“Swallowing Stones” by Joyce McDonald is will make you feel for the characters even though some of them have done wrong. It all begins when Michael McKenzie and his best friend, Joe Sadowski, go to the woods at the back of Michael’s house to fire his grandfather’s winchester that Michael got for his birthday. But, little did Michael know… he killed a man. Michael is the type character that you feel for in this novel, even though he killed a man. The man who was struck by the flying bullet was Jenna’s father. Jenna is the character that is going through hurt and pain even though she knew Michael was the killer all along. Jenna was going outside to tell her father that lunch was ready, but then she witnessed her father falling off the roof with a bullet wound in the back of his skull. Michael ends up covering up his illegal mistake with more and more illegal lies. Michael and Jenna found peace in Amy Ruggerio. She was always there when needed until one day Michael ran into her car. Joe was drunk from drinking one too many beers and began to beat on Amy’s car windshield. Michael tried pulling out Amy, but she wouldn’t budge. The glass shattered all over Amy as cries of terror came out of her. Michael began to sit in front of Jenna’s House ever since he found out where she lived. Amy stopped talking to Michael for awhile, until one day Michael tried to tell her what he had done, but she already knew and kept his secret for all this time. Did Michael ever tell the cops he’s guilty? “Swallowing Stones” was super suspenseful for me, every chapter left you on a cliff-hanger. I didn’t like the ending too well, if I was the author I would go a little further into depth on the end. But, besides that, it was an amazing book! This book might have been written in 1997, but it still has a modern feel. I give this book a raiding of five-stars. If you could get your hands on this book, I would recommend you reading and experiencing the suspenseful turns in this book.