A review by peacelovefloyd
White Horse by Erika T. Wurth

2.0

Overall ambivalent.

I liked the overarching theme, and it all connected well in the end, but for the love of all that is holy can someone get this author a better editor, a stronger outline, and some ADHD medication?

A lot of the sentences read awkwardly. The atmosphere in the scenes of the ghost/spirits mostly makes up for the awkward sentences. I didn’t mind the main character as she did have some character growth. Mostly, as I was reading I had some secondhand embarrassment and cringe related to her. Tell me you’re metal without telling me your metal. However, in comparison to the other characters she fell flat. In the end, Debby, the mom, and the friend were the most developed characters… two of them were dead.

What is this mess with Debby? I don’t think that family drama served the plot well. Unless the goal here is to piss off the reader endlessly, end patriarchy, and bring light to IPV… and if that is the goal, King is probably not the best name to weave throughout the book. (But in all honesty, if Debby’s drama wasn’t involved at all, I wouldn’t have minded the King name drop. The Shining aspect was pretty cool). However, mentioning the teenage boy at the hotel? Again, unnecessary. I don’t know what the point of that was.

That pacing was incredibly off. It could have served as a novella. At page 214, I felt the plot had gone nowhere. The ending was almost too fast and my eyes couldn’t keep up. And a happy ending with a side character I’m supposed to care about? No. I believe in redemption of people, I think people can come out of active addiction, I believe in therapy. I don’t think it’s fair to continue to label addicts as addicts for their entire lives. Responsibility needs to be taken. Just because you’re an abusive asshole who drinks a lot doesn’t mean someone has to forgive you for violent, atrocious behavior. Abusive men don’t just go to one therapy session and shit rainbows after. Do not manipulate the reader this way.

I also have to mention that I’ve seen some pieces on the internet stating that the author is disingenuous about her identity. While I don’t know how I feel about that, I think this is an important component in how I ultimately feel about some of the history of Native Americans/American Indians/Indigenous folx and how it was represented in the book.