Reviews with content warning for Murder - Girls and their Horses

13-year-old Maple is a little bit different. She has been picked on, bullied, and rejected over and over again. Her mother, Heather, has had enough. She decides to move her family to California for a fresh start. Heather has always had dreams of riding horses. After all, horse girls are the toughest girls around. The competition is cutthroat, however, and at the end of the summer, someone winds up dead. 😱

While there are snippets of detective's interviews throughout the book, the reader does not know who was murdered until reaching about ~90%. Unfortunately when the reveal was made, I was so underwhelmed. I read almost 400 pages for THAT? That said, I enjoyed the rest of the story and the character development overall. To be honest, it could have stood on its own without the murder. Why did the author try to turn this book into a "thriller" when it clearly was not?

My overall thoughts: As a thriller, this absolutely missed its mark. Considering it to be a family drama and coming-of-age story, though, its message was profound. I'm surprised the editors weren't as confused by this as I was.

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booksandcoffeewithlexi's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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maryannc's review against another edition

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mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

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megwilli's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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ezwolf's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This is not a genre I usually read, but there was a horse on the cover so of course I was interested. Which is pretty ironic considering the book and it’s opinion of horse girls (I personally consider this to be a gender neutral title at least for myself, I am still a horse girl even though I’m not a girl).

The murder mystery aspect was interesting enough to keep me going and finish it, but I didn’t like any of the characters or particularly care about any of their individual storylines.

I was thoroughly entertained by the description of barn culture though.

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seawarrior's review against another edition

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5.0

Girls and Their Horses is a character study that successfully masquerades behind a thriller novel. If Brazier was a less adept author, many of the choices her characters made would have seemed nonsensical. Yet Brazier crafts her characters with histories, motivations and senses of self that clash wonderfully, maintaining tension throughout a novel that winds at times before reminding us that we are witnessing the fallout that culminated in a person's murder. I found this story fascinating, especially because it zeros in on a competitive world that the average person will never view from the inside.

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