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Bone Horses
Winner, 2013 Tony Hillerman Award for Best Fiction
New York school teacher Charlotte Lambert is practical and predictable, and never allows life to veer off course. Until she comes to New Mexico. During one summer in Agua Dulce, a village haunted by a phantom herd of wild horses and where ravens embody the spirits of ancestors, Charlotte’s world is upended as she unearths the details of her mother’s forbidden love affair, chilling murder, and courageous last act of redemption. Pursued by a madman hell-bent on killing her, Charlotte finds shelter, romance, and her own misplaced soul at the desert camp of a surprisingly sophisticated cowboy, and learns how love in its myriad forms is the only path to lasting salvation.
New York school teacher Charlotte Lambert is practical and predictable, and never allows life to veer off course. Until she comes to New Mexico. During one summer in Agua Dulce, a village haunted by a phantom herd of wild horses and where ravens embody the spirits of ancestors, Charlotte’s world is upended as she unearths the details of her mother’s forbidden love affair, chilling murder, and courageous last act of redemption. Pursued by a madman hell-bent on killing her, Charlotte finds shelter, romance, and her own misplaced soul at the desert camp of a surprisingly sophisticated cowboy, and learns how love in its myriad forms is the only path to lasting salvation.
360 pages, Paperback
First published June 17, 2013
About the author
Lesley Poling-Kempes
13 books58 followersMy writing life is completely connected to my daily life on the high desert of Abiquiu and northern New Mexico. Like my "Bone Horses" protagonist, Charlotte, I was born and raised in New York, specifically in Westchester County. Unlike Charlotte, I loved the wild vast empty desert and wide blue sky of the Southwest on sight. I was always working my way back home to this exotic, magnificent place. After college I moved full time into the Indio-Hispanic world of Abiquiu. I began to write the real and imagined stories of my adopted community, first in non-fiction books and then in my first novel "Canyon of Remembering" and now "Bone Horses."
For several decades my primary work was as a writer/historian. For my first 3 books ("The Harvey Girls", "Valley of Shining Stone", and "Ghost Ranch") I interviewed and talked with literally hundreds of old-timers all over the Southwest. I heard remarkable tales of the early days in New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona. These are the foundation for all of my writing.
For several decades my primary work was as a writer/historian. For my first 3 books ("The Harvey Girls", "Valley of Shining Stone", and "Ghost Ranch") I interviewed and talked with literally hundreds of old-timers all over the Southwest. I heard remarkable tales of the early days in New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona. These are the foundation for all of my writing.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
February 6, 2014
I first read about Bone Horses in New Mexico Magazine shortly after the book came out from La Alameda Press, June 17, 2013. I was intrigued by the title and the whimsical cover art that depicted a lonely gas station with red mesas and snowcapped mountains in the background. The cover alone made me homesick for my native New Mexico and brought to mind all the old gas stations that dotted the highway between my childhood home in eastern New Mexico and my aunt’s and uncle’s home in sprawling Albuquerque on the other side of the Sandia Mountains.
After the novel won the 2013 Tony Hillerman Award for Best Fiction from New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards, I ordered the Kindle edition. I was hooked from the beginning. Lesley Poling-Kempes is an extremely gifted storyteller who writes with emotional impact. This multilayered story rings with authenticity and is peopled with characters that feel like your own family and neighbors. The author’s use of magical realism worked for me and gave me hope. I never questioned the legend of a phantom herd of horses coming down from the mountains to attend the burial of young men killed in the Bataan Death March. If anything, the legend of the horses lends dignity and honor to a military ceremony.
The same goes for the conversations that the story’s matriarch, Dorothea Durham, carries on with her late friend, Conchata. For me, these were some of the most unforgettable and emotionally charged scenes in the novel. I highlighted so many lines in the story that made me pause, look off in the distance, and ponder life and death. And what’s out there beyond the mountains of life.
I highly recommend Bone Horses to anyone who appreciates a well-crafted story. This is simply storytelling at its best.
Kathleen M. Rodgers – author of The Final Salute
After the novel won the 2013 Tony Hillerman Award for Best Fiction from New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards, I ordered the Kindle edition. I was hooked from the beginning. Lesley Poling-Kempes is an extremely gifted storyteller who writes with emotional impact. This multilayered story rings with authenticity and is peopled with characters that feel like your own family and neighbors. The author’s use of magical realism worked for me and gave me hope. I never questioned the legend of a phantom herd of horses coming down from the mountains to attend the burial of young men killed in the Bataan Death March. If anything, the legend of the horses lends dignity and honor to a military ceremony.
The same goes for the conversations that the story’s matriarch, Dorothea Durham, carries on with her late friend, Conchata. For me, these were some of the most unforgettable and emotionally charged scenes in the novel. I highlighted so many lines in the story that made me pause, look off in the distance, and ponder life and death. And what’s out there beyond the mountains of life.
I highly recommend Bone Horses to anyone who appreciates a well-crafted story. This is simply storytelling at its best.
Kathleen M. Rodgers – author of The Final Salute
September 14, 2013
When I first started reading, I was skeptical about my ability to get into this book. It was entirely my fault - not the author's. I have almost no schema for the southwestern United States, horses, or archaeology. But the slow build into the story was just what I needed to learn, so I could truly see these dynamic characters and this beautiful setting while I read.
Lesley Poling-Kempes has created fantastic characters that you love to love - or love to hate. There are several different related conflicts happening that keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next.
By the time I was finished reading, I was cheering for my favorite characters, mourning those that were lost, and wishing I could go see the Lagrimas for myself.
Lesley Poling-Kempes has created fantastic characters that you love to love - or love to hate. There are several different related conflicts happening that keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next.
By the time I was finished reading, I was cheering for my favorite characters, mourning those that were lost, and wishing I could go see the Lagrimas for myself.
July 6, 2013
My love affair with the high desert of Abiquiu and northern New Mexico began when I first came to Ghost Ranch on a family vacation as a child in the 1960s. Like my BONE HORSES protagonist, Charlotte, I was born and raised in New York, specifically in Westchester County. Unlike Charlotte, I loved the wild vast empty desert and wide blue sky of the Southwest on sight.
Sometimes a story haunts me, moves into my heart, and kindles the fires of my imagination. I knew the moment I heard the story of the wild horses of Ghost Ranch and the Shining Stone basin that I would write a novel that incorporated the tragic story of these long-ago mustangs. During the Dust Bowl the federal government, hoping to somehow save the last bit of grass on the high desert, ordered the removal of the wild horses that roamed the canyonlands. Sharpshooters waited by the watering holes and shot down the horses when they came in to drink. Their skeletons littered the desert for years.
I wondered what the loss of that wild herd did to the psyche of the local community. I began to think about how the history of a place is fashioned by what people choose to remember. About how what we come to accept as the real story is unavoidably shaded and shaped by the subjectivity of emotion and memory.
These themes became the foundation for BONE HORSES. The novel takes place in the late 1990s in the fictional town of Agua Dulce (Sweet Water) at the edge of the Apache Reservation on the high desert that is the New Mexico-Arizona border. I wrote about a place and people I would like to know: self-reliant cowboys, spirited Apache curanderas, Harvard paleontologists, phantom horses, and Charlotte, my proper Scarsdale schoolmarm who reluctantly visits New Mexico and accidentally unearths the long-buried story of her mother’s death. The truth is painful to excavate, but it can and does set Charlotte free.
Sometimes a story haunts me, moves into my heart, and kindles the fires of my imagination. I knew the moment I heard the story of the wild horses of Ghost Ranch and the Shining Stone basin that I would write a novel that incorporated the tragic story of these long-ago mustangs. During the Dust Bowl the federal government, hoping to somehow save the last bit of grass on the high desert, ordered the removal of the wild horses that roamed the canyonlands. Sharpshooters waited by the watering holes and shot down the horses when they came in to drink. Their skeletons littered the desert for years.
I wondered what the loss of that wild herd did to the psyche of the local community. I began to think about how the history of a place is fashioned by what people choose to remember. About how what we come to accept as the real story is unavoidably shaded and shaped by the subjectivity of emotion and memory.
These themes became the foundation for BONE HORSES. The novel takes place in the late 1990s in the fictional town of Agua Dulce (Sweet Water) at the edge of the Apache Reservation on the high desert that is the New Mexico-Arizona border. I wrote about a place and people I would like to know: self-reliant cowboys, spirited Apache curanderas, Harvard paleontologists, phantom horses, and Charlotte, my proper Scarsdale schoolmarm who reluctantly visits New Mexico and accidentally unearths the long-buried story of her mother’s death. The truth is painful to excavate, but it can and does set Charlotte free.
January 19, 2014
This was a fabulous story, close to my heart. I lived in New Mexico going on near 24 years and this author gets every sensation, every breath of hot desert air rising just right. I hope she will write a sequel. This will be a long time favorite for me.
August 5, 2013
Started this adventure on the plane ride home from our recent visit to NM, which included spending time with Lesley. "Bone Horses" was the hot topic of the week, and I was eager to dig into it! I was not disappointed - Had a hard time putting it down, stayed up too late at night to see what happened next, and was sad when it ended! My husband was reading it on his "nook" at the same time, and we would wait for each other to catch up so we could discuss the latest happenings. While many of the locations and events felt familiar to us, we'd often make comments like "Wow! We really know this author! Amazing!" The characters were so richly developed, and the story so intriguing, I would highly recommend "Bone Horses" to any one who wants to lose themselves in a really good book this summer.
June 27, 2013
With the Northern New Mexico landscape in a starring role, this novel provides a wonderful peek inside life in the high desert. Historical truths woven with cultural beliefs, intrigue and a just enough romance make it a page turner. Anyone who has spent time in NM will identify with the story for sure and anyone who has not had the pleasure will want to grab a map and plan their journey!
The red cliffs and ravens are waiting...
The red cliffs and ravens are waiting...
July 9, 2014
"Bone Horses" won the Tony Hillerman award for best fiction in 2013, and well deserved. While you could classify this as a mystery/suspense novel, it really goes far beyond that as a deeply evocative work of Southwest U.S. regional fiction.
August 19, 2013
Lesley Poling-Kempes has a lovely way of introducing her characters. She introduces characters in their settings, presents their life experiences, and allows the reader to gain insights to their personalities as they respond to life’s events.
The plot takes the characters through a few twists and turns.
Be patient…
Connect the dots…
Get to know them…
You will recognize people you know, or at least parts of them, as well as parts of yourself.
On page sixty you learn why Barty became a mechanic. “… there was a predictability to mechanical breakdown and a logical usually linear path to recovery.”
Near the end of the story: “The only part of this life he had ever had any control over was how he responded to loss and how he chose to acknowledge and to give love. Rage, remorse, guilt, anger, regret- none of these would serve him. Never had.”
Then, there is Arthur. “… a former high school football star who’d become derailed by misfortune and disappointment and all the frustrations that attached themselves to children from poor, uneducated families.” I read that line over and over. It is such a thoughtful, kind way of expressing an ever-growing truth for too many of our young people.
Said by Thea as she ponders Charlotte: “She’s still learning to trust the good accidents of life, you know.”
I loved that! The next time I face a disappointment I’ll hope to look at it as possibly a “good accident of life” and try to trust it.
Although I have sticky notes throughout my book marking phrases I want to remember, I will share only one more. I did a little research about ravens because of their role in Bone Horses. Poling-Kempes writes: “A pair of ravens soared out over the cliffs. Their flight was a dance of lovers, of partners, of old souls that never tire of the simple joys found in the morning sky.” Again, a lesson for readers. Take time. Take time to appreciate simple joys… the morning sky.
Whether you have been to New Mexico or not, you will be able to see that beautiful majestic landscape as it is described throughout the story. The setting itself feels like a character. You will be intrigued by the mystery. You will enjoy learning of the burros, mustangs, ravens, remedies and ole time traditions and culture.
While Thea and Conchata teach you about customs of the past, the story is set in the present. It deals with current day issues such as poverty, drugs, alcohol, education, work ethic, religion, prejudice, environment, families and relationships.
I loved this story. As you can tell… I cared about the characters.
Get to know Charlotte. Travel with her as she meets the people of Agua Dolce…
OH! If any movie producers read this I’d suggest Chris Pine for the role of Jed!
Oh, yes… this story lends itself well to a movie or an HBO special. ☺
The plot takes the characters through a few twists and turns.
Be patient…
Connect the dots…
Get to know them…
You will recognize people you know, or at least parts of them, as well as parts of yourself.
On page sixty you learn why Barty became a mechanic. “… there was a predictability to mechanical breakdown and a logical usually linear path to recovery.”
Near the end of the story: “The only part of this life he had ever had any control over was how he responded to loss and how he chose to acknowledge and to give love. Rage, remorse, guilt, anger, regret- none of these would serve him. Never had.”
Then, there is Arthur. “… a former high school football star who’d become derailed by misfortune and disappointment and all the frustrations that attached themselves to children from poor, uneducated families.” I read that line over and over. It is such a thoughtful, kind way of expressing an ever-growing truth for too many of our young people.
Said by Thea as she ponders Charlotte: “She’s still learning to trust the good accidents of life, you know.”
I loved that! The next time I face a disappointment I’ll hope to look at it as possibly a “good accident of life” and try to trust it.
Although I have sticky notes throughout my book marking phrases I want to remember, I will share only one more. I did a little research about ravens because of their role in Bone Horses. Poling-Kempes writes: “A pair of ravens soared out over the cliffs. Their flight was a dance of lovers, of partners, of old souls that never tire of the simple joys found in the morning sky.” Again, a lesson for readers. Take time. Take time to appreciate simple joys… the morning sky.
Whether you have been to New Mexico or not, you will be able to see that beautiful majestic landscape as it is described throughout the story. The setting itself feels like a character. You will be intrigued by the mystery. You will enjoy learning of the burros, mustangs, ravens, remedies and ole time traditions and culture.
While Thea and Conchata teach you about customs of the past, the story is set in the present. It deals with current day issues such as poverty, drugs, alcohol, education, work ethic, religion, prejudice, environment, families and relationships.
I loved this story. As you can tell… I cared about the characters.
Get to know Charlotte. Travel with her as she meets the people of Agua Dolce…
OH! If any movie producers read this I’d suggest Chris Pine for the role of Jed!
Oh, yes… this story lends itself well to a movie or an HBO special. ☺
August 4, 2013
This is an excellent book...I met Lesley Poling-Kempes at Moby Dickens bookstore in Taos, July 20th. I was interested in this book primarily due to her incredible non-fiction book called "Ghost Ranch", about the history of the Abiquiu,NM, ranch that was primarily made famous through Georgia O'Keefe's stay there.
Bone Horses is a delightful Southwest mystery and romance that helps us to cathartically process our emotions around family secrets and the decisions our relatives made back in the days when they did not have as many choices as we do. It is about finding compassion for the deeds of our elders, and in doing so, finding peace and acceptance within ourselves. I especially liked it because the protagonist was a bored teacher going for a drive (skipping out of her summer conference in Santa Fe) to investigate the mysterious disappearance of her birth mother many years ago.
Peace out to all of you.
Blessings.
Ghost Ranch
Bone Horses is a delightful Southwest mystery and romance that helps us to cathartically process our emotions around family secrets and the decisions our relatives made back in the days when they did not have as many choices as we do. It is about finding compassion for the deeds of our elders, and in doing so, finding peace and acceptance within ourselves. I especially liked it because the protagonist was a bored teacher going for a drive (skipping out of her summer conference in Santa Fe) to investigate the mysterious disappearance of her birth mother many years ago.
Peace out to all of you.
Blessings.
Ghost Ranch
January 15, 2014
This complex, multi-layered mystery is set in modern day New Mexico. However, we learn much about the past and legends in this novel.
Charlotte is a very stable and reliable teacher who comes to Agua Dulce, New Mexico from New York. She learns the legends of the wild horses haunting the area, and the ravens that embody ancestors. Charlotte also learns shocking things about her own mother’s past. When she becomes the target of a crazed killer, she finds love with a cowboy.
Nothing is simple here, however. There are many twists and turns in this story. The characters are colourful and very real. They live by legend, tradition, and family history. They struggle with issues of today, such as poverty, education, substance abuse, religious beliefs, and environmental issues.
Lesley Poling-Kempes writes with emotion, respect and knowledge of the Southwest and New Mexico. She shares the raw beauty of the landscape and its wildlife. She also brings to life the people and their traditions. This is a very unique and special novel.
Charlotte is a very stable and reliable teacher who comes to Agua Dulce, New Mexico from New York. She learns the legends of the wild horses haunting the area, and the ravens that embody ancestors. Charlotte also learns shocking things about her own mother’s past. When she becomes the target of a crazed killer, she finds love with a cowboy.
Nothing is simple here, however. There are many twists and turns in this story. The characters are colourful and very real. They live by legend, tradition, and family history. They struggle with issues of today, such as poverty, education, substance abuse, religious beliefs, and environmental issues.
Lesley Poling-Kempes writes with emotion, respect and knowledge of the Southwest and New Mexico. She shares the raw beauty of the landscape and its wildlife. She also brings to life the people and their traditions. This is a very unique and special novel.
September 19, 2013
I couldn't put this book down for long. I am not a horse person or familiar with the NM desert or history. BUT, I do love mysteries, archaeology, and landscapes (in person and in books).
Lesley Kempes made me SEE the NM desert - the colors, the rocks, the topography, the plants, and the people. I could see the horses too and developed quite the like for the little pinto.
Highly recommend this book.
Lesley Kempes made me SEE the NM desert - the colors, the rocks, the topography, the plants, and the people. I could see the horses too and developed quite the like for the little pinto.
Highly recommend this book.
January 9, 2014
Wonderful story of ultimate redemption. Poling-Kempes writes with a love of the NM landscape, a love and recognition of the full breadth of our humanity. Yet there is also the acknowledgement of what's bred in the bone.
January 30, 2014
See my full review at
http://freshfiction.com/review.php?id...
http://freshfiction.com/review.php?id...
May 15, 2017
Lesley Poling-Kempes’ Bone Horses captured my rapt attention with vivid scenes of New Mexico’s high desert country, a compelling blend of people, and a mystery line that weaves its way through folk lore and gritty realism. It’s no surprise that the novel is the recipient of four literary awards.
New York school teacher Charlotte Lambert is a serious, cautious woman, not inclined toward last-minute or brash actions. After attending a conference in Sante Fe, she decides to see the place where many years before her beloved late grandfather, a paleontologist, discovered an important fossil site. It is also the place of her mother’s sudden, violent death. She rents a car, assuring herself that she can visit the site near the dusty little town of Agua Dulce, return to the hotel for the final conference banquet, then catch her flight home the next morning.
The area Charlotte seeks is remote, raw wilderness, with heat so intense she can hardly breathe. Attempting to shoo a raven from her windshield, she hits a rock, high- centering the car. She has no choice but to start walking, walking to a new life with people of a wide mix of Hispanic, Apache, Anglo and combinations of all three, people who have their own mysteries. Some are welcoming, some bear grudges.
Charlotte learns about her mother’s death and the mystery surrounding it. She learns the ways of loyalty that knits together an extended family, land, and ancestors. She finds romance and contentment. But she also finds fear when old truths surface.
Bone Horses is a complex, magical mystery, full of wisdom and legends. Lesley Poling-Kempes has crafted a memorable, soul-searching story.
November 29, 2018
"Falling in love with New Mexico ... New Mexico ... falling in love..." I've placed 'New Mexico' before 'falling in love' because the varying landscape of north-central NM should be one of the characters of the book itself--quite a bit of that here. Points: the author has followed the often-given "write about what you know" advice to a T, as reflected in the very short author biography (which is there in my edition, anyway): East-coast, big-city teacher comes west to small-town NM one summer in search of answers to various small mysteries revolving around her earlier family history, ends up falling in love (with several different people, animals, and other things including the part of NM mentioned above), and stays on. The mystery elements are parceled out nicely over the whole book, right up to the final chapter, so if you're reading you'll want to continue reading just "to get it resolved." There's good variety in the supporting cast of townspeople she meets and learns to know, and they run the gamut from friendly but quirky, through troubled, down to the one truly evil character in the book. ...It's really all there, in short form, in the various well-chosen blurbs on the book jacket itself. Oh, and you'll learn a modicum of Spanish as you read this -- in case you didn't know some words already. (Nothing extensive there, however, so 'no problem.')
June 14, 2017
This 2014 WILLA winner is one of the best books I have read in years. I loved the vivid Southwest backdrop to this fabulous story. Lesley Poling-Kempes handled the vital backstory in this tale like a master, and her characters came to life before I could finish the first page. This story has a beautiful spiritual flare, too, and with the addition of some the "old ways" including the uses of plants as medicinals, spirit guides, horses, a dinosaur dig, and a murder, it will surely delight all types of readers.
November 12, 2018
Reading Bone Horses was like being present with Charlotte in the New Mexico mountains. I love that part of New Mexico, and just as Hillerman takes the reader to every site and makes the reader see the landscape, this brilliant writer gives the reader a personal experience with every page. I couldn't put the book down. Now I'm going to get all of Poling-Kempes books to read, I didn't want this gook to end.
May 14, 2021
An incredible story of the New Mexico culture!
I came into this book not knowing what to expect. Within a few pages I was captured in an enthralling tale of a young woman visiting the town where her mother lived just before her tragic death. The story then takes off, with many delightful subplots, all gently weaving the culture and heritage of this Anglo/Hispanic/Apache community in all its subtleties. A richly developed work, refreshing in both its simplicity and complexity.
I came into this book not knowing what to expect. Within a few pages I was captured in an enthralling tale of a young woman visiting the town where her mother lived just before her tragic death. The story then takes off, with many delightful subplots, all gently weaving the culture and heritage of this Anglo/Hispanic/Apache community in all its subtleties. A richly developed work, refreshing in both its simplicity and complexity.
June 16, 2024
A young girl returns to the NM desert town where her mother died falling off of a cliff. It is deemed a suicide, but there are doubts. This is the quarry site where she spent a summer at age 17 while her father excavated a dinosaur quarry. She fell in love with a local boy which her family whisked her away from. Now the daughter returns to see the place but restarts the vengeance of a crazy local guy.
January 8, 2017
One of the best books I've ever read.
Leslie Poling-Kempes has written a beautiful story with memorable characters in a landscape of astonishing beauty. Once you begin, you won't want to put it down until you're finished.
Leslie Poling-Kempes has written a beautiful story with memorable characters in a landscape of astonishing beauty. Once you begin, you won't want to put it down until you're finished.
January 31, 2019
Wonderful read!
After reading The Ladies of the Canyons, I was eager to read other books by Lesley Poling-Kempes. This is a very interesting plot with appealing characters. I read this book in two days and enjoyed it completely. I highly recommend it.
After reading The Ladies of the Canyons, I was eager to read other books by Lesley Poling-Kempes. This is a very interesting plot with appealing characters. I read this book in two days and enjoyed it completely. I highly recommend it.
July 3, 2022
Read this book!
Deeply moving, gorgeous descriptions of the environment, characters you can’t not love (except one), and utterly satisfying storyline and resolution. I can’t wait to start another of Poling-Kempes’ books. Seriously: Read this book!
Deeply moving, gorgeous descriptions of the environment, characters you can’t not love (except one), and utterly satisfying storyline and resolution. I can’t wait to start another of Poling-Kempes’ books. Seriously: Read this book!
October 2, 2017
Thoroughly enjoyed this New Mexico-based story. For years, we had planned to move to NM and I loved being able to visualize the country. Neat little connection to VT, too!
December 16, 2017
Mystical ravens, a grandma who speaks from the other side, a creepy zealot, a death (accidental or?), wild mustangs, romance...this is a nice, well-plotted read set in the Southwest.
March 19, 2018
While I loved the colorful descriptions of the remarkable New Mexico landscape and people, I found the story predictable and not credible.
June 21, 2019
The book is a good one if you know and like this area of New Mexico. The story is rather predictable, but I loved the descriptions of the land and it’s people.
March 2, 2020
This was quite a read! I loved it!
Read
April 30, 2021Really enjoyed Bone Horses. The settings in New Mexico were very realistic. Interesting plot and great character development. Anxious to read more of Lesley's books.
January 4, 2024
Wonderful descriptions of the New Mexico landscape and culture in a small town. Good story-teliing, and thouogh predictable, really delightful.
January 10, 2016
I really wanted to be able to write a glowing review of this book. I did a sabbatical in Dinetah (Navajo nation) and fell head over heels in love with the southwest. I grew up riding horses, took up camping in my middle years, love mysteries, so this book had the potential to press ALL my buttons. And to some extent, it did. The prose describing the landscape was gorgeous and accurate, and the connection to the animals, the lazy evenings by Jed's campfire, they all resonated.
But the mystery, and the story line in general, were very predictable. Sometimes that's fine; the journey can be more interesting than the destination. But in that case, something has to make the journey wonderful, and here the book fell flat. Flat as in one dimensional. Flat as in the landscape, which is absolutely wonderful as described but which is also hell incarnate, with cacti biting your ankles and ripping your clothes; sand at 30 mph stinging your face, gritting your eyes, obscuring the road, hiding sun and moon; heat toasting you from inside out; and sometimes, emptiness that stretches so far you feel your soul has been sucked out of your body (Deatheaters come to mind).
Flat as in one-dimensional characters. There are two "bad" dudes here, and they have NO REDEEMING QUALITIES WHATSOEVER. Every single other character is a saint; no flaws, no warts, no ghoulish sense of humor, no evil thoughts. Flat as in stock characters: wobbly, confused beautiful woman, handsome ailing male, mystical older woman, tortured "Heathcliff," kindly pharmacist, confused, well-meaning, smart adolescent, etc. I desperately wanted Charlotte to get blitzed on Margaritas and try to seduce Dennis Mata; wanted Francis to play a little grabass with Thea; wanted anyone to get pissed off, take a rifle, and go shoot the cactus out in the desert. Anything to break the unrelieved goodness of everyone. Yeesh!!
I didn't anticipate all the complexity of the resolution, and that was good. But I spent some time yelling at the book for referring to two grown men as "boys," for introducing an unsignaled plot element very late in the game, for pretending that anyone could have gotten so close to the pinto that quickly, for telling me that Charlotte dropped her pants and urinated (seriously, we need that level of detail?), and for not knowing quite how many horses went on the campout (five? six?). When stuff like this gets noticed, something is slightly off about the book.
My bet is that Polling-Kempe will get better. I plan to read her first novel, and I'm in the middle of her nonfiction "Ladies of the Canyons," which is the reason I read "Bone Horses" in the first place. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an lazy read on a cold night by the fire, which is how I spent my last couple of nights. But to me it was a pleasant distraction, nothing more.
But the mystery, and the story line in general, were very predictable. Sometimes that's fine; the journey can be more interesting than the destination. But in that case, something has to make the journey wonderful, and here the book fell flat. Flat as in one dimensional. Flat as in the landscape, which is absolutely wonderful as described but which is also hell incarnate, with cacti biting your ankles and ripping your clothes; sand at 30 mph stinging your face, gritting your eyes, obscuring the road, hiding sun and moon; heat toasting you from inside out; and sometimes, emptiness that stretches so far you feel your soul has been sucked out of your body (Deatheaters come to mind).
Flat as in one-dimensional characters. There are two "bad" dudes here, and they have NO REDEEMING QUALITIES WHATSOEVER. Every single other character is a saint; no flaws, no warts, no ghoulish sense of humor, no evil thoughts. Flat as in stock characters: wobbly, confused beautiful woman, handsome ailing male, mystical older woman, tortured "Heathcliff," kindly pharmacist, confused, well-meaning, smart adolescent, etc. I desperately wanted Charlotte to get blitzed on Margaritas and try to seduce Dennis Mata; wanted Francis to play a little grabass with Thea; wanted anyone to get pissed off, take a rifle, and go shoot the cactus out in the desert. Anything to break the unrelieved goodness of everyone. Yeesh!!
I didn't anticipate all the complexity of the resolution, and that was good. But I spent some time yelling at the book for referring to two grown men as "boys," for introducing an unsignaled plot element very late in the game, for pretending that anyone could have gotten so close to the pinto that quickly, for telling me that Charlotte dropped her pants and urinated (seriously, we need that level of detail?), and for not knowing quite how many horses went on the campout (five? six?). When stuff like this gets noticed, something is slightly off about the book.
My bet is that Polling-Kempe will get better. I plan to read her first novel, and I'm in the middle of her nonfiction "Ladies of the Canyons," which is the reason I read "Bone Horses" in the first place. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an lazy read on a cold night by the fire, which is how I spent my last couple of nights. But to me it was a pleasant distraction, nothing more.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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