Reviews

White Horse by Erika T. Wurth

veelaughtland's review against another edition

Found the writing completely cringe and uninteresting, horror elements felt laughable. 

amkozy23's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

3.75

I really enjoyed this book. I felt like the journey that Kari took was interesting and I liked learning about her past. I did not find the book boring as the characters are complex and you do not know how to feel about them. I found it odd that Kari never wondered what happened to her mom until now but maybe she needed to push it to the side to deal with everything else going on in her life. The pacing was a bit off and there was a huge error where a loan officer told Kari his dad had passed but then his dad comes to the bar at the end. Other than that, I enjoyed this read and would like to read more from the author. 

letmollyread's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

Kari James is an Urban Native who spends her time either reading or watching horror, listening to heavy metal, and hanging out at her favorite local dive bar, the White Horse. When her cousin gifts her a bracelet that unknowingly contains her mother’s spirit, the details of her mother’s past and disappearance refuse to stay a mystery much longer. Kari feels obligated to follow the clues, facing down the monster haunting the piece of jewelry and uncovering what family and community have refused to acknowledge for years. 

This was my first step into horror and I think it’s a nice entry point. There is mystery, some dark elements, multiple references to Stephen King, but it trends more on the side of mystery than scary horror. I loved the relationship between Kari and her cousin Debby, and Kari’s examination of culture and family. It’s a very atmospheric read with a satisfying ending! This was my choice for the Diverse Baseline prompt eight: a book by an indigenous author!

noellesmagicallibrary's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

White Horse is a beautiful horror story centered on an Indigenous woman who begins to see her mother’s ghost after touching a family heirloom. Why aren’t more people raving about this book? I loved it from the first pages. Almost finished it in one day. 

Whichever month it was, I had chose it from the BOTM and it sat on my shelves until yesterday. And even then, I chose to listen to the audio. This narrator is great— brought Carrie to life, I loved her. 
I also really loved all the references to Stephen King. This book read like one of his, but even better (sorry SK! You couldn’t write these characters). 


I recently read Stephen Graham Jones’ Indian Lake Trilogy, and I found similarities between the main character Jade, and Carrie. I imagine Carrie is what Jade could have been if she had a different father/home. 

jocelyn73c's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

3.75

reaperreads's review against another edition

4.0

My rating/review of this book morphed a lot over the course of reading it. Anything that I have to say about the feeling of redundancy in some chapters has already been voiced by other folks, so I'd like to focus on the positives. First, I found every single character to be alive. Their tensions played out realistically and added believable drama to the story. Second, the horror is right up my alley because it was a ghost story intricately woven with an origin story of our narrator as she discovers parts of her past that challenge the story she has been telling herself about herself for a long time. Lastly, the writing of Kari as a narrator was done with such finesse that it was easy to hear her voice in my head from page one. Now, I said my rating morphed a lot over the course of the book; I say this because I at first thought I'd give it three stars, but after the ending, I can't go lower than four. Really, the pay-off to me was brilliant, so anyone who is reading these reviews because they're thinking the middle is dragging a bit and they're wondering whether they should put this book down for good--don't. Trust me. Don't.

libbyajt's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

caleighsmith's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.75

kaelstrom's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

4.0

karleighreads's review against another edition

1.0

I have to be honest, I went into this book thinking I wasn't going to like it so I wasn't really all that surprised when I didn't. I did not find what was supposed to be classed as horror as spooky, nor did it feel like horror while reading it. I honestly don't even think the book completed itself, it may have and I just didn't care enough to pay attention. There was so much filler in this book as well, just things that added nothing to the main story. I felt like the author had a page number quota that she was trying to fill and therefore we got random junk like the constant fighting between her friend and her husband and so on. Just wasn't the book for me.