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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I confiscated this from the shelves of the psych hospital I work at. After a flip through I was initially very put off by it and intended to donate it. After a few nights in a bag by my door, I couldn’t get this book out of my head and decided to read it. Its been a while since I have read a book this detailed and harrowing. Sometimes books just choose you.
emotional
sad
fast-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
Reading Dark Horses was like having my heart torn out of my chest over and over again. An incredibly painful, emotional book: I don’t often cry at novels, but Susan Mihalic made me. Roan’s pure loneliness and desperation and unending heartbreak was really difficult to get through. And when she lost Jasper, the only thing tethering her anymore, it destroyed me. And the fact that she was forced to injure her father made me sob, because it was so devastating that she was ever in that position. There were definitely a few scenes that felt a little too graphic for me, so I highly encourage readers to look at trigger warnings.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault
tw: rape, sexual assault, physical assault, death of an animal, emotional manipulation
3.5 stars. I liked this book but didn't love it. I think it had more potential than what happened but over all it was good. There are a lot of triggers in to absolutely look up trigger warnings if you have them
Disturbing -
Kind of like the train wreck and you can’t look away. Kept my attention.
Kind of like the train wreck and you can’t look away. Kept my attention.
Not for the light at heart. I loved this book, so much. It was disturbing and tragic. I was equally traumatized and amazed. This was such a powerful book. I love the character growth throughout the book.
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship
My Rating: 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ devastating, depressing and heartbreaking stars!!!
Fifteen year old Roan Montgomery is a prodigy living in the constant shadow of her fathers equestrian career, but if shes trains hard enough and does all the right things just maybe she can make it to the Olympics her ultimate goal.
Roan only knows two things in life inside the arena and outside the arena and both of those worlds are ruled by her father who demands strict obedience in every facet of her life. Roan’s father “Daddy” is her coach, her father, her mentor and her abuser.
Things have long since been Ok in the Montgomery household but the abuse is commonplace and Roan is slowly but surely being eaten alive by the suffocating knowledge that her life is absolutely not how she hoped it would be.
Roan finds a glimmer of hope in a boy at school but her father can absolutely never find out… Will Howard cannot sway her focus… but things just never go to plan.
TRIGGER WARNINGS: Sexual Assault, Incest, Neglect, Abuse and a bunch of other - know your limits!!!
First of all this book is a story of abuse and control… but neglect from all the people that touch the lives of poor lovely Roan. You may read this and say but how can she let this happen… Roan is 16 and this has not just begun happening. This is her life this is her reality day in day out and her greatest fan, her so called protector and the person that loves her most is the one betraying her trust, her body and her soul every single day… what a confusing and devastating life for a young girl… it just broke me.
Second of all, this is not a thriller - so my GR friends if you follow me for the thriller books I read this is absolutely not one of them. This is depression and heartache and all kinds of f*cked up!!! If you’re looking for a fast paced action packed thrill a minute look away. This one is slow and it progressively gets more and more graphic as it goes along… it was a difficult read because the subject matter is just so heartbreaking.
Having said all that, it was excellent, the writing was wonderful - fully told from POV of Roan and in the current timeline but we get a sense for all the main and secondary characters just exactly as it should be. There is edge of your seat moments when you think this or that might be found out … or this or that might happen and I think if I didn’t paint my nails in STOP BITE nail poison I would have no nails left from this book.
The other really surprising thing about this book for me is the level of detail the author goes into about the sport equestrian and horses and riding in general. Now I am no horse fan - don’t trust them and I wouldn’t ride one. But I found this incredibly interesting - it was slow slow paced and sometimes there would be three chapters in a row about Roan and riding and horses and equestrian but I had trouble putting it down… I kept reading and reading and I was up late with this one.
If the facts that were shared in this book were researched as well as they appeared to be then I learnt a lot about horses and the sport and it was actually very interesting…. Competitive and cutthroat. I liked Roan a lot, she was a true victim that did not want to be a vicim and she tried to continue living her life but … her life was not meant to be lived… in the end… well I am not going to give away the ending but it was satisfying enough… it is absolutely not how I would have played it in real life but every action made perfect sense and I get why the author did what she did and I appreciated it.
Will Howard was a great character and perfect for Roan - oooh the tension between these two well that was pulled of really well and they are teenagers too… so you know sometimes you’re like meh teenage love barf - but I liked it. AND my god!!! Roan’s mother what an absolutely piece of sh*t - I dunno what it is but I seem to find all the books with the bad mothers… although in this case the dad is the devil himself and I wanted to stab his face off throughout the entire book.
Overall - I would only recommend this to people who an handle their trigger warnings and to my GR friends who like me enjoy the depression novels. I know thats not an actual genre but if you know me and my book choices then you will know what I mean. It wont be for everyone and if you really truly hate horses I don’t recommend it either. Everyone else if this sounds like something you can handle then I highly recommend it!!
I got this one of Kindle Unlimited so if you have that and are on the fence you can always try it without much fuss!!!
Fifteen year old Roan Montgomery is a prodigy living in the constant shadow of her fathers equestrian career, but if shes trains hard enough and does all the right things just maybe she can make it to the Olympics her ultimate goal.
Roan only knows two things in life inside the arena and outside the arena and both of those worlds are ruled by her father who demands strict obedience in every facet of her life. Roan’s father “Daddy” is her coach, her father, her mentor and her abuser.
Things have long since been Ok in the Montgomery household but the abuse is commonplace and Roan is slowly but surely being eaten alive by the suffocating knowledge that her life is absolutely not how she hoped it would be.
Roan finds a glimmer of hope in a boy at school but her father can absolutely never find out… Will Howard cannot sway her focus… but things just never go to plan.
TRIGGER WARNINGS: Sexual Assault, Incest, Neglect, Abuse and a bunch of other - know your limits!!!
First of all this book is a story of abuse and control… but neglect from all the people that touch the lives of poor lovely Roan. You may read this and say but how can she let this happen… Roan is 16 and this has not just begun happening. This is her life this is her reality day in day out and her greatest fan, her so called protector and the person that loves her most is the one betraying her trust, her body and her soul every single day… what a confusing and devastating life for a young girl… it just broke me.
Second of all, this is not a thriller - so my GR friends if you follow me for the thriller books I read this is absolutely not one of them. This is depression and heartache and all kinds of f*cked up!!! If you’re looking for a fast paced action packed thrill a minute look away. This one is slow and it progressively gets more and more graphic as it goes along… it was a difficult read because the subject matter is just so heartbreaking.
Having said all that, it was excellent, the writing was wonderful - fully told from POV of Roan and in the current timeline but we get a sense for all the main and secondary characters just exactly as it should be. There is edge of your seat moments when you think this or that might be found out … or this or that might happen and I think if I didn’t paint my nails in STOP BITE nail poison I would have no nails left from this book.
The other really surprising thing about this book for me is the level of detail the author goes into about the sport equestrian and horses and riding in general. Now I am no horse fan - don’t trust them and I wouldn’t ride one. But I found this incredibly interesting - it was slow slow paced and sometimes there would be three chapters in a row about Roan and riding and horses and equestrian but I had trouble putting it down… I kept reading and reading and I was up late with this one.
If the facts that were shared in this book were researched as well as they appeared to be then I learnt a lot about horses and the sport and it was actually very interesting…. Competitive and cutthroat. I liked Roan a lot, she was a true victim that did not want to be a vicim and she tried to continue living her life but … her life was not meant to be lived… in the end… well I am not going to give away the ending but it was satisfying enough… it is absolutely not how I would have played it in real life but every action made perfect sense and I get why the author did what she did and I appreciated it.
Will Howard was a great character and perfect for Roan - oooh the tension between these two well that was pulled of really well and they are teenagers too… so you know sometimes you’re like meh teenage love barf - but I liked it. AND my god!!! Roan’s mother what an absolutely piece of sh*t - I dunno what it is but I seem to find all the books with the bad mothers… although in this case the dad is the devil himself and I wanted to stab his face off throughout the entire book.
Overall - I would only recommend this to people who an handle their trigger warnings and to my GR friends who like me enjoy the depression novels. I know thats not an actual genre but if you know me and my book choices then you will know what I mean. It wont be for everyone and if you really truly hate horses I don’t recommend it either. Everyone else if this sounds like something you can handle then I highly recommend it!!
I got this one of Kindle Unlimited so if you have that and are on the fence you can always try it without much fuss!!!