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A review by bmg20
The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton DiSclafani
1.0
A copy of The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls was provided to me by Riverhead/Penguin Group (USA) for review purposes.
The authors childhood fondness for horseback riding sets the scene of this story about teenage angst, boarding school drama and a family scandal that changes a girl forever. Thea Atwell has lived with her family on their Florida farm since she was born but after a recent scandal her parents have sent her to The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls. The back story slowly unfurls as her time at camp passes.
Going in to this novel I had already seen many rave reviews for it and that it was also on several Summer Reading Lists. It's quoted as being 'lush, sexy and evocative'. Entertainment Weekly says '...the lovely descriptions of riding and adolescence have a spellbinding effect.' Kirkus Reviews called it "an unusually accomplished and nuanced coming-of-age drama." Suffice it to say I went into this with extremely high expectations. My overall opinion? This is one terribly dull book that is not helped by the attempts to shock and disgust by the author.
100+ pages in and it's brought to our attention that 2 months have passed but you could have fooled me considering nothing of consequence had actually occurred. (But honestly, nothing of consequence EVER seems to happen. The entire book.) The majority of those 100+ introductory pages felt like a whole bunch of inconsequential filler. It's also extremely disjointed and lacks a much needed flow. There's a dance, then they have riding lessons, and now it's bath time. It's never a full day though so it's difficult to grasp exactly how much time has even passed.
'I knew what it was like, to love horses. But I also knew what it was like to love humans. I knew what it was like to want, to desire so intensely you were willing to throw everything else into its fire.'
Lines like that if read without context would make me think this was a fascinating book about a headstrong and passionate girl. But the rest of the lines spoke of a girl that wasn't raised around anyone but family and had terrible trouble adapting with suddenly being shipped off to camp. Thea is a terribly awkward girl that seems extraordinarily confused with life in general and her purpose in it. It was not a joyful story to read about.
The writing was at times extremely well done but as a whole ended up being excessively descriptive and made the story feel long and drawn out. This was an extremely lackluster and disjointed story that only managed to keep me interested enough to find out the 'scandal' that caused her to be sent to camp in the first place. The shock factor was there, however, it lacked any significance and essentially ended up being overly superfluous and just left a bad taste in my mouth.
The authors childhood fondness for horseback riding sets the scene of this story about teenage angst, boarding school drama and a family scandal that changes a girl forever. Thea Atwell has lived with her family on their Florida farm since she was born but after a recent scandal her parents have sent her to The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls. The back story slowly unfurls as her time at camp passes.
Going in to this novel I had already seen many rave reviews for it and that it was also on several Summer Reading Lists. It's quoted as being 'lush, sexy and evocative'. Entertainment Weekly says '...the lovely descriptions of riding and adolescence have a spellbinding effect.' Kirkus Reviews called it "an unusually accomplished and nuanced coming-of-age drama." Suffice it to say I went into this with extremely high expectations. My overall opinion? This is one terribly dull book that is not helped by the attempts to shock and disgust by the author.
100+ pages in and it's brought to our attention that 2 months have passed but you could have fooled me considering nothing of consequence had actually occurred. (But honestly, nothing of consequence EVER seems to happen. The entire book.) The majority of those 100+ introductory pages felt like a whole bunch of inconsequential filler. It's also extremely disjointed and lacks a much needed flow. There's a dance, then they have riding lessons, and now it's bath time. It's never a full day though so it's difficult to grasp exactly how much time has even passed.
'I knew what it was like, to love horses. But I also knew what it was like to love humans. I knew what it was like to want, to desire so intensely you were willing to throw everything else into its fire.'
Lines like that if read without context would make me think this was a fascinating book about a headstrong and passionate girl. But the rest of the lines spoke of a girl that wasn't raised around anyone but family and had terrible trouble adapting with suddenly being shipped off to camp. Thea is a terribly awkward girl that seems extraordinarily confused with life in general and her purpose in it. It was not a joyful story to read about.
The writing was at times extremely well done but as a whole ended up being excessively descriptive and made the story feel long and drawn out. This was an extremely lackluster and disjointed story that only managed to keep me interested enough to find out the 'scandal' that caused her to be sent to camp in the first place. The shock factor was there, however, it lacked any significance and essentially ended up being overly superfluous and just left a bad taste in my mouth.