Reviews with content warning for Racial slurs - Horse

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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himpersonal'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, but I don't know why. I liked it enough, but 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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