I am a big reader, it is a passion of mine along with others. I'm studying a Screen Studies and Creative Writing/Literary Studies course at university so you'd want to hope that I like to read haha. I've discovered a lot of different novels and texts from all different genres that I love however I'd like to mention one that I happen to find very interesting and entrancing. This novel isn't for everyone, it doesn't follow the popular supernatural aspects that are very entwined in a lot of novels today. It is very realistic and lifelike, which is what captures my attention. I don't read many novels that actually move a person, this one did exactly that. The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle, 2007.
Before I delve into the details of why I recommend this novel here is a short snippet from the back cover of the book.
'Yellow Cap was standing stock-still, his knees locked and his muscles twitching. His eyes were wide and his nostrils flared, snorting at the cloud of bugs. "There's my boy," I said, and he tossed his head, knocking me backwards. I hadn't thought to bring a halter or a rope, so I tugged at his mane and ears to get him to follow me. But Cap's eyes were frozen with fear, and his legs were rigid on the ground. I couldn't see where we were on the road, and all around us I sensed the water that had killed Polly Cain. Maybe she had just tripped and fallen in. Maybe she had dropped something. No houses were close by. No one would have heard her scream.'
Blurb:
'Alice Winston is twelve years old, and her world had turned upside down.
After her older sister elopes with a rodeo cowboy, Alice is left to bear the brunt of her family's troubles - her melancholy and bedridden mother, her reticent, overworked father, and their run-down horse ranch in desert Valley, Colorado. Facing the hottest summer in fifteen years, Alice and her father breed their horses, give riding lessons and , as the pile of bills stacks up, lower their heads and agree to board the pampered horses of their rich neighbors. For Alice, it is a social education, bringing her into contact with a new breed of woman, and teaching her that for both horses and people, it is bloodlines that make all the difference.
As the dusty, stifling summer unfolds, Alice's family and their well-being become intertwined with the lives of their clients; her father pins his hopes on a gorgeous but unbreakable horse and Alice, left too much to her own devices and obsesses with a girl who drowned in the canal, begins a dangerous friendship.
Drawn into an adult world of secrets, hard truths and even harder consequences, she experiences her first kiss, her first beer and her first infatuation. But when the rain comes and brings the summer to an end, Alice's choices lead to a devastating betrayal and a shocking, violent series of events.'
Without giving any more away I'd like to comment that if you like emotion, you'll love this book. It is almost kind of twisted in a realistic manner. If you're a big reader than I certainly recommend you check this novel out. I actually happen to buy this from a little book store when I was 13. By no means did I actually read it at the time, it is definitely a book for older people, I just happened to like the book cover haha. Now that I am older however, I am mature enough to understand and follow the events in the novel fluently and it was very moving. A great read. Check it out :)
J.R xo
