What do you think?
Rate this book
Stable
They say those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Then, there are some who learn and are doomed anyway.
Maura Bennet has lived her entire life in the shadows of the unspeakable horrors she and her closest friends- Sawyer, Charlie, and Greg- endured when they were just thirteen years old. Growing up in Settlers Hill, a small, safe town tucked between two mountains, they never could have imagined that they would be abducted and held captive for three days in a lightless, abandoned barn stable by a sadistic madman. As an adult, Maura still allows herself some days to deny this reality completely.
Eighteen years later, Maura, Sawyer, and Greg reunite in their hometown for Charlie’s funeral. Maura intends to stay for the funeral and return to her new city life as soon as humanly possible. But travel plans come to a halt when Greg and Sawyer go missing and all signs lead back to the stable. Are they alive? Is she next? She doesn’t know the answers and she refuses to sit around and wait to find out. The man who took them as children is rotting in prison, so who is taunting her? Everything Maura thought she knew about her past comes into question. She must find her friends before it’s too late, even if that means facing her demons head-on.
Maura Bennet has lived her entire life in the shadows of the unspeakable horrors she and her closest friends- Sawyer, Charlie, and Greg- endured when they were just thirteen years old. Growing up in Settlers Hill, a small, safe town tucked between two mountains, they never could have imagined that they would be abducted and held captive for three days in a lightless, abandoned barn stable by a sadistic madman. As an adult, Maura still allows herself some days to deny this reality completely.
Eighteen years later, Maura, Sawyer, and Greg reunite in their hometown for Charlie’s funeral. Maura intends to stay for the funeral and return to her new city life as soon as humanly possible. But travel plans come to a halt when Greg and Sawyer go missing and all signs lead back to the stable. Are they alive? Is she next? She doesn’t know the answers and she refuses to sit around and wait to find out. The man who took them as children is rotting in prison, so who is taunting her? Everything Maura thought she knew about her past comes into question. She must find her friends before it’s too late, even if that means facing her demons head-on.
416 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 23, 2019
2 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
About the author
Kate Gemma
2 books15 followersKate has been jotting down stories since she was a little girl reading Agatha Christie novels over her mother’s shoulder in bed- faking being asleep so she didn’t have to leave and go back to her own room.
That soon led to recapping dreams early in the morning before they were forgotten, creating worlds to escape to when the real one wasn’t cutting it, and endless short stories written on looseleaf paper and bound together by duct tape so that they felt like REAL books.
Kate is originally from Long Island. She now resides in Connecticut with her husband, son, and two dogs where she loves the quiet and fresh air but misses the bagels....ohhhh the bagels.
That soon led to recapping dreams early in the morning before they were forgotten, creating worlds to escape to when the real one wasn’t cutting it, and endless short stories written on looseleaf paper and bound together by duct tape so that they felt like REAL books.
Kate is originally from Long Island. She now resides in Connecticut with her husband, son, and two dogs where she loves the quiet and fresh air but misses the bagels....ohhhh the bagels.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 22, 2020
3.5 stars rounded up
TW: kidnap/abduction, minor incidences of torture
Stable is the story of four childhood best friends who as tweens were kidnapped and held captive for three days before being rescued. But it's also the story of the ties that bind us together and what lengths we'll go to to keep our friends safe.
Both Maura and Charlie were raised by a kindly neighborhood grandma, who eventually takes in each of the children, thus tightening their bonds. At the age of 12 or so the four kids were kidnapped when they ran into an abandoned barn for cover from a storm. There they were kept for three days with minimal water and food and when two of the four tried to escape, at different times, they were tortured. Eventually, they are rescued by the town cop and the property owner is sent to prison for the crimes.
Years later, when the children have grown and gone their separate ways, they are called back to town when one of them dies. Mystery surrounds the death and before long there is a disappearance. Maura, our protagonist, is hell-bent on finding her friend and joins the new sheriff in that task.
I enjoyed the story very much and the characters were well fleshed out. Maura is most memorable because she's written as a tough as nails, not gonna take any shit from anyone kind of gal. She sticks up for her guy friends when the sheriff's son, Boyd, bullies them. I loved that about her then, and I loved that she didn't change as an adult.
I subtracted a star because I had the whodunit figured out very quickly and I wasn't terribly fond of the epilogue. Not every story needs to be tidied up so nicely at the end, in my opinion.
Many thanks to the author and Reedsy/Discovery for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
TW: kidnap/abduction, minor incidences of torture
Stable is the story of four childhood best friends who as tweens were kidnapped and held captive for three days before being rescued. But it's also the story of the ties that bind us together and what lengths we'll go to to keep our friends safe.
Both Maura and Charlie were raised by a kindly neighborhood grandma, who eventually takes in each of the children, thus tightening their bonds. At the age of 12 or so the four kids were kidnapped when they ran into an abandoned barn for cover from a storm. There they were kept for three days with minimal water and food and when two of the four tried to escape, at different times, they were tortured. Eventually, they are rescued by the town cop and the property owner is sent to prison for the crimes.
Years later, when the children have grown and gone their separate ways, they are called back to town when one of them dies. Mystery surrounds the death and before long there is a disappearance. Maura, our protagonist, is hell-bent on finding her friend and joins the new sheriff in that task.
I enjoyed the story very much and the characters were well fleshed out. Maura is most memorable because she's written as a tough as nails, not gonna take any shit from anyone kind of gal. She sticks up for her guy friends when the sheriff's son, Boyd, bullies them. I loved that about her then, and I loved that she didn't change as an adult.
I subtracted a star because I had the whodunit figured out very quickly and I wasn't terribly fond of the epilogue. Not every story needs to be tidied up so nicely at the end, in my opinion.
Many thanks to the author and Reedsy/Discovery for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
February 27, 2020
Kept my interest
I enjoyed this book except going back and forth to previous years. I also don’t like books written in 1st person. I think the first time author did a great job and look forward to reading her books in the future!
I enjoyed this book except going back and forth to previous years. I also don’t like books written in 1st person. I think the first time author did a great job and look forward to reading her books in the future!
February 17, 2020
I stayed up late to finish this one and was completely surprised by the ending. I audibly gasped at one point. All signs of a good thriller. Can't wait for the next book.
February 18, 2020
Kids were kidnapped and rescued. They thought it was over…but was it?
Year 2000: Charlie, Greg, Sawyer, and Maura are best friends, fending for themselves in school.
Year 2018: Charlie is dead and Maura returns to her hometown for the funeral, reconnecting with old friends, Greg and Sawyer. Charlie should’ve died with them in the stable.
Story constantly bounces back and forth between past and present. The past is written in 3rd person perspective while the present is written in 1st person POV of Maura, which was a little odd. The pace was kind of slow as it mostly relays the group’s history with the town and community. The reader relives the kid’s abduction and what it was like for them in the stable. The overall experience gives this creepy vibe, especially when one of them disappears in the present and the scenes bring them back to those dark memories. I wish this would’ve had a quicker pace to bring more suspense.
Overall, this was a decent read. The mystery can get a little hazy sometimes, and I get the feeling that this story preys more on your fears.
Year 2000: Charlie, Greg, Sawyer, and Maura are best friends, fending for themselves in school.
Year 2018: Charlie is dead and Maura returns to her hometown for the funeral, reconnecting with old friends, Greg and Sawyer. Charlie should’ve died with them in the stable.
Story constantly bounces back and forth between past and present. The past is written in 3rd person perspective while the present is written in 1st person POV of Maura, which was a little odd. The pace was kind of slow as it mostly relays the group’s history with the town and community. The reader relives the kid’s abduction and what it was like for them in the stable. The overall experience gives this creepy vibe, especially when one of them disappears in the present and the scenes bring them back to those dark memories. I wish this would’ve had a quicker pace to bring more suspense.
Overall, this was a decent read. The mystery can get a little hazy sometimes, and I get the feeling that this story preys more on your fears.
September 14, 2023
Do you love likeable characters with a difficult past? Edge of your seat tension? Hints of a romance without it being the central theme? Well I do, and I thoroughly enjoyed 'Stable' because it had all of this and bags more to boot.
Maura and her friends have a shared past, creating an unbreakable bond between them. Their abductor was safely behind bars, and all they moved on despite the entire town knowing what happened, and the resulting uncomfortableness that comes from notoriety. But when one of their number dies, they all return for the funeral. One by one, her remaining friends start disappearing as well. Maura and the amazing Grandma Marilyn are left to figure out what is going on. Why have details of their experience, which no-one else but their abductor could know the significance of, have been left in place of her friends?
This is an excellently crafted story which kept me reading late into the night. I loved the ease with which I empathised with the characters, their struggles to create new lives for themselves, and how childhood friendships change over time. It highlighted for me just how much people change as they grow up and how much past trauma affects the judgements you make in the present.
Highly recommend this book for all thriller lovers out there!
Maura and her friends have a shared past, creating an unbreakable bond between them. Their abductor was safely behind bars, and all they moved on despite the entire town knowing what happened, and the resulting uncomfortableness that comes from notoriety. But when one of their number dies, they all return for the funeral. One by one, her remaining friends start disappearing as well. Maura and the amazing Grandma Marilyn are left to figure out what is going on. Why have details of their experience, which no-one else but their abductor could know the significance of, have been left in place of her friends?
This is an excellently crafted story which kept me reading late into the night. I loved the ease with which I empathised with the characters, their struggles to create new lives for themselves, and how childhood friendships change over time. It highlighted for me just how much people change as they grow up and how much past trauma affects the judgements you make in the present.
Highly recommend this book for all thriller lovers out there!
January 20, 2022
I absolutely loved this suspenseful story about four friends, Maura, Charlie, Sawyer, and Greg who get kidnapped by a madman for three days. After Charlie dies years later, and her friends, Greg and Sawyer go missing, Maura wonders if history is repeating itself. The story kept me turning the pages as I wondered who the actual kidnapper was, even when the kidnapper from all those years ago was in prison. I liked the characters' diversity and found it to be authentic and character-driven. I liked the way the story moved from past to present to create more suspense. The story had an interesting twist at the end. The only criticism were the spelling and grammatical errors, obviously in need of some proofreading.
January 30, 2021
Couldn’t put this book down! This suspense-filled story about four best friends is spilt between their shared past of being kidnapped together as kids and present day where they are mourning one of the four after a tragic accident. The suspense unfolds as they are haunted by someone who seems to be trying to drudge up the past. This book kept me guessing. I loved that the ending wasn’t at all what I had expected. The story is told from the perspective of one of the best friends and switches back and forth between the past and present which I really liked. I feel like I really got to know the characters that way. If you’re looking for a great suspense thriller this is it!
April 14, 2024
The past (Year 2000), children abducted, the present (Year 2018), adults missing… The story was engaging, and the characters were compelling.
One suggestion, if I may: While other readers may not be bothered, I would find the reading experience improved if the author could cut down on the frequent use of the word "but" (hundreds of “but” throughout the pages).
One suggestion, if I may: While other readers may not be bothered, I would find the reading experience improved if the author could cut down on the frequent use of the word "but" (hundreds of “but” throughout the pages).
November 25, 2021
This is a hard book to put down! If you start this book make sure you are free for the rest of the day! You will have this read in one day if you get hooked like I did!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews