Sierra

I love this book and feel it deserves more attention considering the astronomical popularity of the author's Twilight. I think this has wider appeal in terms of subject matter, target audience, and the way it was written. If you're not much a fan of Twilight, but enjoy romance and science fiction, you might just love this. And if you love Twilight... what took you so long?? Read it! Don't watch the movie beforehand though... not a fan. It's been a while since I saw it, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't "good bad" as many people see the Twilight movies.

In my opinion this is a very rare example of a movie improving on its source material. I enjoy the movie, so this review is going to specifically compare the two, not look at the book for its own sake. This story is much better served through visual storytelling. The film gives Alec and the Black more time together on the beach, enriching their relationship and making its mutual nature far more believable than the utilitarian tone of the book. The beach scenes are infinitely improved on in the film by not being filtered through the thoughts of literary Alec. The book focuses more on Alec's desire to ride and control the Black and of course race, whereas the movie, at least during the beach scenes, shows Alec earning the Black's trust through time together, providing food, and mutual play. I also feel the film's choice to age-down Alec from a teenager to a younger boy better serves the story and I appreciate how they had Alec keep the horse in his front yard at first because as a child I fantasized about having a horse in my back yard.

I both love and hate this book. I really wanted to love it, as someone who loves horses and folklore, but unfortunately it was a bit disappointing. It took me 3 weeks to get through the first 2/3 and then I finished the final 1/3 in a day. It began too slow for me, with too uncertain a setting in time and place and plot-driving character decisions mistifying me in annoying ways, before ramping up and enthralling me for the final 1/3, and finally ending too quickly without satisfying me - just as it had finally commanded my attention. For me, this book was a lot better in theory and in retrospect. Which eats at me, because this book could have been one of my favourites with a few tweaks. But it is what it is and so I'm left with this love-hate longing that is as poetic as this annoyingly disappointing-good book.

On a side note, if you're not from the UK, I would recommend reading with some form of UK accent; it improved the experience for me. The setting is very British Isles coded, from the geography, to the sheep, to the tea, and their seemingly Welsh or otherwise British Isles-inspired tradition that I won't spoil. I was a third into the book before I had enough data to deduce it is a fictional place located off the coast of a country in the real world, somewhere in the 20th century. I do wish the writer had made the setting more clear earlier on because when I began, I assumed it was a completely made-up world and this didn't allow me to settle into the book as quickly as I would have liked.

The premise of this book is very unique and interesting. However, as someone who studied zoology and anthropology, some of the author's choices pulled me out of the illusion. The way the book is written in terms of themes and events seems to suggest the author subscribes to the unscientific belief in dominance theory among dogs and that human nature is also competitive and cut-throat. Combine the two, and this book has so much competition and violence for a story about two cooperative, social species. This book is really about what makes us human, not about what makes a dog a dog, and yet despite trying to incorporate both, it fails to really explore the reality of either. It doesn't really add anything new to the conversation of our humanity and works off of a relatively narrow view uninformed by anthropology, sociology, or linguistics. I feel like this book could have been great if the author knew more about the subjects he was using thematically.

I'm sorry to say that although well-meaning, this book is a white saviour's wet dream. The horrors it describes perpetrated against women are harrowing and eye-opening, but the authors ignore the causes of the socio-economic and political problems in the global south leading to such injustices and the global north's massive role in creating and perpetuating these problems (though neoliberalism, colonialism, etc.) in favour of recommending bandage solutions that rely on western charity and capitalism. The authors also completely ignore violence and injustice against women in the global north as if it's only a problem "over there" and are a bit racist. They make a big deal out of apparent differences in the size of European vs. African women's pelvises and site this as a reason for higher maternal mortality in Africa while this has nothing to do with solving the problem. They describe muslim women in a patronizing way as if they're all meek and oppressed under their head scarves. They also more broadly describe women whose stories are featured in the book as if they're characters. I can only assume this was either intended to humanize them or as a stylistic choice, but regardless it's often uncomfortable. I would only recommend this book for someone who has a morbid interest or needs a reality check on the state of women's "equality" today because holy shit some of the things you will read in this book are beyond words. If they did one thing right with this book, it's that you will be angry.