White Horses

by Alice Hoffman

When Teresa was a little girl, she dreamed of dark-eyed, fearless heroes on white horses who would sweep her away. But now, as the grown-up Teresa negotiates life and love, she begins to understand that fairytales don't always come true.10 hours and 53 minutes

Genres: Fiction, Magical Realism, Fantasy, Contemporary, Audiobook, Adult Fiction, Romance

283 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 1982

About the author

Alice Hoffman is the author of more than thirty works of fiction, including The World That We Knew; The Marriage of Opposites; The Red Garden; The Museum of Extraordinary Things; The Dovekeepers; Here on Earth, an Oprah’s Book Club selection; and the Practical Magic series, including Practical
Magic; Magic Lessons; The Rules of Magic, a selection of Reese’s Book Club; and The Book of Magic. She lives near Boston.

Reviews

[Always Pouting · Rating 4 out of 5]

Teresa's family is highly dysfunctional. Her mother Dina ran away with her father King when they were both relatively young but the marriage was full of disappointments and eventually her father walks out on them. Dina's father told her stories of Arias when she was younger, men who are wild and restless. Dina's obsession with the romantic and mysterious Aria and her search for them led her to run away from home with King and to continue searching for one late into her life. Dina's idealization of this fantasy was one she passed down to her children, telling Teresa and Silver these tales as they grew up. The men in the story sound an awful lot like Teresa's brother Silver with his dark looks and ruthless attitude, one encouraged and loved by Dina. Teresa can't see anyone else but Silver who is the epitome of male perfection to her and as things in their lives get more tense Teresa starts to fall into mysterious bouts of sleep, not walking up for hours on hours.

I actually really liked this one by Hoffman though I don't want to think about what that says about me. I personally don't mind reading things that are uncomfortable and so the whole incest thing wasn't a big deal. I can see why other people may have not enjoyed the book but I did because it was pretty different from anything else I've read. I personally liked the lyrical writing and the way things bordered on the mystical/magical but at the same time I do think the way the story unfolds isn't very unrealistic. Dina's own fixation on this idea of a person causes her to raise her children to be who they are and it makes perfect sense that Silver becomes a living version of that ideal and that thus Teresa becomes fixated on him.

I do think that Teresa and Silver don't necessarily love one another, I think it's more that Teresa has been taught to want a certain type of man and Silver to be that type of man. Silver seems to want to be with Teresa after everything else in his life starts to fall apart and it seems more like he seeks her out of validation than love. It was clearly not a healthy relationship and Silver did take advantage, he was older and revered by his mother so there was the power imbalance. I think the whole point of the story is that ideals are far removed from reality and that people aren't perfect. In the end Teresa does let go of the Arias and her past.

Also people sleeping so they don't have to deal with their lives is a thing that happens so her sleeping sickness really wasn't that mysterious, it seemed more like a coping mechanism that happened much more often when she was upset.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book will take some time to digest. It’s called a book hangover. For some reason when I first glanced at the description, I took it as a fantasy story where the main character was chasing her brother, Silver through her dreams. I was wrong and I was right. I probably wouldn’t have picked it up if I had known it was about a small town, dysfunctional family. I don’t usually read books like that. Real life is depressing enough. Half way through, I very nearly gave it up.

I am so glad I didn’t. There are many themes in the book, love versus passion, fantasy versus reality, overcoming grief, growth. At what point is a person too old for fairy tales? Is giving up those fairy tales the same as losing hope? Or is it only a matter of finding something better? Something more meaningful? It’s a lot to take in. It’s a lot to think about. I still don’t know how I feel about it.

It’s been said in every other review, but I suppose I’ll say it again. Alice Hoffman’s writing is beautiful, lyrical, poetic. Even when dealing with such awful subjects as drugs and incest, she somehow managed to make it beautiful. You could hear the crickets chirping in the moonlight, feel the summer breeze blowing off the river, the chill of early morning fog.

The story is driven relentlessly on by the never-ending drama. Just when you think it can’t get worse for Teresa, just when you think Silver can’t get more awful, just when Dina finds happiness, something happens. It gets worse. The characters fall lower then they ever have before. Unfortunately, Teresa and Dina seem to be the only ones who find redemption, and even then, you could argue that Dina never found it. She was better in the end, but not as good as she could have been. Not enough to pull her children back from the edge. It was too little too late. She loved herself more than she loved her children. Going so far as to actually speak out loud or write down which ones were her favorites. Just the same, Dina’s story tore my heart out.

This won’t be a story for everyone, and that’s certainly understandable. If you could appreciate nothing else in the book, it certainly gets you thinking, and sometimes it takes an uncomfortable topic to do so. Those topics abound. Incest is the most prevalent, but drugs, alcoholism, prostitution, and abuse of women are also contained within the pages, and at times were worse than the incest. Still, I think if one can get past the discomfort of it all, this book is well worth reading and pushing through to the end.

I did feel like some story threads were left incomplete. What was the deal with the necklace and Harper? Whatever happened to King Connor and Reuben? What happened to Dina’s mother in New Mexico? These loose threads left me with a sense of unfinished in my mouth, but ultimately it was Teresa’s story and I suppose it ended where it needed to.

Thank you to Open Road Media and Net Galley for providing me with ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

An early Alice Hoffman - and a good one. The story centers around Silver and Teresa Connor, siblings in a very dysfunctional family, who have an incestuous relationship that overshadows their entire lives. The book made me feel really sad for Teresa who had a fantasy that her brother was an "Aria" - a wild, romantic cowboy type her mother had always described to her. Her bother was truly a messed up drug dealer. I didn't really have a favorite character, except maybe Bergen, who seemed more normal than anyone else in the book. A good read, but certainly not my favorite Alice Hoffman book.

Thanks to Alice Hoffman, and Open Road Integrated Media through Netgalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Trux · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I finished this book, I couldn't help muttering to myself, "what a crock of shit."

So yeah . . . the girl smells like roses and is in love with her brother so you've got your romantic chick-friendly incest porn (the whole reason I picked it up) and a bunch of quotes from reviews crowing about how "believable" the story and the girl are, but it was so NOT believable.

I'll give you an example of the kind of stuff that annoys me about a book like this; Hoffman stuffed this books with all kinds of flowery details: lemon blossoms and lilac perfume and leather seats in chevys, but when a dog is abandoned in an apartment and rescued later after days of hearing his claws clicking on the floor, there's not one mention of the stench of feces upon opening that door where the dog's been. And when people have sex they put a "penis inside her", or force a "penis inside her rectum". And apparently you can sell a house without getting both owners to sign for it. LITTLE DETAILS LIKE THAT DRIVE ME BATSHIT. Not magical enough to be magical, not real enough to be real.

The pacing of the story was pretty good and I'd give it points for being a couple of compelling love stories, except at the end? You have to believe the most unbelievable thing of all, that JUST LIKE THAT, she got over her obsession. I'm pretty sure that's not what most of us were rooting for.

It was a very feminine, unorgasmic, pleasant read full of shooting stars and other poetic moments of domestic violence, cinnamon-laced coffee and wise women dispensing valerian and pennyroyal.

[Ann (Inky Labyrinth) · Rating 2 out of 5]

“There were other times when she stayed awake nearly till morning, convinced that if she were quiet enough, if she waited long enough, the night would reveal itself to her in a slow stream of syllables shaped by its wings; a song only she could understand.”

Well, this is a very good example of how even pretty good writing alone doesn’t make a good book.

Actual rating of 2.5 stars. See this review (with pictures!) at my blog: The Inky Labyrinth.

Dina, of Santa Fe, spends almost all of her life looking out of windows and waiting for a mystical cowboy - decorated in turquoise and riding a white horse - to sweep her off her feet and lead her to a life of love, adventure, and mystery. Since was a little girl, she listened to her father tell her stories of Arias: lone, shadowy riders of the full moon, and ever since then, Dina waits for one to find her. Becoming impatient, she runs off with a scoundrel of a man, King Connors, and follows him to California to start a new life. We follow the story of her their children, Reuben, Theresa, and Dina's favorite, Silver – who she believes is one of her beloved Arias. Passing the story on to a naïve Theresa, she, too, is convinced that Arias are real, and believes her brother to be one of these fictional, dark men. She, too, spends her youth longing and looking for love in the wrong places – but she in her older brother, Silver. (Yes...she is in love with her brother, and he with her - I will address that.)

While the characters may have been mostly three-dimensional, I just didn’t care about them. I didn’t care what happened to them. At one point, I was crossing my fingers that Angel Gregory would just kill Silver. But that was an empty plot arc. It built up and led to nothing. Could we have at least gotten a shootout?! Less than halfway through I was pretty frustrated with all of them. Dina was the only one who redeemed herself, but it was way too late for it to make any difference. I can't tell you why, despite that being what a reviewer is supposed to do. Something was just off. Maybe it was a chemistry issue. But I don't think I am alone here.

Theresa is a great example of someone who loved to play the victim, to be the princess waiting to be rescued. “She came to believe that she was destined to be whatever was expected of her, and in time she went out with any boy who asked her,” Hoffman writes. She only dated other boys, and then men, to repress memories of her and her brother together, because even as a child, she knew it was wrong. Still, it takes her over a decade to realize that Silver is a fucking asshole. I mean, I understand that she has no education past high school, and that her mother basically brainwashed her with fairy tales, but I got pretty sick of Theresa really quickly.

So, no, the incest didn't bother me. Yeah, it's weird. But, hey love is love. I'm not one to judge. My first kiss was with a boy who I thought was my cousin. (He wasn't - I was about six.) But what was happening between Theresa and her brother Silver wasn't love. It didn't feel like real love at all; it felt more like some sort of combination of illusion and desperation.

It didn’t matter to me how attractive Silver was supposed to be. Usually, he is exactly my type: tall, dark, handsome, and a complete narcissistic asshole. Maybe I’m coming to a point in my life where I am through with that type of man. Because I wasn’t buying it here. His charms faded after the first chapter or so.

“The odor of roses was so strong it made him dizzy.” And yeah, let’s talk about the roses. When Theresa falls under one of her "sleeping spells"(which I didn't bother to mention because I failed to see how they even added to the story), she sends out a strong odor of roses. It literally made me nauseous. I never really liked roses, but I don’t think I will ever be able to smell them again without thinking about this mess of a book. I guess it was supposed to be enchanting or add to the thinly spread, magical aspect of the novel, but that, too, failed.

The writing itself, context removed, was the only redeeming quality which saved me from giving this novel less than 2.5 stars. Let’s see for a minute here...

"A man who traveled beneath an orange moon on nights that were scented with wildflowers and thick with heat suddenly seemed much less marvelous than a man who would sit on the back porch and hold her hand for hours without having to say one word."

Like, damn. That’s good. That is one of those rare moments in prose where you have to put down the book, take a deep breath, and read the passage again, letting it soak into your soul. Except, it’s ironic, because the only man in this bloody book who fits that latter description (Bergen) was an absolutely useless character, and didn’t really do anything to help anyone. Ugh.

Although I was vastly underwhelmed and disappointed in my first Alice Hoffman novel, I will certainly give her another chance. After all, Practical Magic is one of my favorite films of all time.

I’ll leave you with this, which was my favorite line, and I think something that everybody needs to hear:

"It's no good to need someone more than you want them.”

If that reminder is all I take with me from this novel, so be it. It's better than nothing.

*Many thanks to Open Road Media and NetGalley for this e-book, which I received in exchange for an honest review.*

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is just something morally wrong about incest and there is no way to write about it and make it acceptable.

[Sheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was just fine. I've read some other Hoffman and really liked it, so I think I had higher than average expectations. It certainly is a bit more literature with the language and character development (rather than plot-focused page turner fiction), but overall it was nothing fabulous.

The year was never set, but it felt like Teresa and Silver and Reuben were roughly my age (growing up in 80s and 90s), but it also could have been even earlier--60s or 70s; overall it was "old CA" rather than current times (and no one has cell phones). I would have liked a bit more setting. I assume Hoffman was trying to toe the line between gender expectations (she does write assuming an older viewpoint) and making it appealing to current generations.

It was compelling and interesting enough, but again, nothing fabulous.
"

[N · Rating 2 out of 5]

This languorous story of incest and small town life feels underdeveloped and overlong. White Horses has so little plot that it could almost be a short story: magnetic, sociopathic Silver slides into a life of criminality and struggles with his romantic feelings for depressive sister, Theresa.

Though Alice Hoffman is not a bad writer, she overuses summary narrative, describing every banality while rarely allowing the action to develop into full scenes. In fact, Hoffman repeatedly eschews adding drama to the plot to keep the pages turning. Notably, the storyline in which Silver is stalked by a malevolent former associate is first set aside for an implausibly long time and, when it’s revisited, fizzles pointlessly.

The magic realist touches – Theresa’s mysterious sleeping sickness and her mother’s fixation on mythical cowboys – add some nice colour to the novel, but they ultimately serve little purpose. In fact, magic realism is one of several themes that Hoffman introduces and then fails to fully explore. Magic realism also does not provide an adequate explanation for Theresa’s unfailing good luck. She’s touched by danger repeatedly, without ever being harmed. For example, not once but twice, a kindly stranger invites her to stay at their house.

The novel’s incest theme feels fairly inexplicable. There’s no trauma that drives Silver and Theresa into each other's arms. Silver is clearly a sociopath (Hoffman practically provides a check list – he’s reckless, uncaring, with a God complex, etc.), but Hoffman recoils from the assumption that he coerced Theresa into sex. In fact, Hoffman writes their relationship with romance novel verve. It’s almost as if they were being kept apart by something more prosaic, like a Montague-Capulet feud.

I said of Hoffman’s Practical Magic that she suffered a disinclination to actually dig down deep into her characters. I feel the same way about White Horses. The novel seemed like it should have ended with a therapy session for both protagonists, but instead Hoffman used flowery language of optimism to skate over their mental instability.

[Lolly K Dandeneau · Rating 4 out of 5]

via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
"During the summer when she was eleven, Teresa believed that the crickets who lived in the weeds that sprang through the sidewalk were trying to speak to her."

With Alice Hoffman's brand new prequel to Practical Magic coming out in October, titled The Rules Of Magic (I'm excited) I read Practical Magic again and hence, a few of her older books I keep on my shelf. I initially reviewed this novel back in 2012, it's been years so I read it again before adding a review to my blog. What I think worked beautifully in this novel is the damage parents can do unwittingly just by speaking of their dreams, telling their stories. Dina's belief in an Aria coming to take her away when she was young (an outlaw, dark eyes, quiet, that can ride horses even blindfolded to the woman they love and aren't afraid of anything- warps her own daughter's heart much in the same way Dina's longing led her down a bad path. When King Connors came along, she was too young to know he wasn't the man she conjured up in the image of an Aria. Heeding no one's warnings, she fell in love with King, the wrong man in the wrong life. "Your father? That big shot couldn't even stand a little hot weather. I wasted everything on him," Dina said, dragging a stick over the earth in neat lines. "I was stupid. I was so young I couldn't see straight." Teresa's brother Silver may be the closest thing to an Aria any of them will ever know. Women of all ages fall for Silver, he has the reckless, dangerous appeal that is the fall of many a young woman.
Dina is a shell of the beautiful girl she once was, ruined by the wrong man, Teresa's father. When the investigator hired by Dina's father years ago to find her discovers the old man is dead, his conscience drives him to track her down. This sets the family on a strange path, one of return to the past as Dina, with her children in tow, returns home to Santa Fe and the grandmother they never met. But before they depart, her parents fight after finding out about Dina's father's death, Teresa slips into sleeping fits, with no medical explanation. Teresa's mysterious slumber, the scent of roses filling the air, her mother lighting candles surrounding her bed to ward off evil, is this family cursed? Naturally, that Dina's estranged mother falls for her grandson Silver and cares little for Dina's other two children is no surprise. This Silver is a 'special' boy, but she sees too his true nature. Can hunger be passed down? For Teresa is hungry for passion and love and her heart is bent the wrong way. It's not too late for Dina to find love and set aside her foolish, girlish dreams of Arias but is it too late for Teresa to save herself, to untangle herself from the foolish notions her mother has planted in her fertile young mind?
This is a complex story, so much damage and getting things right requires wiping the sleep from her eyes, shucking the family myths. Seems easy, right? Everything is easy to fix in the eyes of onlookers or readers. Just how do this unmentionable things happen in a family?


Understandably an awkward read for some but I don't think the subject matter would have changed how I felt about the novel if the the Silver/Teresa relationship were approached differently. I have noted there are some people who have read this novel first and have not gone on to read other Hoffman novels, which is a shame because she has written wonderful fiction and they are only cheating themselves. Looking back, if you could read this novel and think about the nature of the relationships, how the mother and her own father's 'fantastical ' leanings altered the family line, it hits you differently. Naturally for many, reading about an incestuous relationship between brother and sister doesn't sit well. But looking deeper into the story, it's more about the mythology we create or are sold about those in our lives, particularly in our own family. If you set aside the forbidden desires, and focus on how we delude ourselves, it stands strong in how we sabotage our own happiness. I won't summarize nor elaborate, but for those who have not read Hoffman, trust that not all of her novels touch on such a taboo subject. All of them have a touch of magic, that has been a huge draw for me, and her characters are flawed like all of us. For the rest of you die hard fans, mark the date October 10, 2017 when The Rules of Magic will be released.

Available Now
Open Road Integrated Media

[Alice Schray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alice Hoffman is one of my favorite authors, and this is one of my favorite books written by her. I often find myself rereading it. Having read hundreds of books in my life, I now find it difficult to begin a book and actually finish it without being bored to tears- even those written by best selling authors. None of Hoffman's books have ever bored me. This is a book that is meant to challenge the reader with their own interpretation of love, desertion and normalcy. Many a fine writer is subtle with plot and theme, and this might be one of Hoffman's more subtle works. She errs on the side of classic literature rather than the average twist and turn garden variety mystery that seems to have overtaken the market.

[Cheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say? AH has never let me down. This book touches a few subjects that some may find offensive, but so lyrical that you just go with the flow. This is another novel I wish that she would have kept going with but I understand why the end had to be.

[La La · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I have said before, Hoffman's books are hit or miss with me; if you consider an okay three stars a miss. I have never hated one of her books.

I liked the front half, but between 50-85% into the book the story was in a way repetitive, same actions by the same people in different places with sometimes different people and same outcomes, described in the exact same ways; which made it boring. I kept reading and reading and couldn't believe I wasn't to the conclusion, yet. Hoffman had a habit of describing the garden many times in the exact same way with basically the same descriptors and similes.

Then there were these odd "romance" bits thrown in at odd times. Characters would be walking around talking about grocery shopping and then, "He unzipped her jacket, unbuttoned her blouse, and licked her nipples," the licked character would then rebutton herself and resume talking about shopping. These bits didn't add anything to the story.

It was an okay story, and it did have a pretty good message about what can happen when you plan your young adult life based on other people's expectations and not your own wants and needs. This was only the author's fourth book and was written in the 1980s.

I was aproved for a digital reissue review copy, via NetGalley, in return for an honest review.

[Ginger · Rating 2 out of 5]

This might seriously be my last one.

Every single character in this book was one hot mess.



and Teresa's 'illness' is called depression people . It is no small wonder she is surrounded by horrible people and (nurture vs nature?) she didn't turn out so great herself.
I am not a fan of melancholy books. This was not sad or dark just melancholy.
Not my jam.

As far as the writing style goes I don't really get 'lyrical' from Hoffman on this one, there are phrases thrown in here and there but it just does not flow. It almost seems like it would have been better just being what it was, melancholy, and stop trying to add in vivid colors and lacy words. Hoffman usually writes in elements of magical realism in most of her books this one had a single token 'magical realism' character (Harper) at the very end. After several AH books I am officially giving up on obtaining my 'fan girl' badge. I still adore Practical Magic (the movie) but even that book couldn't grab me.

This book was provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Rosemary Bloom · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started off well enough. The writing is a little whimsical and I was expecting to be pulled into a story of the fantasies of a girl, of her hopes and dreams and aspirations. However, into the book, I begin to start hating the main character due to her repeated terrible decisions. I am not usually one to judge a book based on the 'stupidity' of the characters - I am quite a fan of the disgusting and terrible Lolita - but I simply cannot suspend my disbelief that this girl is really making these things happen to herself. And once incest is portrayed as beautiful, I completely lose interest. I finished the book and was left feeling unsatisfied. I am, however, a fan of Hoffman's writing style and of course her more popular and well known Practical Magic; this one is just a dud.

[January Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you haven't read any of Alice Hoffman's books before this is a great one to start with! Wonderful story and excellent writing as always!

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit of a torrid and overall depressing read.
A tale of extreme poverty in that wealthiest of countries the USA, of trauma and sexism.
Very wordy, I began to get rather frustrated at the repeated descriptions of Silvers beauty and animal magnetism, when in truth he was a just spoiled, not particularly intelligent, adored by the women closest to him and unchallenged male of the time.
The two main female characters as mother and daughter shaped their lives and dreams on a fairytale fantasy man who would ride in and sweep them up.
An unsatisfying and unresolved ending where you are led to believe that Teresa was making a huge change and had found some self respect but if past choices and events pointed to her wandering back into the life and bed of yet another no hoper who would use her.
My best description is long, depressing, unsatisfying read.
Admittedly I didn’t check the publication date until I finished and 1988 explains a lot of the language of unchallenged sexism

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Toxic Masculinity Manifest as Magical Unobtainable Men

Alice Hoffman’s 5th novel, published in 1982, is the next installment in my investigation. I’m reading Hoffman’s work in order, because I loved Practical Magic, Rules of Magic, and The Red Garden, and I’m curious about how she established her style and how it grew and changed.

So far, I’ve struggled with her portrayal of horrible relationships, listless heroines, and cruel men. This book embodies all of the issues I have with her characters and story style, while undeniably building toward the magic that I love in her later books.

This book follows a woman, Teresa, who is taught about and warned against magical men called Arias as a child.

“Don’t ever look for one of these men he had told her. These men are like wolves, they come out of the silence when you least expect them. They’re partial to precious stones and cold blue loneliness and sometimes they’re evil, and sometimes they’re just proud, but they never act like we do. They don’t think about right and wrong the way we do. They never care about yellow roses along the stone wall, or dinner served on a china plate, or someone to talk to. Any man who tells you he wouldn’t give his skin to be one of them is a liar, Dina's father told her.”
CONTEXT: This is a story passed down to the main character, Teresa, by her mother Dina, it was originally told to her mother by Dina's father.

Arias embody ideals of masculinity and beauty and they are addictive as an idea of perfection. This ideal is never damaged by their bad behavior, because of their innate inability to be kind to or care about others. If you never really know them, they can’t be blamed for not living up to expectations, or for taking from their lovers while giving nothing back. They’ve been taught that their presence, however brief, is the gift. They are described in a fairytale of toxic masculinity that enables men to groom women to tolerate and perpetuate emotionally abusive relationships. They only show love to satisfy their need for affection and control. They create a codependent partner who thinks they are perfect, and they disappear and reappear to keep that partner longing for them.

I’ll admit I can’t fetishize Silver; the man Teresa believes to be an Aria and believes to be the love of her life. He is another one of Hoffman's love internet-type: attractive, mean young men, who work as drug dealers, and whose ideals are used as an excuse to remain permanent petulant man-children. But this is the dream type for women in many of these books. I found this one particularly frustrating because the story is never driven by a character, it is dragged through the mud by generational trauma. But the idea of the Aria is growing closer a demonstration of real magic in a story, which I still believe is what is missing from the story. And like the lead in this book, I’m sure better is coming soon.

[Adriana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alice Hoffman is one of my favorite writers, but this was not my favorite book. In fact, there was a point in which I seriously considered not finishing it. I’m used to her writing; it can contain lots of sex, substance abuse, and a certain amount of violence, particularly the emotional kind. But I suppose I’m a little sensitive sometimes and I feel like there is a point when writers need to stop torturing their characters or face some sort of karmic slap.

Anyway, the good thing about White Horses is that it pursues the themes of passion vs. love that sometimes flows through Hoffman’s novels. In Practical Magic, it is evident in the two sisters’ dissimilar love interests. Gillian’s boyfriend threatens violence even from “a distance” and Sally wishes for a kind man. Similarly, Hoffman explores love and passion in Here on Earth, her take on Wuthering Heights. Unlike some women who consider the later novel “romantic,” Hoffman understands that the portrayed passion is the unhealthy kind, doomed to destroy one or both of the partners.

In White Horses, Hoffman contrasts the passion vs. love with Theresa and Dina. At first Dina teaches Theresa about the Arias, a fairytale cowboy of sorts, who rides the desert mysterious and alone and attracts loyal, but often lonely women. Theresa inhales this tale and fixates on a similar heroic, though dangerous figure in her life. However, Dina eventually realizes that her story doesn’t stand up to real love: “Compared to kindness, blind courage and recklessness seemed trivial. And a man who traveled beneath an orange moon on nights that were scented with wildflowers and thick with heat suddenly seemed much less marvelous than a man who would sit on the back porch and hold her hand for hours without having to say one word” (154).

Theresa has to become disenchanted with the fairytale on her own, by the end of the book (thank goodness), but it isn’t an easy journey. Taboos aside, this book would have been pretty palatable, but some concepts are a little disturbing to many of us. Nevertheless, I support any book that tries to convince women to drop their preconceived notions of romance and passion and realize the preciousness of real (and realistic) love.

[Robert Sheard · Rating 2 out of 5]

I happened upon this book by accident. It showed up in the forthcoming list of novels available on NetGalley when I first began requesting titles, and I thought, “hmm, a new Alice Hoffman. Yes, please.” Only it’s not new at all. It was originally published in 1982. I have no idea why it was listed at NetGalley (perhaps the e-book edition is new?), but since they sent it to me, I read it. (It’s full of typos, incidentally, so if it really is a new e-book edition, I hope they edited it before releasing it.)

This is not one of Hoffman’s best-regarded books, and while the writing style itself is good (you would expect it to be), the story itself is just weird and unsatisfying.

It’s the story of Theresa’s family, which slowly disintegrates during her teens and early twenties. Her mother, Dina, was very superstitious, and what drives much of the book is a myth or story that Dina tells Theresa about Arias, almost myth-like men who are incapable of settling, and the women who love them and spend their whole lives waiting in vain for them to come back, riding their white horses. Theresa’s brother, Silver, is supposed to be one of them.

But in addition to the myth-based characterization, Hoffman throws in some domestic-violence, incest, a murder, and a series of completely inexplicable decisions by the main characters. Much of it is hard to believe.

This is one of those books where good writing alone isn’t enough to make it work. I’ve read a handful of Hoffman’s books over the years, and this one doesn’t stack up with the rest. Had I known it was originally published in 1982 (and I’d never heard of it before), I would have taken a pass on it. As it is, I look forward to some of her more recent books, but this is one I don’t expect to remember.

[Bonnye Reed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second novel in Kindle Alice Hoffman The Collected Volumes Second volume
GNab I received a free electronic copy of this novel by Netgalley, Alice Hoffman, and Open Road Integrated Media in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

I adore Alice Hoffman, and have read and re-read many of her novels over the years when I need to take a reality break. I managed to miss White Horses. And though I appreciate Open Road Media and their mission of bringing back old classics to new audiences, I would just as soon have continued to miss White Horses. I found this novel a downer all the way through, and did not need to go into the depths of miasma this novel travels to.
originally copyright 1982 by Alice Hoffman, published 1999 by Berkley
pub date Sept 23, 2017
Open Road Integrated Media

[Judith Pratt]

Only Hoffman's amazing prose got me through this one. It wasn't the incest, it was how women are suckers for a certain kind of golden boy, even if he's named Silver. In my early twenties, I was one of those women. But I never took it seriously, not in my heart; somewhere my scientific New England soul knew what they were.

Still, Hoffman's writing style suckers me more than those gold and silver boys ever did.

[Yuckamashe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another one of Hoffman's books that I love. She is the best at making me fall for the most fucked up guys! Silver is unforgettable! It is dark and twisted and I love it. I can't shake these characters after years!

[Joann · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the first Alice Hoffman that I didn’t enjoy on any level. I didn’t like or root for any of the characters. The plot line was messed up, to say the least. The resolution was unearned.

[Marzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this new release of Alice Hoffman's book, first published in 1999, in exchange for an honest review.

An early and imperfect Hoffman book, this novel manages, with Hoffman's lyrical writing style, to blend aspects of magical realism, the bad boy mythos, family dysfunction, and incest. One of the factors contributing to the imperfection of Hoffman's story is that few of the characters are likeable and even Teresa, the protagonist, evokes only our sympathy. The incestuous relationship she developed with her brother Silver, is carefully presaged from the beginning of the book in Teresa's cryptic attraction to Silver, who is an unscrupulous bad-boy.

Magical realism seems unanchored and poorly developed in this book. Teresa's expression of her rose-scent, first provoked by her sleepy spells, or later by periods of her losing her sense of self in others, isn't ever explained and is one of the few aspects of magic in the book.

I felt like there was a thin story of relationships here and Hoffman wasn't clear about her goals in the novel. While not her best work, the luminous quality of her writing style is already well developed.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strange story of a dysfunctional family. Dina married young to a first love, thinking he was an Aria, a desperado who came to rescue her. After three children and a tenacious marriage, her husband leaves. The Aria tale is a family legend, now passed on to her daughter, who unfortunately transfers this to her brother Silver. Theresa always felt unnaturally close to Silver, and he to her. She wants and has him as a lover, but then he is forced to marry Lee as she is pregnant. Theresa feels betrayed and embarks on a long path to self-discovery. I liked the story line, almost it is a fairytale with a dark prince and fair maiden, but this tale happens to resolve itself in a better light.

[Cheryl]

I like her “magical” books better. Too much sadness here.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an audiobook I listened to while doing other data work.

Not sure I see character growth. Wish I understood Dina more. From where did the poison pill come?

[Kathleen Valentine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of Alice Hoffman's early books and it certainly shows her beautiful gift for lyrical writing and graceful prose. Though I enjoyed reading it I didn't find the two main characters, Silver and Teresa Connor, as sympathetic as I have other characters. Both of them are the product of a very dysfunctional family. Their mother Dina is a dreamer who married for all the wrong reasons and their father, King, is something of a jerk but he's also dealing with a wife for whom nothing is good enough. There is a third child in the family, Reuben, but he escapes early and is never heard from again.

The heart of the story is the relationship between Silver and Teresa. Silver is beautiful, exotic and wild. To his younger sister he is an "Aria," a romantic, cowboy-like mythical figure that her mother dreamed up when she was a child. Teresa's passion for her brother is boundless and when her mother dies, Teresa goes to live with Silver and his wife and new baby.

The theme of incest has been discussed by other reviewers but I did not find it off-putting or even unusual. I am of the opinion that sibling incest is far more common than most people realize. I got annoyed with Teresa because she was like a stray cat, just wandering in and out of people's lives with no concern or interest in how her behavior effected anyone.

The most sympathetic character in the story is Bergen, the private detective who fell in love Dina. An almost unbelievably kind man. This is beautifully written book and in it we can see the beginnings of the writer who went on to create far more magical characters and prose.

[Alanna Santos · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is not for the faint of heart, nor is it for the closed-minded. It is a beautifully written and absolutely amazing character study - one of my favorite books of all time! If you can't get past the taboo topic, you should probably stick to something more generic and predictable like The Help.

[Kate Atonic · Rating 1 out of 5]

Girl grows up in an abusive home, has an incestuous relationship with her equally horrible brother, engages in prostitution for companionship. The ending is unsatisfactory. I don't understand why books like this are published without a warning label for romantics and depressives, let alone how it averages 3+ stars on Goodreads.