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A review by audacity
Dark Horses by Cecily von Ziegesar
2.0
It's been a long time since I picked up a book that focused on the intricate bond that most young girls want to have with a horse. I used to be obsessed with all things horse related and by virtue have never been disappointed by a book that focuses on something that I so badly crave. But I guess there's a first for everything.
Summary:
Dark Horses is a story about a girl who get's thrown into a equine therapy program after suffering the loss of her Grandma and her horse Noble. There she runs into a girl Beatrice who seems to be more problematic than the rest, starting fires and eventually getting kicked out, which results in our MC Merritt to get paired up with Beatrice's horse Red. Now Red is a handful, refusing to let people ride him, letting out other horses from their pens, just causing mischief in general. Of course, he has his own horror story of a past but you figure out about that rather quick so I won't go into detail. The two are introduced and after a (very) brief bumpy start the magic begins and their wonderful bond snaps in place. This leads Red's owner, whose also Beatrice's Father, to sponsor them to participate in shows all across the country. Now, it practically just rains down blue ribbons.
Despite my sass, all of this impossible fluff is A-OKAY with me. It's cute and charming and just what the horse lover in me adores. Sure, the fact that Red references Classic Rock all the time is a bit off putting at first (and made the "critical reader" inside of me cringe) but I could even over look that for the sake of romanticising the whole idea of having a horse. My issues arise with pretty much everything that happens outside of their bond. And the ending. Dear God I cannot stand how the book ends.
It'll take too long to thoroughly type out all of my issues with Dark Horse so I'm just going to list them:
-It uses mental illness as a foundation to the story but doesn't truly resolve any of the characters problems, plus the way it was so halfheartedly addressed left a sour taste in my mouth.
-In the blurb it hints that there could be a LGBQ romance, or at the very least the main character is bisexual but that's completely 100% misleading.
- Psychological thriller? More like a weird hodgepodge of inattentive parents trope x randomly thrown in hot guy because we need a love interest even if it isn't really believable x a jealous horse.
-Going off of that Carvin, you know, the hot guy? Completely redundant. His character is weak, we know next to nothing about him, he's bland and their relationship is dumb. There were multiple times when he spoke that I rolled my eyes so hard that my head hurt.
-Ann... just what was her purpose? Like honestly, if you take out Ann the story wouldn't have changed. Plus that whole song stuff reminded me vaguely of [book:Audrey, Wait!|1627267] only worse.
-Her parents. And the fact that they travel half the world in the three months or so that their daughter is away. Apparently they have "reasons" but those aren't really explained except for the last chapter where an info bomb is dropped as a lazy way to excuse her Dad's inconsistent behaviour.
-The fact that they tried to sell this as a "update" of [book:Black Beauty|3685]. Another misleading statement. The only thing that it has in common with it is that there is a horse in it. Nothing Else. I mean literally nothing.
So there you have it. I wouldn't recommend this book unless you're extremely into horses and need a fix of equine x girl magical bonds but even then I swear there's better books out there. Try [book:Sundancer|1585431]. I promise you the horse won't reference classic rock, there's still inattentive parents, and the main character still has mental health problems but they're all handled a lot better than in this story.
Summary:
Dark Horses is a story about a girl who get's thrown into a equine therapy program after suffering the loss of her Grandma and her horse Noble. There she runs into a girl Beatrice who seems to be more problematic than the rest, starting fires and eventually getting kicked out, which results in our MC Merritt to get paired up with Beatrice's horse Red. Now Red is a handful, refusing to let people ride him, letting out other horses from their pens, just causing mischief in general. Of course, he has his own horror story of a past but you figure out about that rather quick so I won't go into detail. The two are introduced and after a (very) brief bumpy start the magic begins and their wonderful bond snaps in place. This leads Red's owner, whose also Beatrice's Father, to sponsor them to participate in shows all across the country. Now, it practically just rains down blue ribbons.
Despite my sass, all of this impossible fluff is A-OKAY with me. It's cute and charming and just what the horse lover in me adores. Sure, the fact that Red references Classic Rock all the time is a bit off putting at first (and made the "critical reader" inside of me cringe) but I could even over look that for the sake of romanticising the whole idea of having a horse. My issues arise with pretty much everything that happens outside of their bond. And the ending. Dear God I cannot stand how the book ends.
It'll take too long to thoroughly type out all of my issues with Dark Horse so I'm just going to list them:
-It uses mental illness as a foundation to the story but doesn't truly resolve any of the characters problems, plus the way it was so halfheartedly addressed left a sour taste in my mouth.
-In the blurb it hints that there could be a LGBQ romance, or at the very least the main character is bisexual but that's completely 100% misleading.
Spoiler
Beatrice kisses her and Merritt rejects her, there's nothing there on her end so don't be fooled- Psychological thriller? More like a weird hodgepodge of inattentive parents trope x randomly thrown in hot guy because we need a love interest even if it isn't really believable x a jealous horse.
-Going off of that Carvin, you know, the hot guy? Completely redundant. His character is weak, we know next to nothing about him, he's bland and their relationship is dumb. There were multiple times when he spoke that I rolled my eyes so hard that my head hurt.
-Ann... just what was her purpose? Like honestly, if you take out Ann the story wouldn't have changed. Plus that whole song stuff reminded me vaguely of [book:Audrey, Wait!|1627267] only worse.
-Her parents. And the fact that they travel half the world in the three months or so that their daughter is away. Apparently they have "reasons" but those aren't really explained except for the last chapter where an info bomb is dropped as a lazy way to excuse her Dad's inconsistent behaviour.
-The fact that they tried to sell this as a "update" of [book:Black Beauty|3685]. Another misleading statement. The only thing that it has in common with it is that there is a horse in it. Nothing Else. I mean literally nothing.
So there you have it. I wouldn't recommend this book unless you're extremely into horses and need a fix of equine x girl magical bonds but even then I swear there's better books out there. Try [book:Sundancer|1585431]. I promise you the horse won't reference classic rock, there's still inattentive parents, and the main character still has mental health problems but they're all handled a lot better than in this story.