The Stillwater Girls by Minka Kent
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Unfortunately, I’d consider myself a forgetful person. And the older I get, the more forgetful I have noticed I’ve become. I have often started a conversation only to lose my train of thought midway through, or walked into a room and had no idea why I ventured there in the first place, or completely neglected to perform a task if I wasn’t reminded of it, or started a conversation only to lose my train of thought midway through…hey wait a minute…

That said - I cannot imagine forgetting that I physically gave birth to a child. No, I am not a mother, but I feel like growing a human being inside my uterus for nine months and then pushing said miniature human being out my lady parts would be one of the few experiences I would have a least somewhat of a recollection of? I mean, I would HOPE? If not, well then I am going to be very disappointed if one day down the line I find out I had a kid 10 years earlier and then willingly gave that kid away to some stranger because, oh add this to the list of things I forgot, I completely blocked out that I had a schizophrenic - like mental breakdown, and heard voices telling me I was an unfit mother (….umm maybe those voices were on to something?). That’s a whole truckload of important shit for one person to fail to recall, let me tell you. And the fact that not one person spilled the beans or even let the slightest hint about what happened slip over the years - damn. Impressive is what that is.

But, if you are able to overlook THAT highly unlikely, next to impossible scenario, then you might be able to enjoy the rest of this novel, because, crazily enough, it’s actually pretty good otherwise. Up until that final twist (I don’t even know if it can be considered a “twist” as it’s more like the author randomly threw a dart at a list of implausible occurrences on a poster board), the story line was fairly fast paced and captivating. It was a unique take on the traditional child kidnapping story since these unlucky little chaps were not only kidnapped, but then forced to live in a primitive one room cabin, Amish - meets - Little House on the Prairie - meets - The Village style. Talk about being dealt a crappy hand in life.

I appreciated the back and forth narrative between wealthy socialite with a heart of gold Nicolette, and the naïve, sheltered, outhouse lovin' Wren. It’s a shame their lives ended up intersecting in the manner they did because it kind of killed the believability (and general likability) of both characters for me. And while we are discussing the improbable, let’s not neglect to mention the location of Mama the kidnapper’s fortress of secrecy. If it really was national news when these girls went missing, how the HELL did the cops, the FBI and the multiple search parties never happen to stumble upon the little cabin in the woods where the girls were being raised for almost EIGHTEEN years? Unless I missed something, the girls were literally living in a forest that was within the same town they were originally taken from, outfitted in clothing circa Vogue’s 1891 fashion issue, yet no one could locate them?

This book had me suspending my disbelief so high, I am officially hanging out atop my two story living room ceiling....


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