Servants of Stone promises a supernatural horror fantasy whose idea sounds fascinating: a witch who can use stone to bring about life and can live for ages on the bodies and souls of young children. But it ultimately soured on me due to a deeply troubling current of misogyny that ruined any potential this book might have had.

The book starts strong, with writing that is descriptive and a storyline that's riveting and drew me into the story within just a few pages. But as the story progressed and we got to know the main characters, it became clear that women would not be playing a positive role in this book, which may not always be necessary but can be downright offensive when women are repeatedly referred to as "bitch wives," "witches" and "bitches."

The only prominent female characters are young girls who are portrayed as "silly" and naive. The heroes of the book are a group of manly men, most of whom swore off marriage because of the tendency for women to be witches.

One could almost forgive an unreliable or morally flawed character spewing misogynistic views -- if the text provided any counterbalance. But Servants of Stone doesn’t challenge these perspectives. It lets them fester unchecked, as though the reader is expected to simply nod along with the sexism.

The story, set in New England in the 1830s, includes a family in which the father is described as burly, attractive and quite manly; the woman is beautiful, but her place is in the home where she toils countless hours baking, tending to animals (and executing pet chickens much to the daughter's horror) and, it seems, doing most of the chores on the farm while her husband plays at rock carving for fun. The remainder of the constant chores are done by their young daughter. The mother is described as stern and religious while the father is a big teddy bear who is wrapped around the finger of the little girl. At least this woman is not described as a "bitch" or "witch" like all the other women. I imagine I'd be sour too if I lived the life she did with a man who failed to help around the house in favor of his hobby.

In the story, a series of missing children cause a group of men to try to research what could be causing the vanishings. The discovery of a strange cemetery above an even stranger town leads the men to believe a witch is responsible for not just the girls' disappearances, but also the oddness of this new town.

A plot develops to put an end to the witch and the dangerous new town. The story falls apart about halfway through when plot twists that are not thoroughly thought through distract from what's really happening. I lost interest at about the 80 percent point and would have called this a "did not finish" if not for the fact that I wanted to give the authors a chance to redeem the story. Alas, that was not in the works.

I would love to see a rewrite with less misogyny and more likeable characters who behave in a manner that doesn't offend half the reading public. As I said, there are talented writers at the keyboard, but not enough editing and certainly not enough compassion for women.