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Book Review of Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel

Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel
reviewed on
Helpful Score: 1


After finding myself absolutely engrossed in The Glass Castle (and in the first half of Half Broke Horses), this book left me disappointed. The first half was amazing and truly pulled me in, only to lose its character, pace, and voice in the second half of the novel. The second half of the novel is truly about Rosemary rather than Lily, and the voice didn't work because it was quite clear to the reader that the author and her sources were clueless as to Lily's true thoughts and impressions of all the events of the second half of the novel. Whereas the first half was built of stories handed down in first-person, the second part of the novel read as though the author was straining to be consistent with the voice set up in the first half ... yet it lacked Lily's opinions on the events. It was empty and disappointing. Perhaps it may have made more sense to break the novel into two books, where Lily's voice is that of "Book 1" and Rosemary's voice is that of "book 2." An interesting read, but disappointing overall.