What do you think?
Rate this book
Stone Garden
A New York Times Notable Book “A wonderful and wise novel, a story told with unflinching courage and honesty, and with keen insight into the most universal of all conditions, the struggle of the human heart.” — Ken Wells, author of Meely LeBauve “ Lyrical and honest....Moynahan has created a well-written story dealing with loss and coming of age reminiscent of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones.” — Library Journal A smart young woman making her way through the privileged terrain of northeastern prep-school land, Alice McGuire is certain of her world and her future -- until the summer her best friend and soul mate, Matthew Swan, vanishes on a trip to Mexico. Stunned, Alice and the rest of the close-knit town that adored Matthew search for answers. For Alice, the journey of heartbreak leads from everything that is familiar to forbidden places and forgotten people who will teach her about kindness and lessons that will open her to new possibilities and unexpected hope. Vividly wrought, deeply resonant, and told in a remarkable voice that sparkles with wit and wisdom, Stone Garden is a splendid triumph from an accomplished writer.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
43 people are currently reading
273 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
March 19, 2009
This makes two teen-age angst books in a row. Molly Moynahan's novel follows the aptly named Alice through the looking-glass of grief. The high school senior's best friend, Matt, disappeared on a trip to Mexico; once his bones are found shock and fearful suspense segue into life-altering grief. Matt had been her closest companion since kindergarten, and they were in love.
Alice struggles to come to grips with his loss, with the unfamiliarity of life without him, and with the cruelty of his murder. For her capstone high school project, she tutors prisoners, hoping to gain insight into what makes murderers kill.
The writing is lucid and evocative, Alice is a compelling character, and her grief seems realistic -- she goes off the deep end just enough. But I have a few quibbles: a) Matt is portrayed as some sort of preppy deity. He seems too good to be true; b) excessive praise is heaped on Alice. Several adults ask her how she manages to be so wise or tell her out exquisite she is or how much Matt adored her, and it just rings false to me.
Alice struggles to come to grips with his loss, with the unfamiliarity of life without him, and with the cruelty of his murder. For her capstone high school project, she tutors prisoners, hoping to gain insight into what makes murderers kill.
The writing is lucid and evocative, Alice is a compelling character, and her grief seems realistic -- she goes off the deep end just enough. But I have a few quibbles: a) Matt is portrayed as some sort of preppy deity. He seems too good to be true; b) excessive praise is heaped on Alice. Several adults ask her how she manages to be so wise or tell her out exquisite she is or how much Matt adored her, and it just rings false to me.
September 10, 2008
This is a beautiful novel about a teenage girl searching for answers surrounding the disappearance and murder of her best friend and soulmate. The reader meets Alice after Matthew is already missing, but feels her pain all the same. Some of the passages are heart-wrenchingly honest about loss and betrayal. Alice seeks the truth about friendship, loyalty, evil and love. She finds answers in those people left behind with her and carves out a place for herself in the world. This story is a reminder of how fragile life is and a caution against taking anything for granted.
March 26, 2013
This was a sad book. No doubt about it. I felt it was a true portrayal of the way this teenage girl might have felt, what she might have been thinking after the terrible death of her best friend. This boy was not only her best friend but the one she imagined spending her life with. How she came to terms with this loss, the road this girl had to travel in the year or so after his disappearance, it was a very heartfelt journey to take with her. That's what this book made me feel, like I was along for the ride.
January 11, 2013
The only thing I didn't this was needed in this book was the swearing and a couple of really descriptive sexual moments. About a highschool girl dealing with the loss of her life long love. Understanding murder and appreciating her friends and family. Most importantly dealing with grief.
January 20, 2009
This book is not a happy-ending kind of book. It will make you contemplate how you define yourself through other people and how to discover yourself without them.
January 12, 2021
This book was given to me as part of my book club's Christmas book swap. I'm told it was picked for me because it was depressing, lol. I do enjoy reading some morose topics. This was a little depressing in its subject content but it was no "We Need to Talk About Kevin" in my honest opinion. To me, it was more like "Lovely Bones" which I've loved since I read it in high school.
Alice is a high school senior whose best friend/boyfriend has gone missing on a trip to Mexico. She doesn't really know how to deal with his disappearance and ultimately the discovery of his remains. Her friends and family don't really know how to help her through her journey of grief and instead she decides to befriend some local prisoners, one of whom murdered one of her friends' babysitters. In the end, Alice does help some of the friends she has met along the way but still seems lost in her decisions on what to do with herself.
This book isn't what I would necessarily call depressing but is actually kind of funny when you think about all the terrible decisions Alice makes during her journey of grief. It is sad that she can't seem to figure out what she wants to do and nobody knows how to help her but overall this was a good book to explore how some people deal with things.
Alice is a high school senior whose best friend/boyfriend has gone missing on a trip to Mexico. She doesn't really know how to deal with his disappearance and ultimately the discovery of his remains. Her friends and family don't really know how to help her through her journey of grief and instead she decides to befriend some local prisoners, one of whom murdered one of her friends' babysitters. In the end, Alice does help some of the friends she has met along the way but still seems lost in her decisions on what to do with herself.
This book isn't what I would necessarily call depressing but is actually kind of funny when you think about all the terrible decisions Alice makes during her journey of grief. It is sad that she can't seem to figure out what she wants to do and nobody knows how to help her but overall this was a good book to explore how some people deal with things.
January 4, 2026
I don't give any books five stars and to be honest, this is more like a 4.5. The middle end (13-18) chapters felt convoluted and messy, and some of the characters probably added things to the book, but i still don't necessarily see their importance. However, I think the concept of this book is so fascinating and heartbreaking, and the execution was done really well. I really enjoy all the different perspectives of the murderers and the loved ones, and it raises interesting philosophical questions about morality. However, Jesus Christ came out of nowhere. He showed up for a little bit, said hi, people yelled at him, yelled at each other, and then everyone said sorry.
I cried multiple times and I felt really moved by this book so although it was technically not a 5 star, it deserves 5 stars just to separate it from the other books I've read.
I cried multiple times and I felt really moved by this book so although it was technically not a 5 star, it deserves 5 stars just to separate it from the other books I've read.
March 1, 2020
Self-consciously and unrelentingly angsty novel about a girl who loses her forever love before the age of 18. I disliked the main character--her drama, her darkness, her hopefulness, her obsession with the boy, and the list goes on.
It seemed unrealistic that this girl met the love of her life so early. Also, why was he with another girl if he was so wonderful.
The prison situation seemed totally unrealistic. I highly doubt that convicted murders are hooked up with high school students on projects.
This book was just too much for me. When the drama never lets up, even a bit, it just has sort of a numbing effect.
It seemed unrealistic that this girl met the love of her life so early. Also, why was he with another girl if he was so wonderful.
The prison situation seemed totally unrealistic. I highly doubt that convicted murders are hooked up with high school students on projects.
This book was just too much for me. When the drama never lets up, even a bit, it just has sort of a numbing effect.
July 13, 2024
The narrator of this novel is a 17-year-old girl, a senior at an exclusive New Jersey private school. Her best friend Matthew went to Mexico and never came back. Struggling with grief over his disappearance, she decides to volunteer in a literacy and creative writing program at a nearby medium-security prison. Bitterness, humor, self-absorption and grace mingle in the protagonist as she reveals the lessons she learns during her last year at school in an unforgettable narrative voice. This book deserves to become a classic on a par with Catcher in the Rye.
April 14, 2025
This book meant the world to me as a teenager. The emotions expressed made sense to me and it was hard for me to find a space where my emotions versus my external experience could co-exist and make sense to anyone, much less me. There was so much grief in my teenage years I didn't understand, and this book was a beautifully safe outlet and home. It was always hard for me to focus on books because my mind would wander, so it was significant when certain books captivated me.
Read
November 29, 2020I have mixed feelings about this one. I feel like the writing alternated between blowing me away and leaving me confused. I think generally the characters were really strong but that, since it was written in 2003, a lot of the language and plot elements were dated, especially the prison elements. And don’t judge it by its cover! The mood of the story is completely different, I feel.
March 5, 2021
I read this book for the first time many years ago and have returned to it often. This book never fails to make me realize how quickly life can change and to never take things for granted. Life is fleeting and we must not wait to start living it.
April 19, 2021
I enjoy the way Moynahan writes. One can picture self right there with the characters.
March 23, 2022
A sad book about grief. Well written from a teenage girls perspective, but because of that it was limited with deep insights + high in confusing drama.
February 16, 2025
I greatly disliked this book and had to push myself through it. It was a depressing plot and the characters were unexciting.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 9, 2025
Nice Story
I wasn’t sure if I would like this story at first but the more I read the more I liked it. It is funny yet has a meaningful and serious message. A good story.
I wasn’t sure if I would like this story at first but the more I read the more I liked it. It is funny yet has a meaningful and serious message. A good story.
December 2, 2018
This is book is about so many unlikable characters, and that’s what makes it so good. The characters are whiny and entitled, but it shows how grief touches us all. These characters are so flawed, but that’s what makes them so real and their grief so tangible.
It shows how loss affects a community in multiple different ways.
It humanizes prisoners, it explores toxic friendships, and shows turning hardship into art all without telling you or pushing you into thinking a certain way. It presents the ideas and lets you draw your own conclusion.
It’s a beautiful slice of humanity.
It shows how loss affects a community in multiple different ways.
It humanizes prisoners, it explores toxic friendships, and shows turning hardship into art all without telling you or pushing you into thinking a certain way. It presents the ideas and lets you draw your own conclusion.
It’s a beautiful slice of humanity.
June 25, 2014
Seventeen-year-old Alice is entering her senior year of high school and is desperately missing her best friend and soulmate, Matthew. Alice attends a small New Jersey prep school, where everybody knows everybody yet she has only a handful of kids she calls her friends, in “Stone Garden.”
Matthew accompanied another classmate to Mexico earlier that summer, and he has been missing ever since. No one knows what could have happened to them, but Alice feels deep down that he must be dead, otherwise he would have moved heaven and earth to contact her.
Matthew was the type of person that everyone loved, yet he only had eyes for Alice. They had been best friends since kindergarten, but had never gotten it right until the end of their junior year. Their whole lives, either Alice had a crush on Matthew who didn’t feel the same, or Matthew had a crush on Alice, who was with someone else. They finally synched up at the end of junior year; all Matthew had to do was take this trip to Mexico with his then-girlfriend and break up with her when they got back. But they never came back.
The whole school knew of Alice and Matthew’s relationship, and they knew about Matthew’s disappearance. When school began that fall, they all treated Alice like she was a widow in mourning, which she very nearly was.
Half-way into the school year, Matthew’s remains were identified in a mass grave in Mexico, confirming what Alice had always believed. This confirmation of death propelled Alice’s final senior project to be what no one else in school could fathom—going to the local prison and tutoring the inmates on their writing and poetry skills.
Alice decides this project will be cathartic and may possibly provide answers to why someone could kill another human being. She doesn’t anticipate one of her students to be the murderer of one of her closest friend’s beloved nanny. Not only does she keep this fact a secret from her friend, who is clearly still shaken years after witnessing the murder, but Alice somewhat befriends the murderer and the others in her class. They say she is the only person on the outside who values what they have to say and doesn’t judge them.
Alice has trouble keeping thing together in her life outside her senior project. Promiscuity becomes a problem, as well as other destructive behavior. She acts aggressively towards Matthew’s mother and her own father, when she finds out they had an affair. She lashes out at both of them, yet no matter how mad she is, she can’t help but love them because they are still there, forcing her to recognize that Matthew will never come back.
Ultimately, a very mature Alice has to come to terms with Matthew’s death and she dreams of the day they will meet again. However she doesn’t seem to care if that day is tomorrow, or in 50 years, making her life choices a little reckless.
Alice’s narrative is heart breaking in that she has lost the love of her life and it has drained her will to live. However, keeping perspective, she is only 17 years old, and has her entire life ahead of her. This gripping story captures less than a year in her life; a life that hopefully will never have as much pain and anguish again.
Matthew accompanied another classmate to Mexico earlier that summer, and he has been missing ever since. No one knows what could have happened to them, but Alice feels deep down that he must be dead, otherwise he would have moved heaven and earth to contact her.
Matthew was the type of person that everyone loved, yet he only had eyes for Alice. They had been best friends since kindergarten, but had never gotten it right until the end of their junior year. Their whole lives, either Alice had a crush on Matthew who didn’t feel the same, or Matthew had a crush on Alice, who was with someone else. They finally synched up at the end of junior year; all Matthew had to do was take this trip to Mexico with his then-girlfriend and break up with her when they got back. But they never came back.
The whole school knew of Alice and Matthew’s relationship, and they knew about Matthew’s disappearance. When school began that fall, they all treated Alice like she was a widow in mourning, which she very nearly was.
Half-way into the school year, Matthew’s remains were identified in a mass grave in Mexico, confirming what Alice had always believed. This confirmation of death propelled Alice’s final senior project to be what no one else in school could fathom—going to the local prison and tutoring the inmates on their writing and poetry skills.
Alice decides this project will be cathartic and may possibly provide answers to why someone could kill another human being. She doesn’t anticipate one of her students to be the murderer of one of her closest friend’s beloved nanny. Not only does she keep this fact a secret from her friend, who is clearly still shaken years after witnessing the murder, but Alice somewhat befriends the murderer and the others in her class. They say she is the only person on the outside who values what they have to say and doesn’t judge them.
Alice has trouble keeping thing together in her life outside her senior project. Promiscuity becomes a problem, as well as other destructive behavior. She acts aggressively towards Matthew’s mother and her own father, when she finds out they had an affair. She lashes out at both of them, yet no matter how mad she is, she can’t help but love them because they are still there, forcing her to recognize that Matthew will never come back.
Ultimately, a very mature Alice has to come to terms with Matthew’s death and she dreams of the day they will meet again. However she doesn’t seem to care if that day is tomorrow, or in 50 years, making her life choices a little reckless.
Alice’s narrative is heart breaking in that she has lost the love of her life and it has drained her will to live. However, keeping perspective, she is only 17 years old, and has her entire life ahead of her. This gripping story captures less than a year in her life; a life that hopefully will never have as much pain and anguish again.
May 26, 2015
Stone Garden by Molly Moynahan is an easy yet compelling read. Teenage narrator Alice McGuire has dealt with the loss of her best friend and would-be husband who has disappeared in Mexico. We follow Alice as she befriends Sigrid, a shy girl haunted by the murder of her nanny, comes to terms with Matthew’s murder and forgives her father for his affair with Matthew’s mother. Trying to cope with the loss of Matthew, Alice becomes an assistant teacher, helping prisoners learn to write. Among these prisoners is the man who killed Sigrid’s babysitter. Nevertheless, Alice becomes very close with many of the prisoners and they even pay for her to get her hair done for prom. We learn that the prisoner’s crimes were committed often out of longing, not hatred. After all, isn’t that a primal instinct, a necessity? Is not a want for love what drives us in all our endeavors? Themes of sorrow and forgiveness dominate the novel, yet there is no shortage of wit. I recommend this book to anybody who enjoys reading mysteries or is looking for a quick, easy read.
March 9, 2015
Grade/interest level:7th
Reading level:
Genre: Novel
Main Characters: Alice,Matthew,Sigrid and family
Setting: At her house
POV: 1st person
It was not the best but I would encourage someone who likes drama or mystery. It is about A girl lost the love of her life Matthew Swan and they wanted to find out how. He took a trip to Mexico and he never returned and finally they got the news that he was dead. Ever since she lost him out of her life she was never the same and she is trying to find another love.
Reading level:
Genre: Novel
Main Characters: Alice,Matthew,Sigrid and family
Setting: At her house
POV: 1st person
It was not the best but I would encourage someone who likes drama or mystery. It is about A girl lost the love of her life Matthew Swan and they wanted to find out how. He took a trip to Mexico and he never returned and finally they got the news that he was dead. Ever since she lost him out of her life she was never the same and she is trying to find another love.
June 10, 2009
Just finished this novel. I radomly picked off the shelf. It's about a highschool senior whose best friend since kindergarten was killed. Her story is about her process that she goes through...the devastating loss she feels...telling of how people sometimes do out of character things when trying to figure out their loss and how, after an overwhemling loss, one finds a way to live and hope and go on...
July 21, 2008
I loved, loved, LOVED this book. I met the author, Molly, during a recent Chicago trip and had to read her book. It is a fantastic book about grief as seen through a 17 year old girl. Although the teens in the book do not resemble ones from my not so long ago youth...they were still enjoyable to read.
May 20, 2013
while there were parts I wasn't impressed with I thought it was a solid depiction of a high schooler losing their best friend. I remember feeling similar things and finding it necessary to curse when it wasn't. That's the life of a high schooler. I'm impressed that Moynahan was able to portray this situation and the feelings involved so well.
February 19, 2016
This novel pulled me right in. Alice is a prep school student whose boyfriend was murdered in Mexico. Her memories of him are sweet and funny...I felt it his death would turn out to be a mistake. The characters in this story are quirky but human and I found myself laughing throughout it. A great read!
July 9, 2007
A very compelling story of a young person's struggle to come to terms with the loss of her best friend, who was murdered. Lots of important questions about justice and mercy, hope and dispair are asked, and thankfully not answered. One of my favorite lines -- "Grief is harder than AP Calculus."
November 18, 2007
I really enjoyed this book--I had a hard time putting it down. It was occasionally just slightly clunky and sentimental, and the plot seems implausible at times, but on the whole I found it fresh and delightful. The dialogue is outstanding.
March 9, 2008
Sad. I cried and cried and cried when reading this for the first time and recently lent it to a student and she cried and cried and cried, too. Once you get past the rich kids being rich (or upper middle class kids being upper middle class) the story is quite touching.
September 14, 2014
I loved this book. Alice's point of view is truthful and relatable. This book made me laugh and it made me cry. I found myself unable to put it down and I couldn't wait to hear what else Alice had to say. Good read.
September 8, 2007
I really liked this shattering novel about a 17-year-old girl who loses her best friend/boyfriend when he is murdered in Mexico.
May 4, 2008
A bit mawkish at times. I haven't read a YA book in a long time. Of course, it's been a long time since I've been Y.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews