Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Horse by Geraldine Brooks

50 reviews

ahorowitz25's review against another edition

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informative

4.5

As a lifelong horse girl, I loved the way Brooks wrote about the horses and their people. I just couldn’t give the book five stars, however, because Jess and Theo’s relationship was just so awkward and totally unnecessary to the plot.
There was no reason it was necessary for Theo to be killed at the end, and it really distracted from Jarret and Lexington’s story — which is what I picked up the book for.
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booksandbabble's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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menglert's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I usually love this kind of historical fiction/timeline switching/multiple POV parallelism, but this one didn't totally click for me. Some of the POV choices were a bit confusing, with some characters only having only one or two chapters. 

I think the core of this book was quite effective at examining themes of racism in America's past and present, so it could be worth the read for that. 
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megan_martha_reads's review against another edition

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challenging informative sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Opened my eyes to horse racing and the role of enslaved people in building that industry in the US. Beautifully written but heavy. As someone who does not have any interest in horses or racing still was sucked in.

Spent a lot of time after googling equestrian art. 
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melissabristol's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

The only thing I thought was less than ideal was the ending.  Sending Jess back to Australia felt like a bit of a way to avoid harder questions about where her relationship with Theo was going and the interracial dating issues that would have been raised there.  I don't deny that, sadly, Theo getting shot was a realistic outcome (see, e.g., Ahmed Aubrey, RIP), but I felt that it was in some ways throwing a HUGE issue in without really having time to discuss it.  It could have been a book of its own.
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larskat's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Started out slow, but finished strong. I had no idea what I was getting into; five stars for so much crying. 
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fkshg8465's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

 Thought this won a Pulitzer, I didn’t love it. Maybe if I liked animals more, I might’ve loved it. Not sure. There were too many timelines and stories for me to track, and after all that saga, the way the story ended on the airplane sucked. 
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chelsl's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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lisas_bookshelf's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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astoriareader's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

SYNOPSIS:
  • Lexington, a remarkable horse, is the thread binding all the characters and timelines together.
  • Jarrett, a talented groom/trainer that was enslaved, is in charge of Lexington’s care during the time before the Civil War & during it. With his story, there’s several others intertwined, such as an equestrian artist that paints Lexington on different occasions.
  • Martha Jackson is an art dealer in NYC in the 1950s.
  • In 2019, Jess, an Australian white woman who runs the Smithsonian Institution's Osteology Prep Lab, and Theo, a Black man getting his PhD from Georgetown & working on a thesis about the portrayal of Black folks in American equestrian art.
  • The stories are intertwined by Lexington, the equestrian paintings, and racism/the legacy of slavery.

MY THOUGHTS
  • I am going to preface my review by saying that I don’t like that a white author being the voice of an enslaved Black man & the voice of a Black man in contemporary society facing racial injustices. Since I’m also white, I am curious to get others takes on this point.
  • Despite my caveat above, decided to still round up to give 5 stars because the writing is top-notch.
  • Historical fiction / literary fiction
  • Generational saga 
  • Multiple POVs + multiple timelines
  • Brooks meticulously researched the book, and she expertly plotted the novel to weave together a beautiful, emotional story. 
  • My favorite sections were Jarrett’s story. The connection between Jarrett and Lexington is palpable and endearing. The bond between Jarrett & the horse is the cornerstone of the book. I found myself rooting for them, and I kept wanting to get through the book to find out their fates.
  • Since the book spans over many years, we also get to see Jarrett’s character development. Over time, Jarrett becomes more aware of the world around him, and he offers astute observations. 
  • I also really enjoyed the incorporation of the horse’s preserved bones. I was fascinated to learn about scientific aspect & work done by the Smithsonian.
  • On paper, I should have hated this book. I have never been a fan of horse racing, and I don’t gravitate toward Civil Era stories. To my surprise, I loved it.
  • I wasn’t familiar with the world  of antebellum racing. The story educated me on another way white folks made money off of Black folks’ unpaid (or underpaid) labor and skills.
  • I love learning new words, and I looked up so many words while reading this one.   

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Historical fiction + generational saga. Many stories intertwined by a common thread: Lexington, a remarkable horse.
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