E. B. Mann (1)

E.B. Mann’s Stone Soup is a young adult fantasy novel about a 15-year-old girl with lime green eyes, rust-colored skin, and silver hair. Known only as Green Eyes, she has endured years of intense physical and emotional abuse by her mother. Walking home through the Black Forest one day, Green Eyes meets two crows who challenge her to find out who she really is. After learning that the woman who raised her is a witch, Green Eyes decides it is time to leave and sets out on a journey of self-discovery.

At this point, the narrative offers no explanation for why the witch, who has treated Green Eyes like her personal slave since she was a child, simply allows her to escape without using magic to bring her back. There is also no reason why Green Eyes, who did not hesitate to use magic to make stone soup, would burn the book of witchcraft she found in the cottage when she could have used it to overcome the many physical and mental challenges she had to face on the way to finding herself.

When Green Eyes’ arduous journey finally ends and her true identity is revealed, many questions are left unanswered. In the book’s final chapters, Green Eyes returns to the cottage where she was raised and affirms that the woman who lives there no longer holds any power over her. Green Eyes even begins to doubt whether the old crone was really a sorceress and instead starts to believe that her own “youth and innocence” allowed the woman to victimize her, inexplicably blaming herself for the abuse she endured.

The choice of “Stone Soup” as the book’s title is puzzling. There are numerous books in print with the same title based on the traditional European folktale, and it has little connection to the story other than the reference in one scene. While the book’s cover depicts a striking illustration of Green Eyes and her alter ego, the silver-furred cat of her dreams, the book unfortunately includes little discussion of shapeshifting and other intriguing elements of the fantasy world Mann has created for Green Eyes. However, the book does describe, in graphic detail, the horrific abuse that Green Eyes suffered at the hands of the witch, and it may not be appropriate for younger readers. The focus on Green Eyes’ early life and her struggles to find her true self, at the expense of exploring her new life, leaves much to be desired in what could have been a satisfying read.… (mere)

Wow. This book ran the gamut from dark, heart-breaking moments to empowering and uplifting ones, and I loved every minute of it. Mann brings the world to life around you, dropping you into Green Eye’s sad and painful existence from the start, before setting off on an epic journey of self-discovery. My heart went out to Green Eyes from the start, and her mother is easy to despise from the outset. I loved watching as Green Eyes found her courage, and with some help from friends and guides, discovered herself and found not only who she is but her power. The story is compelling, and pulls you along easily, making it difficult to put this down once you start. Highly recommend if you enjoy transformative journeys and magical adventures.… (mere)

This adventure starts out something like a Cinderella main character ('Green Eyes') held in thrall by a supremely unpredictable, nasty mother. Or perhaps not a mother but certainly nasty and taken to meting out the most vile of treatments. Author Mann dwells too often, and in depth, on that aspect. Eventually, one loses interest in where this narrative is going, until Green Eyes encounters the curious pair of black crows, and later in the village, is shown an amazing (of course magical) sword. For the first half of the book, the MC is an engaging protagonist and we care about her destiny.

Green Eyes comes to realize her only recourse is to escape the old woman and 'discover herself' as the crows so blatantly tell her. This coming-of-age theme prevailed pretty much through the book until the final scenarios and battle to defeat "the wicked witch" or whatever. Having managed to overcome all the impediments to finding her destiny, the last pages of the story render the MC ineffectual in wielding her new found strengths and confidence. Readers are likely going to struggle with continuity lapses in action and certainly nothing engages one with the character by the end of the story.

A big flaw in this book is muddled description of the action. The scenes in the castle tower in particular are vague and make no sense as to what each participant is doing, what happens to the baby, and whether the witch or the beast are one and the same. The story ends with an unconnected sense of a different fairy tale, travels by a royal personage and a kidnapped princess. There was no sense of a logical plot in the last quarter of the book.… (mere)

Somewhat bizarre attempt to shoehorn in a common fairy tale motif to an otherwise completely different tale about a young girl's journey of discovery - very forced parables.

A young girl is only known only as Green Eyes, and has lived a slaves life in a witch's cottage - not always unhappy, but always in fear of unpredictable tantrums and making do with leftovers. Other than usual household chores her other job is to peddle small figurines at the village crossroads. This at least gets her out in to contact with the others, although she's always treated with suspicion as she looks somewhat different and her mistress is well known as the witch. Eventually she rebels and goes off on her own.

Also spoiled by a final lack of agency. She'd been doing quite well coping on her own, even if there'd been a bit of mystical guidance along the way. But when it came to the final battles against the Beast she goes all helpless and is saved by others stepping in on her behalf - exactly the opposite of the motivations that should have been expressed by a story like this.… (mere)