Judge Stone

Judge Stone was co-authored by James Patterson and Viola Davis. There are at least a dozen reviews in this blog of Patterson’s prolific works, but most of those have been written by other reviewers. I tend not to seek out his books. However, because Viola Davis, an incredible actress, was his co-author and because she was reading the entire story for the audiobook, I chose to take it on. Those were good decisions.

The novel is about a 13-year-old black girl, Nova, who was raped in Alabama, and then she became pregnant. She knew her mother did not believe in abortion. At the young of age 28, her mother had already birthed four children, and Nova was the oldest who was immediately given responsibilities to help raise her siblings. Feeling caught between her own wish to abort the child and her fear of her mother’s reaction to learning she was pregnant, and when was having significant first trimester symptoms, Nova went to the school nurse who then discovered her pregnancy. At the time, Alabama had the most strict anti-abortion laws in the country. Anyone who was found to have assisted another person to get an abortion was guilty of a Class A felony, meaning a long jail term. The nurse then took her to a local doctor who knew the law, but who disagreed with denying this child an abortion.

Viola played the role of Judge Stone who then contended with the controversy when the abortion became public news.  The doctor was arrested. The DA was relentless in pursuing the doctor’s punishment. The case landed on Judge Stone's docket. She was under assault by the town people, as well as the thousands of people that descended on the small town to protest with religious fervor.

I thought this book addressed all of the social issues involved in this story with compassion. The cast of characters, those that supported Judge Stone and those who hated her, was a very rich and powerful novel. While some of the details were predictable, the ending was not what I expected. Although heartending, it was so enjoyable to hear Viola address this most important topic with depth and wisdom. This was a 5/5 read.