A review by mitzysbookshelf
On Swift Horses by Shannon Pufahl

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

❝ She is stopped sometimes, at work or waking in the mornings, by a poignant feeling. The feeling is like happiness but it comes so slowly and is so austere she might easily mistake it for grief. ❞

As beautiful as the prose of this book was, it still felt as if it was lacking substance and couldn’t cover up how underwhelming it was towards the end. I was really intrigued by Henry and Julius’ relationship as the story progressed . I had wished we would’ve spent more time with Muriel. Specifically towards the end she got so compelling and then the ending felt somewhat erupt. I understand where Pufhal is coming from with ending it the way she did, sometimes that’s just how life goes. Still after finishing I felt incomplete and overall there were many parts that dragged to unnecessarily long when they didn’t have to. I’ve read slow paced books but this plot moved way to slowly for my liking. Despite all this I still did have an okay reading experience, even if I did have to start over many times until I was comfortable with the book.

Truthfully, I wouldn’t have picked the book up if I hadn’t know that it was gonna be adapted to a movie. It comes out in April 25, and based off what I have seen I am intrigued. I’m also a huge fan of Daisy Edgar Jones and Diego Calva so I know they are gonna be great as Muriel and Henry! Other than that, I hope the movie does a better job of making the story feel more complete and show the complexities of humans discovering themselves which I think the book did wonderfully as well.