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Book Review of Animal Dreams

Animal Dreams
UALabGeek avatar reviewed on + 46 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 9


I love all things Kingsolver and this was no exception. It's written in that style of her earlier stuff (The Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven)...great dialogue, memorable characters and the kind of casual profundity that makes a person wriggle with delight and think "I wish I'd said that first."

Cody Noline loses her beloved sister and soulmate to missionary work in Central America, finds herself having an existential crisis, and goes back to her childhood home of Grace, AZ, to hide out. She drifts into town, ostensibly to teach for a single year, but more than that to surround herself with her past.

I love Kingsolver's newer books, but they're heavier. Animal Dreams is light in the best sense of the word. It is populated with characters that you'd love to meet and is a story that makes you feel good about humanity. I wish these people were my neighbors.