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Darkling
Darkling is ragged and wild, but Jenny can't help falling for him. As soon as her grandfather buys the chestnut colt, she is thrilled. But a racing colt turns out to be a frightening responsibility - especially one as temperamental as Darkling . . .
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1989
6 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
About the author
K.M. Peyton
109 books149 followersKathleen Wendy Herald Peyton MBE, who wrote primarily as K. M. Peyton, was a British author of fiction for children and young adults
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 28, 2021
Fifteen year old Jenny lives with her dysfunctional family in a dilapidated cottage, full of fury and resentment - it’s a bit like Cold Comfort from without the laughs. The only member of the family Jenny gets along with us her Irish grandfather Murphy, who lives in a caravan with a lot of animals. Then there is Jackboots, their stony hearted landlord, and his two sons, on one of whom Jenny has a hopeless crush. Murphy impulsively buys a colt for Jenny with some money he has won, and suddenly Jenny has a new love in her life., which draws her into the world of horse racing. But you know nothing is going to be easy. Jenny is a typical Peyton heroine, serious, shy,intense, passionate about horses and about the one boy she desires. There is rather a lot of melodrama, and some of the plot details I found frankly unbelievable. And the treatment of Jenny’s severely disabled father is very disturbing. But it is gripping enough to keep you reading.
August 25, 2012
KM Peyton is wonderful. This is a great story of a girl and her horse. A bit of mystery, a great atmosphere, a realistic story in a wonderful setting. I liked it a lot.
August 31, 2020
The author's literary professionalism shines through in the style of this tale of a girl, her horse, her family, and her boyfriend. However, the background to the plot has not dated well. The aspirations of the young have changed somewhat and drifting along, taking advantage of what good fortune throws your way, has been replaced by education and a competitive race to the top with failure being a fearful prospect.
As for the story: Jenny's grandfather, a playful leprechaun of an Irishman: he's a stereotypical tinker (to be sure, to be sure), the type of person you desperately want to be angry with but, somehow, it's never possible; he's one of life's chancers – if his bets pay off then he will spend the proceeds before common sense prevails and will be free with the drinks – if they drink your whiskey they're more likely to lend you money when the hard times return. Well, Grandpa buys Jenny a horse for a bargain price. It's young, headstrong and tends towards unruly violence but Grandpa is certain the beast will be a winner on the flat.
Basically Jenny devotes herself to Darkling's care and, with the help of Goddard, an aspiring jockey and the son of the local landowner and racehorse trainer, Mr Strawson (known as Jackboots) and the family of her best friend Amanda, the Cartwrights, also trainers, she is able to push Darkling to the beginnings of success.
The depth of the story and the storytelling, however, lies with the intricate relationships between the characters. Jenny's love story with Goddard; Straw's, or John's, puppy love for Jenny – he is Goddard's younger brother; Jenny's tempestuous and bitter mother Bridie who has an awful lot to be tempestuous and bitter about with her own three-sided love affair stretched between romance for Jackboots and guilt towards her disabled husband; Grandpa, who lives day-to-day and is fiercely independent despite his failing body, and seems unaware of how he is limiting Jenny's life. All human life is here, as a now defunct newspaper used to boast – it was still going strong in 1989 – with everything on the brink of scandal.
Being on the brink is the problem. The ending is such that it is crying out for a sequel. Will Jenny and Goddard get together? What will happen to Grandpa? Will Darkling be a successful racer, or a successful stud, or will he end up in dogfood tins having failed miserably? The author mentions the ruthlessness of the horse-racing business more than once. I'm not aware of there having been a sequel but I think it needed one.
As for the story: Jenny's grandfather, a playful leprechaun of an Irishman: he's a stereotypical tinker (to be sure, to be sure), the type of person you desperately want to be angry with but, somehow, it's never possible; he's one of life's chancers – if his bets pay off then he will spend the proceeds before common sense prevails and will be free with the drinks – if they drink your whiskey they're more likely to lend you money when the hard times return. Well, Grandpa buys Jenny a horse for a bargain price. It's young, headstrong and tends towards unruly violence but Grandpa is certain the beast will be a winner on the flat.
Basically Jenny devotes herself to Darkling's care and, with the help of Goddard, an aspiring jockey and the son of the local landowner and racehorse trainer, Mr Strawson (known as Jackboots) and the family of her best friend Amanda, the Cartwrights, also trainers, she is able to push Darkling to the beginnings of success.
The depth of the story and the storytelling, however, lies with the intricate relationships between the characters. Jenny's love story with Goddard; Straw's, or John's, puppy love for Jenny – he is Goddard's younger brother; Jenny's tempestuous and bitter mother Bridie who has an awful lot to be tempestuous and bitter about with her own three-sided love affair stretched between romance for Jackboots and guilt towards her disabled husband; Grandpa, who lives day-to-day and is fiercely independent despite his failing body, and seems unaware of how he is limiting Jenny's life. All human life is here, as a now defunct newspaper used to boast – it was still going strong in 1989 – with everything on the brink of scandal.
Being on the brink is the problem. The ending is such that it is crying out for a sequel. Will Jenny and Goddard get together? What will happen to Grandpa? Will Darkling be a successful racer, or a successful stud, or will he end up in dogfood tins having failed miserably? The author mentions the ruthlessness of the horse-racing business more than once. I'm not aware of there having been a sequel but I think it needed one.
June 14, 2016
Darkling is a book about a number of things: family secrets, teenage love, horses, horse race, growing up. Our main character is Jenny. At the beginning of the book, she was skipping school to go with her grandfather to see horses being auctioned. And what should happen but that she should end up with her own horse, Darkling. Here her life changes, inevitably for the better. Through a series of events, Darkling was noticed and taken on to be trained for races. The boy she loved gave her a chance. And throughout it all, loomed the family secrets. It was all very scandalous.
I cannot complain about the main character here like I could in many of the other books I’ve reviewed. Jenny was very well-drawn. She is a decent person; she’s smart and caring and extremely loyal—especially towards her grandfather, but you certainly don’t get the impression that she’s flawless. She could be pathetic when it comes to her feelings for Goddard, and pessimistic, and a little bit supercilious (that is entirely my impression.) All of that is good. I would be very annoyed if none of those qualities were present.
As the book is mostly if not entirely focused on her, I won’t discuss her boyfriend or his brother or her family. Suffice to say, they themselves are not cardboard cutouts. Thank goodness.
Darkling is more like a means to an end than a character. He was the starting point, the reason for Jenny’s liberation and success. I suppose the title is meant to reflect that. The novel is not about him; it’s about his effect on Jenny’s life.
All in all, a good read.
And now, I’m tempted to go back and read National Velvet.
I cannot complain about the main character here like I could in many of the other books I’ve reviewed. Jenny was very well-drawn. She is a decent person; she’s smart and caring and extremely loyal—especially towards her grandfather, but you certainly don’t get the impression that she’s flawless. She could be pathetic when it comes to her feelings for Goddard, and pessimistic, and a little bit supercilious (that is entirely my impression.) All of that is good. I would be very annoyed if none of those qualities were present.
As the book is mostly if not entirely focused on her, I won’t discuss her boyfriend or his brother or her family. Suffice to say, they themselves are not cardboard cutouts. Thank goodness.
Darkling is more like a means to an end than a character. He was the starting point, the reason for Jenny’s liberation and success. I suppose the title is meant to reflect that. The novel is not about him; it’s about his effect on Jenny’s life.
All in all, a good read.
And now, I’m tempted to go back and read National Velvet.
February 3, 2013
Favourite childhood author who read my first attempt at a book when I was 17, despite having never met me!
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May 23, 2024Re-read of a childhood favorite tho I think I only read it once as a child so I actually didn’t remember much. Fun fact: the handle I usually use (bonfirenight) doesn’t come directly from Guy Fawkes Day but rather from this book as I loved Darkling but thought it wasn’t a good name to use as a handle so I used Darkling’s sire’s name.
February 27, 2020
It started off as a 3.5 star book but ended as a 3 star book.
The writing style is very dated and felt true to when it was written on the cusp of the 80s entering the 90s, similar to how movies from that time era feel very dated with how they tell their story. Reading reviews of this book I was under the impression that it would have an uplifting, romantic love story but found that that was not really the case. While I was routing for the young lovers to work out, at the end of the day all I really felt for them was a sense of sadness and unknowing. Jenny is a character that you feel for and cheer for but she also is very passive in life which makes it hard to admire her. In a world saturated with strong female characters I found this a bit refreshing on how real life sometimes is, albeit not exactly what I wanted from my female lead. And at the end of the day she has a huge heart that will give and give until it can give no more. That, in and of itself is admirable while also painful to watch. I do think with some fine tuning this book could be made into an exciting horse movie, but as a book, I'm not sure if I'd necessarily recommend it. There are other great horse books out there, though none quite as unique when it comes to plot twists as this one.
The user Vanh wrote a great review and I want to quote some of what she said (see italics below):
"Jenny was very well-drawn. She is a decent person; she’s smart and caring and extremely loyal—especially towards her grandfather, but you certainly don’t get the impression that she’s flawless. She could be pathetic when it comes to her feelings for Goddard, and pessimistic, and a little bit supercilious (that is entirely my impression.) All of that is good. I would be very annoyed if none of those qualities were present.
As the book is mostly if not entirely focused on her, I won’t discuss her boyfriend or his brother or her family. Suffice to say, they themselves are not cardboard cutouts. Thank goodness.
Darkling is more like a means to an end than a character. He was the starting point, the reason for Jenny’s liberation and success. I suppose the title is meant to reflect that. The novel is not about him; it’s about his effect on Jenny’s life."
The writing style is very dated and felt true to when it was written on the cusp of the 80s entering the 90s, similar to how movies from that time era feel very dated with how they tell their story. Reading reviews of this book I was under the impression that it would have an uplifting, romantic love story but found that that was not really the case. While I was routing for the young lovers to work out, at the end of the day all I really felt for them was a sense of sadness and unknowing. Jenny is a character that you feel for and cheer for but she also is very passive in life which makes it hard to admire her. In a world saturated with strong female characters I found this a bit refreshing on how real life sometimes is, albeit not exactly what I wanted from my female lead. And at the end of the day she has a huge heart that will give and give until it can give no more. That, in and of itself is admirable while also painful to watch. I do think with some fine tuning this book could be made into an exciting horse movie, but as a book, I'm not sure if I'd necessarily recommend it. There are other great horse books out there, though none quite as unique when it comes to plot twists as this one.
The user Vanh wrote a great review and I want to quote some of what she said (see italics below):
"Jenny was very well-drawn. She is a decent person; she’s smart and caring and extremely loyal—especially towards her grandfather, but you certainly don’t get the impression that she’s flawless. She could be pathetic when it comes to her feelings for Goddard, and pessimistic, and a little bit supercilious (that is entirely my impression.) All of that is good. I would be very annoyed if none of those qualities were present.
As the book is mostly if not entirely focused on her, I won’t discuss her boyfriend or his brother or her family. Suffice to say, they themselves are not cardboard cutouts. Thank goodness.
Darkling is more like a means to an end than a character. He was the starting point, the reason for Jenny’s liberation and success. I suppose the title is meant to reflect that. The novel is not about him; it’s about his effect on Jenny’s life."
March 19, 2017
Oh, PLEASE. Wimpy protagonist, soppy family values and a really confused Thoroughbred. The horses (which are the most interesting characters in this mess) take a back seat to the thick-as-a-brick people. Here's the paperback cover (so you know to avoid it):
July 28, 2012
I read this book so frequently as a child. I'd highly recommend it to any girl that's into horse riding.
January 6, 2017
I didn't like this book quite as much as the first time I read it (when I was a horse-mad teenager), but it was still an enjoyable, nostalgic read.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews