A review by ohemgitsal
Dark Horses by Susan Mihalic
4.0
”What did I give a man who always got what he wanted?”
This book is not for the faint of heart: it’s dark, gruesome, disturbing, and disheartening. However, amist all the darkness between the pages, it’s also a story of light, perseverance, and survival.
Dark Horses follows Roan Montgomery, a teen equestrian aiming for the Olympics, following the footsteps of her father. As the blurb hints, the story details Roan’s abusive relationship with her father: mentally, physically, sexually, etc. Reading some of the passages made me physically ill, because the truth is that this does happen in real life, and so many real stories of abuse victims go unread.
Roan’s mature voice sometimes caught me off guard, but I had to remind myself that this was a child who was forced to grow up way too fast. I wish we had more in-depth introductions to the secondary characters who seemed to be thrown at us, i.e. the housekeeper and her husband, the grooms, etc.
Overall, this was a really important story, and I advise anyone who considers this book to check out the trigger warnings.
This book is not for the faint of heart: it’s dark, gruesome, disturbing, and disheartening. However, amist all the darkness between the pages, it’s also a story of light, perseverance, and survival.
Dark Horses follows Roan Montgomery, a teen equestrian aiming for the Olympics, following the footsteps of her father. As the blurb hints, the story details Roan’s abusive relationship with her father: mentally, physically, sexually, etc. Reading some of the passages made me physically ill, because the truth is that this does happen in real life, and so many real stories of abuse victims go unread.
Roan’s mature voice sometimes caught me off guard, but I had to remind myself that this was a child who was forced to grow up way too fast. I wish we had more in-depth introductions to the secondary characters who seemed to be thrown at us, i.e. the housekeeper and her husband, the grooms, etc.
Overall, this was a really important story, and I advise anyone who considers this book to check out the trigger warnings.