or society? This is something you will be puzzling out throughout the book, wondering who is the savage killer on the loose...
    • 2/5
      I won this book in a giveaway and was thrilled - the idea grabbed me from the beginning and I couldn't wait to start reading. However, I was disappointed. The premise was so fantastic, bringing together romance, history, anthropology, and evolution in such a way that I may have set my expectations too high. While I appreciated Zimmerman's development of Hugo Delegate, it was too much Hugo for me. I wanted more of Bronwyn, more of her perspective and thoughts...or at least more attention paid to her. At times, I felt it went too off track into Hugo's life, and it just didn't hold my attention.
    • 4/5
      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.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 was a good story but the frenetic way it is told is a little off-putting.3 ½ Stars5 Star Narration
    • 3/5
      My Rating - 3 of 5 starsI received a free copy of this novel from the Penguin First to Read program in exchange for a fair review.The Delegates are one of the wealthiest (and most eccentric) families in late 1800’s Manhattan. The father, Freddy, and the mother, Anna Marie likes to collect odd things, such as a Chinese emigrant, and a cross-dressing native.The oldest son, Hugo is fresh out of a stay at the sanitarium and the Delegate parents decided to take him on a cross-country train trip. While on this trip they make a stop in a small mining town in Nevada, where Freddy owns a silver mine. This is where they discover Savage Girl.Savage Girl is a show in a barn where a beautiful young girl, supposedly raised by wolves and can’t speak, acts like a beast (complete with specially made razor sharp claws) and then gets naked and takes a bath, much to the pleasure of the men in the audience. She is a town favorite, with a packed full barn at every show.The Delegate family is immediately taken with her. Freddy and Anna Marie have been searching for a “real’ wild child to collect and bring into society; Freddy is desperate to annoy his fellow wealthy friends by proving their nature vs. nurture theory wrong.They take her, hoping to rehabilitate her and have her come out with all of the Manhattan debutantes. They discover her real name, Bronwyn, and try to teach her and convince her to wear shoes and normal clothes.She’s smart, that much they can tell. They have high hopes for her. Though she gives them a hard time at first, she catches on fast and soon she is the most popular debutante in the city. Men flock to her and fawn over her. They only problem is, everywhere she goes a man ends up dead and missing his manly bits.Hugo is torn, it’s clear he is absolutely in love with this girl, though he thinks her capable of murder. Or is it him committing the murders? He isn’t sure. He blacks out and isn’t entirely clear when some things happen. Could he be killing these men out of jealously?Bronwyn sneaks out at night dressed as a man, she dances with gypsies, and can control a wild cat in the zoo to do tricks for her. She seems to be two people, the Savage Girl and Bronwyn the debutante.This book was…okay. The first half was so so slow and then it speeds up very fast for the last few chapters. It was way overwritten. While the descriptions were wonderful, I could picture the women in their corsets and bustles and the horses clomping down the street in Manhattan, at times it’s just too much. It easily could have been a hundred pages shorter and told the same story.The deaths are few and far between, again until the second half of the book where it picks up. Most of the book is a journey inside Hugo’s mind and his thoughts and opinions of Bronwyn, and also the snobby life of the Manhattan elite.I didn’t like most of the Delegate family; Bronwyn was really just a piece of a collection to them. Hugo was very whiny and what a drama queen! Bronwyn, I liked what we are told about her, but you don’t ever really get to know her because it’s from Hugo’s point of view and he constantly mentions how he knows nothing about her.Not a bad book overall, just a tad boring.