Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - Horse: A Novel

The portion of the book that is historical fiction is pretty good.

The BLM stuff is heavy handed and ultimately centers the white woman and how she feels about it over the life of the Black male character.

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ashdawn's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

This one was VERY over-hyped. I had heard so much about this book, and at least I can say it was well researched. The story of Lexington and of Jarrett was well thought out, creative, and brought attention to a side horse racing history that not many people talk about.

It meshes in what is considered to be a more "modern" training method of liberty training/positive reinforcement/relationship based training. Now, those methods are becoming more popular, but for the time period this is set it would have been revolutionary training. I feel like it works well for the story, even if I don't know how far back that would have been acceptable way of training, especially from a slave who would not have had a choice if his master wanted otherwise.

It really did not need to be told by six different points of view, especially with multiple being in each time period being discussed. It really hampered the ability to have really good depth to characters. With that many perspectives, it also brought a ton of rabbit trail stories in. Most of the perspectives did not add much, and I would have preferred to see a story more about Lexington and Jarrett as his trainer. Mostly Scott and Jarrett's perspectives, with maybe a prologue and epilogue from one of the more modern characters tying it all together, if it had multiple perspectives at all.

I've read other books by this author, and contrary to what everyone else seems to be saying, this is not one of my favorites by her.

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rachkoch's review against another edition

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3.75

i feel like this book (nor my opinion of it) is well served by a quantitative numerical rating.

the writing in this book is very well done in my opinion and realizing that the story of lexington is like a true story is remarkable - certainly no easy feat to write.

i think my conflictong feelings about this book come from the modern storyline of theo and jess. i understand why brooks was juxtaposing the racism of antebellum america with modern america, and i won’t say it was done poorly, but it certainly felt really sticky for a

white author to kill off one her key black characters in a police shooting

. i’m sure someone smarter than me can elaborate on why that feels so sticky.

anyway all that is to say that i’m conflicted on how i feel at the end of the book, but that doesn’t have anything to do with writing or really the plot. it’s a good, well done book. doesn’t mean i’m not conflicted. also heed the TWs

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kwelter08's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring 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? No

5.0

I absolutely loved this book, as heartbreaking as it was. A historical recount of the generational impacts of racism and slavery, generational wealthy, and the horrendous history of race in America and how little has changed.

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marycage's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

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spudsimple's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I loved Year of Wonder and with all the hype around this book was so excited to read it. Unfortunately, it just didn't hit the same way for me for a couple of reasons. First, I really wasn't enthralled with the subject matter. This solidified that I am not a horse girl and never will be and I could honestly care less about horses and horse culture. With that, the book started off super slow for me and it just felt tedious to get through at points. My other main critique is that the weaving in of race relations in the United States, specifically the exploitation of black men through slavery to today, felt clunky and ill conceptualized. It was very clear that a white woman wrote those characters and there was a marked difference in the teasing out of characters such as Jess and those of Jarrett and Theo.

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kk_gotit_goinon's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book is incredible. It makes you think, feel, laugh. I love how everything gets connected in the end. I couldn't put it down, I'm so excited to discuss it with my book club.

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