Thursday, July 18, 2013

Did Not Finish: The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls by Anton DiSclafani

*spoilers alert*
Publisher: Riverhead
Date: June 4, 2013
Source: GoodReads First Look, for review

I read the first 60 pages of this one day but haven't picked it up again in over a month - time to give up hopes of ever actually finishing it. It's my own fault, really, because I was so intrigued by whatever sent Thea off to Yonahlossee that I skipped ahead to find out her secrets. Big mistake. I seem to have caught all the sexual parts but not much about the rest of the story, and I was just kind of grossed out by what happens: incest with her cousin and an affair with her married teacher. I realize that this novel is supposed to be about a teen girl's coming-of-age and "awakening," but I didn't realize it would be quite so sexual in such directions. And what I caught of Thea's characterization irritated me. She seems quite intelligent, but she has absolutely no thought for the consequences of her actions. I know she's supposed to be this naive girl, raised around very few males and so acting on her emerging sexual desires where she can, but the whole scenario seemed unnecessary and just really bothered me.

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