Reviews - Horse | The StoryGraph

4.05k reviews for:

Horse

Geraldine Brooks

4.17 AVERAGE

jacquelyn816's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

nicolewills's review against another edition

4.75

emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

tlambe's review against another edition

2.0

I LOVED 90% of this book - beautifully written and the bond between the groom and his horse was amazing. The last 10% felt like someone else came in and wrote it. And to be robbed of the final moments between Lexington and his groom truly bothered me. 5 stars for the first 90%, 1 star for the last portion.

mchirgwin's review against another edition

4.5

reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

woodsykris's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging informative reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Content Warnings

kas_kas's review against another edition

2.5

informative reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Reads like this lady just learned about racism.

Plot wise, often felt like it was dragging and the different timelines didn’t feel anchored to each other enough to feel completely relevant. I agree with a lot of other reviews saying that Jarret’s POV was the best part of the book. His and Lexington’s relationship was the only thing that kept me reading usually, and even his storyline is problematic at times. A lot of conveniently kinder-than-expected literal slave owners makes for a book that whitewashes this period.

Jess and Theo were exhausting. Their entire relationship seemed forced and awkward. Felt like Brooks was using them as pawns to show off how much she could prove her knowledge of micro-aggressions and internalized prejudice. This is at the expense of their actual character development and, in turn, has the opposite effect and makes them emotionally hollow and, in Theo’s case, fully circled back into objectification.

I did enjoy a lot of the accuracy and clear knowledge that went into the multiple layers of the horses. As someone who owns an off-track thoroughbred specifically, everything from the moral complexities of horse racing to Theo’s polo anecdotes was factual enough to be satisfying to read about.